BYU Football Welcomes Kelly Poppinga Special Teams Coordinator and Defensive Assistant Coach

Originally posted on Gridiron Heroics
By Tyla-Ann Wright | Last updated 12/7/22

BYU Football Welcomes Kelly Poppinga

BYU football Welcomes Kelly Poppinga to be the Special Teams Coordinator and Defensive assistant Coach for the Cougars. This comes after the hiring of Jay Hill as Defensive Coordinator. He rejoins the Cougars after being with Bronco Mendenhall at Virginia from 2016-2021. Poppinga coached for BYU from 2009-2015 on the defensive and special teams side.

He brings with him 14 years of coaching experience and all as either coordinator or co-coordinator. What he will coach on the defensive side will be determined later as other coaching announcements are made. “Having coached against him when he was a player, I saw his toughness and tenacity up close. As a coach, his players always performed great on game day. He is a phenomenal recruiter that does the little things right and will bring great players into our program.” — New BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill

Coach Poppinga!! pic.twitter.com/yWgls715N1

— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) December 7, 2022

This past year he was with Boise State as co-Special teams Coordinator and edge position coach. The Broncos were sixth in total defense, allowing 281.3 yards per game. They were also no. 11 in scoring defense allowing 18.5 points per game.

“I am extremely grateful for the opportunity coach Sitake has given me to be a part of this program at this exciting time as we enter the Big 12,” Poppinga said in the news release. “BYU has a strong tradition of winning conference championships in the past, and I look forward to doing my part to help this program compete and win Big 12 championships in the future.”

When he was at BYU last he coached Spencer Hadley, and Alani Fua who spent time in the NFL. He also coached current NFL players Kyle Van Noy, Fred Warner, and Sione Takitaki.