Clemson forward Jake Wahlin is returning home.
And that is a bigger deal than anyone can imagine for his family, friends and legacy through his BYU connections.
BYU basketball coach Kevin Young announced the former Cougar commit out of Timpview High, who played at Utah and Clemson, would join his program this coming season.
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“It happened fast, and we are all excited. It’s a blessing to come home,” said Wahlin.
He will finish his career playing in the Marriott Center, where his grandfather, the late Ray Beckham, helped lead the fundraising to construct the legendary facility.
Wahlin has returned home, where his father Rick played football, as did his brothers-in-law Colby Pearson (Atlanta Falcons) and Harvey Langi (New England Patriots). His sister Malery Wahlin played volleyball for the Cougars.
This family is what you’d call locked in blue.
Another brother-in-law, Tim Davis, is the co-founder of Utah Prospects, an influential AAU basketball team.
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Now it’s Jake’s turn in Provo.
Last Sunday, he was likely headed for Kansas State. Just 24 hours later, he became a Cougar.
Wahlin, a 6-foot-10 stretch forward, helped Clemson set an ACC record for road wins this past season. He competed against the likes of Duke, North Carolina, Notre Dame, Stanford, Cal and Georgia Tech, along with BYU at the Jimmy V Classic in New York City’s famed Madison Square Garden.
He has played 88 games as a Power 5 athlete, 52 of them starting for the Utes and Tigers.
Wahlin was on his way to visit Kansas State when Young called him Monday. He had moved up his trip to Manhattan, replacing a previously scheduled trip to Cincinnati. The Cougar coach said he’d been reviewing his film again and believed he could make a needed contribution to BYU on both ends of the court.
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That he’d played at the highest level of ACC basketball and knew BYU’s unique culture were bonus points for Young.
Here is how this blitzkrieg Wahlin commitment went down.
Jake was at a friend’s bachelor golf party in Mexico this past week while his parents were scouting Kansas State in Manhattan, preparing for Jake’s visit on Monday.
Before going to Manhattan, however, Rick was at church in Provo on Sunday when he ran into a former member of his stake presidency, BYU athletic director Brian Santiago, and the chat turned to what Jake was doing since entering the portal.
Rick said he was about to visit Kansas State and would likely commit — they wanted him and it had gone that far.
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According to Rick, Santiago said he couldn’t step in front of his coaches in a situation like this, but thought it would be worthwhile to have his son-in-law, Tim, make a call to coach Young one final time.
Rick discussed this with Tim, and the veteran AAU coach wondered if it would be in vain in this late stage of the process when Kansas State was nearly a done deal and BYU had barely shown interest.
As an AAU coach, Davis has personal relationships with coaches all around the country. For the Wahlins and his brother-in-law Jake, he’s always been an advisor and point-man. He had been involved in coaching Yoeli Childs, Connor Harding, Collin Chandler and Wahlin over the years. He knew the script dealing with recruits, coaches and programs.
Davis did call Young on Monday and in the discussion Young agreed to take a second look at Jake’s film, something his staff members do extensively with recruits — at his direction.
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After reviewing film, Young got back to the family and said he was more than just interested in Jake and called him.
In the meantime, his parents were leaving Manhattan Tuesday night after touring the K-State facilities and campus and Jake called.
“How would you feel about me coming home?” he asked.
Rick and his wife believed this was to visit the family.
“No, I mean come home and play for BYU.”
Needless to say, this was tremendous news to the parents.
Within a day, a deal was done and an announcement was made by BYU and Jake that he had committed and would sign with the Cougars.
So weird that at the first of the week Rick and Raleen were in Manhattan and his son was preparing to come and look for apartments. Before the weekend, his son was a Cougar, all signed and delivered.
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Rick was proud that Jake called K-State coaches, who were “tremendous” people and personally discussed his quick decision to come home to BYU.
“Coach Young told me that because I knew what a BYU uniform meant, it was important. That meant a lot to me,” said Wahlin, who K-State coach Casey Alexander had targeted after leaving Belmont University.
Since entering the transfer portal, Wahlin had kept his recruiting contacts tight. Besides KSU and Cincinnati, he’d also heard from Mark Madson at Cal. “We didn’t want it to be a big recruiting process.”
Wahlin finished his final exams at Clemson and is expected to return to Provo this coming week.
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Young told Wahlin he thought he could help guard multiple positions and his ball-handling would come in handy.
“Coach Young told me as a bigger wing, he could use my defense because in the Big 12 there are a lot of smaller guards who pressure our point guards,” Wahlin said. “The ability for me to relieve pressure on the guards and to bring the ball up the court and get us into the offense is another thing they see me doing. Rebounding is one of my biggest traits they see.”
Wahlin is very acquainted with players expected on BYU’s roster this season, including his relationship with Kentucky transfer Chandler, who played with him on AAU’s Utah Prospects. By joining the Cougars he gives Young a roster grip on the top LDS players in the country.
When he lived in Texas, he was in the same primary class in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints as incoming freshman point guard Brooks Bahr, and they’d played football together. “Brooks is like a brother to me,” said Wahlin.
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He also knows Dean Rueckert, an incoming freshman from Timpview High, and has been mentoring him for years, working and hanging out together. He knows forward Brody Kozlowski through Utah Prospects.
“I don’t know Dawson Baker, but I’ve played against him two or three times,” Wahlin said.
The Wahlin addition is key for the Cougars because having played high-major ball and competed in the ACC, he knows the level of intensity and physicality it takes to play at that level. He knows the effort that needs to be put in during the offseason and the energy needed in games, especially on defense.
Wahlin is older, served a church mission, and has skills. He can fill a need either as a starter playing the wing or a sixth man. He helps fill out the first eight or nine players on the roster where the Cougars, due to injury and development challenges, didn’t have such depth past year, which cost them in Big 12 play. BYU needs depth. Wahlin brings that. He is not a mid-major or junior college gamble.
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His father Rick, whom I met in 2006 when he was designing clubs for Tiger Woods at the Nike incubator facility in Fort Worth, (read my story on Rick Wahlin, The General, here), said the NIL offer from Kansas State and BYU for his son’s services were in the same ballpark.
Rick, who still works as a design engineer, said his family is thrilled to have Jake return to Provo where he and his wife, Raleen, have 17 grandchildren who have missed Uncle Jake.
After committing to BYU out of high school, Wahlin served a mission to Lithuania from 2021 to 2023. When he completed his service he decided to accept an offer to play for Craig Smith and Chris Burgess at Utah.
“I loved coach Smith and I’ve been a fan of Burgess for a very long time. When things changed at Utah, I decided to leave and play at Clemson, where I’ve had a great experience playing for the Tigers and we accomplished a lot of things, including the ACC road record.”
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It has been a long road back to his roots in Provo to play for the Cougars, which has been part of his dream for a long time. This time around, with Young, things fit. “It worked,” he said.
His grandpa Beckham would be proud.
Ray Beckham is a prime reason there is a Marriott Center standing on campus today. His tireless work raising money, courting donors and making promises led him to a front-row seat right behind the scoring table.
Beckham was the first sports information director at BYU and a member of the BYU Athletic Hall of Fame. He played football for BYU and was a founder of the Cougar Club in addition to the Aspen Family Camp near Sundance. His fundraising was key to not only the Marriott Center but expansion of LaVell Edwards Stadium.
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He is a legend.
Rick and Raleen, Ray Beckham’s daughter, now live in Ray’s house behind the Provo Temple grounds, close to campus.
While Beckham was there to watch Hall of Famer Krešimir Ćosić, Danny Ainge and so many other Cougar stars, he never lived to see his own grandson don a Cougar jersey and run on to the Marriott Center court.
At his funeral on Nov. 11, 2017, in Provo Cemetery, the 90-year-old patriarch was laid to rest in a blue coffin. Before being lowered to the vault below, his children and grandchildren all pasted BYU logo decals on the casket.
It looked like a giant blue and white ladybug.
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So, yes, when Jake Wahlin steps on the court for Kevin Young and wears a BYU uniform, it will be a deep legacy move. The trip has taken Jake from Provo to the Huntsman Center, Clemson and the famed basketball status of Tobacco Road in ACC territory.
And it will be celebrated hard in the Wahlin/Beckham family,
The kid is home.
Utah Utes forward Jake Wahlin (10) dunks the ball during a first round game of the Big 12 Championship between the Utah Utes and the UCF Knights at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. The Utah Utes were knocked out of the championship by the UCF Knights, with a final score of 87-72. | Brice Tucker, Deseret News
