Kelly Poppinga’s defense has much to look forward to this season, and much to prove after losing its leader, defensive coordinator Jay Hill, to Michigan.
But Poppinga is ready.
He’s excited, anxious and anticipating it all. He’s motivated by the challenge as BYU’s newly minted defensive coordinator after excelling as a special teams coordinator the past few years under head coach Kalani Sitake.
Poppinga intends to keep a high-energy, big-play culture on BYU’s defense and he returns a busload of talent and some new faces to get it done.
Hill liked to use the word chaos to describe what he wanted defensively. Poppinga, cornered on the patio of Timpanogos Golf Course at the BYU football media tournament this past week, used the word havoc to describe what he wants to see.
“Man, honestly, at the end, I would say effort, discipline, havoc. I love the word havoc because I think havoc in defense is what you want to produce,” said the veteran coach.
He lost linebacker Jack Kelly to the NFL but he gained Cal transfer Cade Uluave and Jake Clifton from Kansas State, among others.
“I mean just being able to go out and create havoc over and over again, and that’s something that we’ve poured into pur players a lot, is being able to play 60 minutes of havoc over six seconds. It’s how many plays of havoc can we do over and over again,” Poppinga said.
“The average game in college football takes six seconds for a play, and so in six seconds of havoc for 60 minutes, we want to see how many plays can we put together consistently over and over again to create great defense, and that’s ultimately our goal.”
One would think a great measuring stick to see how much havoc a defense can make is getting sacks on the quarterback.
In 2024 BYU’s defense had 20 sacks (in 13 games), or about 1.54 per game, ranking below the top 100 in the country despite having a very good defense under Hill. Kelly led the team with five sacks, Isaiah Glasker had 3.5 and Blake Mangelson two.
In 2025 under Hill’s schemes, the Cougar defense improved to 30 sacks in 14 games, or 2.3 sacks per game, and ranked 26th in the country at one point in the season.
Again, Kelly led the Cougar defense with 10 sacks, a career high. Glasker and Bodie Schoonover had three sacks each.
Can this Poppinga defense get 30 or more sacks this season?
“Yeah, I think so. Yeah, we can,” he said. I
OK, that’s a reasonable floor, at 30.
“So, yeah, do I think it’s possible? I totally do,” said Poppinga.
The veteran coach and former Cougar linebacker did explain that sacks come as a result of a lot of factors in football. It’s just not a guy chasing down a guy and putting him on the ground.
“I think sacks is a statistic that can be a little inflated at times,” he said. “Hopefully we’re up a lot to to where we can go after the quarterback as much as we want and we are in those positions where a team has to throw the ball, or we are so dominant in stopping the run that we know they have to throw it so those opportunities come more. There’s a lot that goes into that stat.”
Having a lot of sacks does not prove how good of a defense you have, he said.
“But I do think it is an important stat based upon circumstances in the game, and I do think we have the players around us to be very, very good at putting pressure on the quarterback. I’m excited to see how that all unfolds.”
Another factor is matchups. Obviously, if you play a team that struggles on the offensive line, can’t run the ball effectively or has receivers that can’t get open, chances for sacks increase.
“It’s all about one-on-ones, and our job as coaches and coordinators is to be able to see how we can attack protections, how we can manage one-on-one mismatches and things like that, and slide protections, and how can we overload a certain slide,” he said.
“But, yeah, that’s the fun part of being able to coach football, is you get to find all that out, and we’re excited to get in the process of figuring that out against each team.”
Maybe a better stat than sacks is turnovers gained. In this regard, BYU has been very good at taking the ball away in its 23 wins the past two seasons.
In 2024, BYU’s defense forced 29 turnovers (seven fumble recoveries plus 22 interceptions). This ranked third nationally (behind only Notre Dame and Texas, who played more games), and BYU led the Big 12 in the category. The Cougars had a +8 turnover margin.
In 2025, BYU’s defense forced 24 turnovers (seven fumble recoveries + 17 interceptions). The Cougars ranked well nationally (tied for 10th in interceptions, with another strong +8 turnover margin).
Poppinga doesn’t have to wait long to test his schemes, theories, play calls and personnel. After the season opener against Utah Tech, the Cougars host Arizona and talented QB Noah Fifita, one of the Big 12’s most experienced passers, on Sept. 12 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Is 30 sacks this coming season a good start for a discussion? Well, it’s where the Cougars left off with Jay Hill.