"I feel like being at BYU has made me a better person," Houk said last week. "I would tell [non-LDS athletes, such as himself] to just buy into the program. Buy into the system. Don't look at it like you are going to make the team better. Look at it like the program is going to make you a better person."
And it has, by all accounts.
Houk redshirted in 2011 after arriving at BYU as a relatively unknown, last-minute recruit from Washington's Enumclaw High School, and has had his fair share of academic struggles. But he has persevered, and now is on track to graduate in December with a degree in sociology and a minor in engineering.