BYU and Baylor basketball players will return to Utah to play football.
Former BYU basketball player Caleb Rohner is returning to Utah, but not in the way you might expect.
Lohner plans to change sports and join the University of Utah football team this season.
He attended Utah's spring game last month. Head coach Kyle Whittingham will try to utilize the 6-foot-8, 230-pound athlete in a different way next fall.
Rohner spent the past two years on the Baylor University basketball team. He averaged 2.4 points per game in just under 10 minutes under head coach Scott Drew.
Before moving to Waco, Rohner was a starter on BYU's basketball team under coach Mark Pope. He came in as one of the better shooting big men, but averaged just seven points and about six rebounds per game. He started 44 games over two years.
Lohner also participated in basketball in high school in Utah. He is originally from Flower Mound, Texas, a suburb of Dallas, but transferred to Wasatch Academy as the final step in his career.
Interestingly, Lohner is not the first Baylor basketball player to try football. Mark Vital Jr., a center on Baylor University's 2021 national championship team, tried to play in the NFL after graduation.
He did not make the official roster, but spent several years with the Seattle Seahawks and Kansas City Chiefs.