The biggest powerbrokers in college football were lining up to get Brock Harris, the No. 2 prospect in the state of Utah. Nick Saban had even lined up all seven of his national championship rings in a rare pitch he’d sworn he’d never make. But the Pine View star still chose BYU. And now, the Cougars’ highest-rated recruit in nearly two decades is putting that football future on pause to fulfill his two-year LDS mission instead.

“BYU tight end commit Brock Harris has received his mission call. He’s heading to the Washington Spokane mission,” sportswriter Jackson Payne shared taking to his X account. 

Along with the news, Payne had shared a screenshot of the “Mission Call” live Harris had likely streamed on social media. You can see him standing at the center of a small living room gathering, dressed in a white shirt and tie, reading from his phone– perhaps announcing the next chapter of his life in Spokane, Washington, to serve a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.​

As a four-star recruit ranked as the No. 5 tight end in the nation, he could have stepped onto campus and made an immediate impact. Instead, he’ll graduate from high school in December and head to the Washington Spokane Mission in January, delaying his college career until 2028.​

The choice caps off a recruitment that stretched nearly five years. Harris was a regular at BYU camps and ultimately picked the Cougars over a final six of Michigan, Georgia, Oregon, Utah, Miami, and the same national powers that expected his signature the moment he broke out as a top-50 player in the 2026 class.

Contrary to what many might think, for Harris, the decision wasn’t some big, dramatic crossroads. He’d already spent months thinking and praying about what he wanted to do.

“I prayed about serving a mission and reflected deeply on it,” he said earlier this year when discussing his plans. “I sought advice from athletes who have completed missions. I do have concerns, such as returning and being out of practice, but it’s a journey I want and need to undertake. I believe it will greatly benefit my future.” 

Plus, he’s not the first to have taken this path. According to BYU, 56 current Cougar players have served missions, including team captains Chase Roberts, Tanner Wall, and Keanu Tanuvasa.

Many LDS members believe that the mission helps build independence, maturity, leadership, and emotional discipline through experience and serving. The tradition runs so deep that head coach Kalani Sitake, himself a returned missionary from California Oakland Mission for the Church after his freshman year at BYU in 1994. Yet, he has plainly said, “Nothing disrupts training like your mission. I’ve heard people say it’s a huge advantage. It’s not. If it was, everybody would be doing it.”

But for now, what makes Harris’s story compelling is the certainty. When he committed to BYU back in April, he didn’t tell the coaching staff ahead of time. He and his parents simply drove from St. George to Provo and walked into Sitake’s office. When his father finally nudged him to share the news, Harris’s response was, “I’m committed… The spirit at BYU is undeniable. Every time I visited, it felt like there was something extraordinary.”

That pull toward BYU wasn’t only spiritual, but also personal. Harris’s father, Todd, pitched for BYU baseball in the 1990s, and the family’s connection to the university never fully faded.

Now, he’ll be taking that same feeling to Spokane.

When Harris eventually does suit up for the Cougars in 2028, he’ll be 21 or 22, older and perhaps wiser than most freshmen. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick has already promised to get him the ball. “A-Rod tells me they are going to throw the ball to me a ton, and they better,” Harris said with a grin. But that’s still years away. 

And when Harris does return, he’ll arrive with more than rankings: a 41-catch, 527-yard junior season, Polynesian Bowl and Under Armour All-American honors, and the profile of a tight end BYU expects to feature heavily in an offense built on size, versatility, and matchup problems.

Another thing about Harris’s decision is that it’s not an outlier at BYU. And he won’t be making the journey alone.

A five-star quarterback is making the same choice

 Fellow 2026 commit Ryder Lyons, a five-star quarterback and the highest-rated recruit to commit to the Cougars since 2003, opened his own mission call earlier this month. 

Like Harris, Lyons will graduate from high school in December and head straight into mission service. Though he’ll be trading California sunshine for Orlando, Florida, where he’ll serve a Spanish-speaking mission. When asked on camera why he chose BYU over powerhouses like Oregon and USC, Lyons didn’t hesitate: “It came down to prayer, my faith, the track that BYU’s on. The coaching staff, Coach Kalani, Coach A-Rod, how much love they showed me. They were my first scholarship. So just all those things combined, just knew this was home.” Home, apparently, can wait two more years.​

What makes this tandem particularly striking is the caliber of talent we’re talking about. Lyons, just like Harris, is elite. He is ranked as the No. 5 quarterback in the country with offers from virtually every major program. Together, they represent players who could transform a program. And yet both are choosing to step away from football at the exact moment when most elite prospects are trying to get to campus as quickly as possible.