Some football coordinators coach on game day from above in the press box. Others prefer to be closer to the action on the sideline.
Kelly Poppinga, however, is choosing a more unique approach: not having to choose.
BYU’s first-year defensive coordinator plans to coach from both spots, sometimes even alternating during the same game. By season’s end, he’ll be the LaVell Edwards Stadium elevator’s No. 1 customer.
“I think there will be times in the season where I’ll be down on the field, and times in the season where I’ll be up in the box,” Poppinga told reporters Wednesday.
“I think there’s advantages and disadvantages to both, and I think a lot of it will be the even flow of the game, just how the season is going and where the players need me. That’s ultimately where I’m going to go, is where the players need me.”
The world will get its first look at a Poppinga-led BYU defense Saturday as the Cougars host Utah Tech. BYU likely won’t show anything too exotic against an FCS opponent, but all attention will be placed on the unit’s early execution.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re playing the 49ers or if we’re playing whoever it is, it doesn’t matter. Our mindset’s got to be to execute what our standard is,” Poppinga said. “Whatever our standard is, whatever we need to get done for that game, we need to execute. That was the message to our team today.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re playing the 49ers or if we’re playing whoever it is, it doesn’t matter. Our mindset’s got to be to execute what our standard is. Whatever our standard is, whatever we need to get done for that game, we need to execute.”
— BYU defensive coordinator Kelly Poppinga
“... It’s one play at a time, it’s six seconds of havoc, and it’s doing it for 60 minutes over and over and over again. How many plays can we put together consistently of doing that six seconds of havoc, doing it our way, our brand of football over and over again? That’s what we’re excited to get to do on Saturday.”
Poppinga has promised a multiple defense — “multiple fronts, multiple coverages, multiple blitzes” — to confuse opposing offenses and complicate their game plans. Such scheme complexity will surely benefit from Poppinga’s past work with Bronco Mendenhall, Jay Hill and their different respective systems.
“Bronco’s the biggest mentor that I’ve had in this profession,” Poppinga said. “I coached with him for 13 years and played with him for all those years, so we have a long history, and there’s a lot of influence there. And to be honest with you, there’s a lot of stuff that Jay did in his defense that’s translating into what we do now and what Bronco did, so there’s a lot of intermixing there.”
“I think the product that everybody will get on the field, we’ll see a lot of the traditional stuff that we’ve done here (recently), maybe an influence of a little bit of what Bronco’s done.”
Poppinga continued, “But ultimately, I would say the best mentorship (Bronco)’s given me is just to be myself. I can’t be him, I can’t be Jay, I can’t be Kalani, I can’t be Gary Andersen. I’ve got to be myself and call the game the way that I see it. And that’s the best advice he’s given me and some other people that I trust. And that’s what I got to trust in.”
There’s no shortage of star power on BYU’s defense, including returners Isaiah Glasker, Evan Johnson and Keanu Tanuvasa along with transfer addition Cade Uluave and rising standouts Tre Alexander and Nusi Taumoepeau.
For Poppinga, such personnel brings confidence in being able to hit the ground running on Saturday and become one of the nation’s top defensive units once again.
“I think since I’ve been here over the past four years, this is the best leadership we’ve had,” Poppinga said. “I think there’s probably seven or eight guys on defense that I really trust, and that leadership council that we have just on the defensive side is as good as I’ve seen in the past four years.”
“... It’s not so much the type of people we have, but also the experience they have. I think the combination of that are two great things. You want great players, but you also want great players that have great leadership. When you have that combination of great talent with a great leader, then that typically develops into something pretty special right there.”
