Lapuaho's college career was supposed to be over. He graduated after the 2025 season, declared for the NFL Draft, went unpicked, and only landed a mini camp invite from the Kansas City Chiefs. That's usually the end of the story for a college lineman. Then a Colorado federal judge blew it back open.
In late July, Judge Charlotte Sweeney issued a preliminary injunction granting an extra year of eligibility to athletes from the 2022 recruiting class, Lapuaho among them. Suddenly a guy who'd already exhausted his college clock was staring at one more shot at football that wasn't in the NFL.
The obvious move looked like a BYU reunion. Lapuaho started 3 seasons at guard for the Cougars after transferring in from Utah State, earned All-Big 12 honorable mention as a co-captain in 2024, and theoretically could've walked right back into his old left guard spot. But BYU wasn't exactly holding a roster spot open for a guy it thought was gone for good, and now Pete Nakos is reporting the move isn't a BYU return at all — it's the portal.
That's the twist here. This isn't a case of a player leaving a program in a huff — it's a guy who legally shouldn't even have this year of football getting it back, finding his old school full, and now shopping himself to whoever in the Big 12 or beyond wants a proven, All-Conference interior lineman for basically nothing in terms of development risk.
Worth noting the ruling itself isn't bulletproof. The NCAA can still appeal, and players over 24 or under pro contract are carved out of the injunction anyway. But for now, Lapuaho is a validated Power Conference starter hitting the portal in the middle of fall camp — the kind of name that can jump a line for a program scrambling to shore up its interior O-line before September.
For BYU, it's a clean break rather than a bitter one. The Cougars built their 2026 line without him already. For Lapuaho, it's a chance most seniors never get: one more year, somewhere new, to add to a résumé that already includes a Big 12 all-conference nod and an NFL camp invite.