6′2″ · 305 lb · Salt Lake City, UT · East
Merrill Taliauli: DL · BYU · #54.
Closest statistical matches, adjusted for opponent strength.
Merrill Taliauli
Controls the point of attack and doesn't move. This is his third year in the same defensive front at BYU. On tape: 4 tackles against Boise State, Week 10, 2018.
Play style
The heaviest frame on the interior. Sack production is intentionally not the point of this profile.
Activity vs finishing · season enumeration
What the box score actually says
13 tackles. 1 pass defended. 0 interceptions. 0 TFL.
Counts only, never a rate — splash-event sample sizes this small (interceptions, pass breakups, TFL) are noise as a rate and signal only as a tally.
No outlet on our list has written about him by name this season.
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Game log · Week-by-week
2018 season · 9 games
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| Wk | Opp | TKL | SOLO | TFL | SACK | INT | PD | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wk 2 | L 18-21vs California | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 3 | W 24-21@ No. 6 Wisconsin | 2 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 4 | W 30-3vs McNeese | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 5 | L 7-35@ No. 11 Washington | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 7 | W 49-23vs Hawai'i | 1 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Wk 9 | L 6-7vs Northern Illinois | 0 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 | |
| Wk 10 | L 16-21@ Boise State | 4 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | Season-high 4 tackles |
| Wk 11 | W 35-16@ Massachusetts | 2 | 0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
 Bowl | W 49-18vs Western Michigan | 1 | 1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 0 | |
| Total | 13 | 4 | 0.0 | 0.0 | — | 1 |
Where his impact shows up on the stat sheet
TFL rate
0%0 TFLSack rate
0%0 sacksHurry rate
0%0 hurries13 tackles.
3 seasons under Kalani Sitake — 20-19 over that span.
Splits · Per-game
2018 season · 9 games
Home vs Road
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home4g | 0.8 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 |
| Road4g | 2.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
First half vs Second half
| TKL/g | TFL/g | SACK/g | PD/g | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weeks 1-76g | 1.2 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 |
| Weeks 8+3g | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 |
Supporting cast · Scheme
Staff and system around the player
Head Coach
Kalani Sitake
Pass share
44.2%
373 pass / 471 run
Plays / game
64.9
13 games
Team sack rate
7.1%
408 dropbacks · PBP
Scheme: Run-leaning.
Player standing · 2018
Fewer tackles a game than most FBS defensive linemen who play every week.
How it ended
Three seasons at BYU — his college career is complete.
His career
He has a stat line in 25 games over 3 seasons.
Coaching lineage · 2013–2018
2 coachesCoaching transition mid-career: Bronco Mendenhall → Kalani Sitake. Worth noting in scheme + development context.
