Martin, Mitchell and Uluave Headline 12 BYU Players Receiving Phil Steele Preseason Honors

Led by All-America selections LJ Martin, Bruce Mitchell and Cade Uluave, 12 BYU football players earn spots on Phil Steele's 2026 Preseason All-Big 12 Team.

Author Brett Pyne
Martin, Mitchell and Uluave Headline 12 BYU Players Receiving Phil Steele Preseason HonorsMartin, Mitchell and Uluave Headline 12 BYU Players Receiving Phil Steele Preseason Honors

Three All-America Honorees Lead Group of Dozen Cougars on 2026 Phil Steele Preseason All-Big 12 Team

CLEVELAND — Led by preseason All-Americans LJ Martin, Bruce Mitchell and Cade Uluave, 12 BYU players have been named to Phil Steele's 2026 Preseason All-Big 12 Team.

Martin, a senior running back and the reigning Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year, was joined by senior center Bruce Mitchell on the Phil Steele Preseason All-America Second Team. Meanwhile, Uluave, a senior linebacker who transferred from Cal after earning first-team All-ACC honors last season, secured a spot on the All-America Fourth Team.

This trio headlines a group of six BYU players—two on offense and four on defense—selected to the 2026 Phil Steele Preseason All-Big 12 First Team. Six additional Cougars earned preseason Big 12 honors on the second, third and fourth teams.
Junior wide receiver Cody Hagen also earned recognition as a second-team kick returner but recently announced his medical retirement from football.

Martin, Mitchell and Uluave enter the 2026 season with outstanding resumes along with a strong contingent of experienced players expecting to make the Cougars contenders again this year.  

LJ Martin
Martin, a 6-foot-2, 225-pound running back from El Paso, Texas, is coming off a 2025 campaign that saw him earn Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors while helping BYU achieve a 12-2 record and advance to the Big 12 Championship game for the first time in the program's three years in the league. The first-team All-Big 12 ball carrier was also a semifinalist last year for the Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award (best player from state of Texas) and received Pro Football Network All-America Second Team honors. 

Martin’s 1,305 rushing yards last season ranked No. 11 nationally and his average of 100.38 yards per game ranked No. 12. Martin was also No. 13 nationally with 120.0 all-purpose yards per game. Martin's 1,305 yards were the seventh-most in school history for a single season. He also logged the 18th 1,000-yard season by a BYU player and the 12th different player to accomplish the mark. 

Bruce Mitchell
Mitchell, a 6-foot-4, 305-pound center from Kamas, Utah, was a Rimington Trophy candidate last year in his first year as the full-time starter. He also received All-Big 12 honors from Pro Football Focus and Pro Football Network for his strong play leading BYU's offensive front. 

As an offense, BYU averaged 31.4 points per game and ranked in the top 25 in 10 offensive statistics, including time of possession (No. 9), rushing first downs (No. 12), sacks allowed (No. 12), rushing touchdowns (No. 13), rushing plays of 10+ yards (No. 18), total plays of 10+ yards (No. 19), first downs (No. 19), total offensive plays (No. 22), points scored (No. 23) and fewest interceptions (No. 23). 

Cade Uluave
A 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker from South Jordan, Utah, Uluave is also a 2026 Lott IMPACT Trophy candidate in his first year at BYU after transferring from Cal. A 2025 All-ACC First-Team performer, Uluave played in 34 games for the Bears over three seasons, starting 26 games. He led Cal with 100 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and 5 quarterback hurries last year while amassing 237 career tackles, 21.5 TFL, 6 sacks, 3 interceptions and 2 forced fumbles in three seasons at Cal.

In addition to earning first-team all-conference honors in 2025, Uluave received All-ACC honorable mention in 2024 and was a first-team Freshman All-American selection (The Athletic, FWAA, College Football News) in 2023, when he was also named the Pac-12 Defensive Freshman of the Year, Super West Sports Defensive Freshman of the Year and a Phil Steele All-Pac-12 Third Team honoree.

STRONG LEADERSHIP
BYU's preseason Big 12 selections have proven on the field they are poised for a strong season in 2026. Among them, Satuala earned FWAA All-America Second Team and Big 12 Third Team honors at safety last year and Glasker was an All-Big 12 Third Team linebacker, while Tanuvasa and Johnson received All-Big 12 honorable mention. In his true freshman campaign last year starting at quarterback, Bachmeier earned 2025 Big 12 Freshman of the Year honors and was a semifinalist for the Shaun Alexander Freshman of the Year Award. 

BUILDING ON THE MOMENTUM
BYU is coming off a 2025 season that saw the team reach the 12 win mark for the fifth time in school history and first time since 2001 (2025, 2001, 1996, 1984, 1980).  BYU finished the year with its second-straight bowl victory over a ranked opponent, defeating Georgia Tech of the ACC. BYU's two-year run with 23 wins in 2024-25 has only been bested by Cougar squads in 1983-84 (24 wins) and 84-85 (24 wins), a stretch when BYU won the 1984 national championship. 

The Cougars' five wins last season against teams with nine wins or more set a new program best and their seven wins against teams with winning records overall marked the second-most in school history (1980, 8). BYU's FBS opponents had a record of 102-64 for a winning percentage of .614. Ten wins against Power 4 opponents also set a new record at BYU, topping 2024's nine victories.