BYU football names former Cougar linebacker star as new defensive coordinator

It didn't take long at all for BYU football to find its successor for Jay Hill's vacant defensive coordinator position. Just 6 days since Michigan announced they'd be hiring Hill as their defensive coordinator under newly-instated head coach Kyle Whittingham, Kalani Sitake has named his next man up.

And he's hiring from within. Enter Kelly Poppinga, last season's special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach, and former linebacker star during his playing days with the Cougars. Poppinga is a familiar name in the BYU football zeitgeist and a smiling face to fill the gaps left by Hill's departure.

Per ESPN's Pete Thamel, Poppinga is the next defensive coordinator for BYU football.

Many couldn't help but speculate about the future of the position in Provo. After two of the most successful seasons in program history, BYU football is in unfamiliar territory as a program. They've poured incredible amounts of money into their coaches and infrastructure to promote what has become one of the best college athletics program in the nation in recent years. With Kalani Sitake threatening to leave for Penn State in the amorphous time void between the final game of the regular season and the post season, BYU's donors pledged unprecedented financial capital to retain Sitake with a tremendous vote of confidence.

With that confidence as his support, Sitake believes the right man for the position is Poppinga, a man who has coached as a defensive specialist for years in Provo, and even at the Power Four level, backing Bronco Mendenhall's staff at Virginia in a co-defensive coordinator capacity in 2018 through 2021.

Poppinga understands Jay Hill's defensive philosophy and has witnessed first-hand how to construct a potent defense in the Big 12 Conference. Now with the power to shape the defensive side of the ball as he sees fit, Poppinga assumes the role of DC and play caller for the 2026 season.