Kelly Poppinga takes reins of BYU defense drawing on past experience

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It’s not that Kelly Poppinga hasn’t been a major college defensive coordinator before. It’s that he has to produce and follow some pretty good defensive coaches.

Those names hover over his head. They can be haunting and bring lofty expectations.

BYU’s recently-minted defensive coordinator, Poppinga, fresh off a successful stint as special teams coordinator for the Cougars, opens the 2026 season replacing Michigan-bound Jay Hill.

By an obvious consensus, Hill was a remarkable defensive coach at BYU. Heck, he was a tremendous head coach at Weber State. Good at recruiting, great at motivation and teaching, and a master strategist and in-game coach, he accepted an invitation to follow his friend Kyle Whittingham to Michigan and work in The Big House.

Poppinga received the call to step up in Hill’s stead. This, after he made his mark as co-defensive coordinator with Bronco Mendenhall at Virginia before a short stop at Boise State.

Does he ever get weary of folks bringing up Hill and Mendenhall when addressing him about his own coaching acumen?

“I think that’s how it goes,” said the veteran coach and former Cougar linebacker.

“When you’ve worked with other people, and you were one of their assistants, like Bronco Mendenhall or Jay Hill, they’re always going to get the initial attention.”

Poppinga actually uses it. He leans into those associations.

“I respect both of them a ton. I’ve learned a lot from both of them, even in my short time with Jay.”

Poppinga worked with Hill for three years.

“Three years is actually an eternity in college football, but I learned a ton from Jay. He really taught me a lot of the schemes that Kalani likes to run.

“And I learned a ton of stuff from Bronco, too. I think the whole picture of my whole career is all coming together, grabbing the things that I think are best from both of those worlds and some stuff that I learned at Boise State and combining that all together is going to give us the scheme that we’ll initially start with.

“We’ll see if our players continue to produce and play well under that. But I just feel blessed because I’ve learned a lot from some really good coaches and some really good people.”

Poppinga says the Hill/Mendenhall experience was far more than X’s and O’s and what to do on the football field.

“They taught me a lot of the off-the-field (stuff), the way to be able to manage people and players and the organization and structure and accountability,” he said. “All these different things are actually very similar in that part of it, as far as their structure off the field. It was just fun to see it done in a little different way than how Bronco did it from Jay.

“There’s a reason why Jay’s had a lot of success because I think he’s super good in a bunch of different areas, not just the football part,” said Poppinga, speaking at the BYU football media golf tournament at Timpanogos Golf Club last week.

Poppinga has yet to hold a fall practice session as defensive coordinator for the Cougars, but his offseason work has already drawn a lot of praise by recruiting experts when the Cougars got early Class of 2027 commitments from three big-time cornerbacks.

Much of that work came through Poppinga’s two new hires, Demario Warren and Lewis Walker. Hiring Warren came when longtime BYU cornerback coach and recruiter Jernaro Gilford accepted a job with Hill at Michigan.

Poppinga cannot discuss specific recruits by name until signed, but he said the summer recruiting efforts yielded what he believes may be the best corners BYU has ever put on campus.

According to 247Sports, BYU received hard commits from Ryan Wooten of Jersey City, New Jersey, Demichael Burks from Desert Pines High in Las Vegas, and Kamoni Adams of Marietta, Georgia.

Adams reportedly holds offers from eight SEC schools, including Arkansas, Auburn, Kentucky, Missouri, Ole Miss, Tennessee, Texas A&M and Vandy. His other offers are from Maryland, ASU, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Kansas, Syracuse, West Virginia and SMU to name a few.

Wooten has offers from Boston College, Florida, Florida State, Nebraska, Texas A&M, UCLA, Virginia Tech, West Virginia and Washington, among others.

If BYU holds on and signs the defenders committed so far, it would be a big first step for the Cougars’ new defensive coordinator and staff.

In the meantime, fall camp opens this week, and Poppinga inherits a very talented returning group of defenders in both the front and back end.

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