Kalani Sitake has built something truly special with his BYU football program over the last decade. Inheriting a team in the doldrums of independence, middling around an average of 8 wins or so per season, the responsibility fell on the former Cougar fullback's shoulders to build a winner of the team he once wore the shoulder pads and helmet for.
And once Sitake teamed up with defensive orchestrator Jay Hill, the former head coach of the Weber State Wildcats in Ogden, Utah, BYU football struck gold.
Suddenly, as if from nowhere, the Cougars were a potent force of football fortitude in the Big 12 Conference. Stifling opposing offenses at one end, and slinging the pigskin from endzone to endzone at the other, Sitake's squad won 23 games in two seasons with Hill commanding the defensive side of the ball.
So when Jay Hill left for Ann Arbor over the offseason, BYU fans were understandably concerned about the team's structural integrity moving forward.
That feeling vaporized when the Cougars quickly promoted Kelly Poppinga to fill Hill's position. But with uncertainty being the only reasonable reaction to such a critical coaching swap, the question becomes how different the BYU defense will look without Hill, even if Poppinga was fully aware of how his predecessor operated his side.
Coach Sitake attempted to put some of those concerns to rest in an interview at the Big 12 Media Day.
"I think it'll be a little different because of different players on the field," Sitake shared. "But the demand, the teaching, the mentoring, that's going to be the same. We expect them to be physical and to make plays. I feel really good about what we were able to do in the spring and where we're at currently right now."
"We'll have to just wait and see, but I felt good about Kelly Poppinga being the DC right from the beginning. Everybody, just kind of wait and see, but it will be a good result."
Kalani Sitake talks on new defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga pic.twitter.com/CJKVpi5H15
— BYUtv Sports Nation (@BYUSportsNation) July 7, 2026
Wait and see.
Though Sitake holds confidence in his coordinator, BYU's defense will be different behind the implementation of a different coach. We'll hope that Poppinga is up for the challenge, because an excellent defense could mean the difference between a disappointing 2026 season and the program's first appearance in the College Football Playoff.
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