PROVO, Utah – The dinner unfolds as quite the family affair.
Which, amidst a bounce back season as fine as any in recent college football memory, captures the essence of BYU football.
Players from the defensive line, as well as punters, kickers and myriad special teamers, gather four miles from LaVell Edwards Stadium to feast on Argentinian-style steaks at Asado, a local favorite.
Kelly Poppinga is organizer of the meal, as well as BYU’s special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach. He relishes that additional defensive linemen eagerly wade into the stakes for the free steaks and that a handful of players also bring their spouses.
With his wife, Rebekkah and three daughters there for the festivities, Poppinga, his own family history at BYU tracing back parts of seven decades to the days of his father playing tight end for the Cougars and meeting his eventual wife, Vicki, at the school, carries over a coaching example to a life model.
“We’re trying to do that as much as we can to create that family atmosphere,” Poppinga tells FootballScoop. “I think that’s honestly one of the reasons why not just this year but over the years that BYU has had a lot of success because I think the teams are tight-knit. I think that bond, the University being part of it and having that family atmosphere.
“It’s good to get away from football and for them to be able to see us as a dad and husband and to be able to see that side of life, because they don’t get to see that side very often. There’s some kids that just maybe didn’t have that kind of influence growing up and for me, I want to try to have that kind of opportunity to hopefully be a positive influence on them to say, ‘Hey, this is what a functional family looks like and what having a functional relationship with your wife and kids looks like.’ Because some of these kids, unfortunately, probably did not have a chance to experience that growing up.”
BYU the team is experiencing its most resonant season in the College Football Playoff era, the Cougars debuting in this week’s CFP rankings at No. 9 but with the fourth-seed projection as the Big 12 Conference leader.
Inside this Renaissance rests a defense holding six previous foes to 24 or fewer points and some of college football’s most dynamic special teams play.
BYU, like top-ranked Oregon, has both kickoff return and punt return touchdowns already this season. Of the Cougars 25 punts, only seven have returns while their own punt return squad averages 14.55 yards per return.
In the Beehive State, Poppinga’s special teams remain a hive for all comers.
“It’s what I tell the guys all the time: I love special teams, because it’s the only time that you can put offensive and defensive players on the field together and mesh the whole team,” says Poppinga, with past defensive coordinator experience and helping tutor multiple NFL prospects along a BYU front spurring a unit with 37 tackles for losses, 14 interceptions and five forced fumbles. “It’s really, I think, a great way to build culture and team unity. We talk a lot here about complementary football, being able to have the special teams complement the offense and defense with great field position. The complement of being able to do that throughout the whole entire year. We’ve done a great job of that this year.
“We’ve had a couple of big plays here and there, but we just have to keep being very solid in special teams every week. I think that’s been a key for us in this start. We’ve got to continue to help, because in special teams, people have a tendency to remember the plays that hurt you or the negative things, but so far it’s been all positives.”
Leaning into Kalani Sitake’s empowering approach and the wisdom of defensive coordinator Jay Hill, the all-time winningest coach in program history at Weber State, Poppinga is seeing his crew transform games within games.
“Kalani has entrusted me with that, to do some motivation for the whole entire team and it’s something I’m really grateful for,” Poppinga says. “Typically on Friday, day before a game, I have a message for the team having to do with the game and tying everything in together, offense, defense and special teams. So, that’s been fun and good just to see the reaction from the team, the way that they’ve received it.
“Coach has that love-and-learn approach and philosophy, and as an assistant coach, you want to echo what the head coach is saying but in your own way and complement what he is doing. A lot of the message is based on that, loving and learning and growing and developing through the game of football.”
Consider BYU ‘Masters of the Middle-Eight.’ Heavily emphasizing the final four minutes of the opening half and first four minutes out of halftime, the Cougars are dominant in those settings along this unbeaten jaunt through the first two-thirds of this season.
How impactful? BYU is bludgeoning foes with 71 points in the moments directly leading into and out of halftime; a 31-point middle-eight eruption at Kansas State is genesis of one of the Cougars’ signature wins this season, their 38-9 romp at then-No. 13 K-State.
“The first play was the fumble for a touchdown, they throw a pick, we throw a touchdown, and to start the second half, they come out and throw another interception and we get another touchdown,” Poppinga, a former two-time special teams captain for Bronco Mendenhall at BYU. “Then, we get the stop on third down, they punt and we return that for a touchdown, too. And I think there was maybe even a field goal in there. I’ve never seen anything like that before.
“In a game like that, against a team like that, to be able to do that, that’s why the score ended up the way it was, because of that middle-eight. Because it was emphasized in that meeting and the guys caught hold of it, it was really fun to see that. And the whole game, guys on the sideline were like, ‘The middle-eight, Coach! The middle-eight!’ Then we get into team meeting on Monday and they see what the score actually was in the middle-eight and guys were like, ‘Holy crap!’ It was prophetic in a way, nothing to do with me, but guys executed it. And I learned from Bronco, you get what you emphasize and things like that show that’s what we emphasize. Then Kalani gets up there and he’s like, ‘Guys, that’s great, we won the middle-eight. Good job. Now, can we win the middle-60? Play like that for a whole game?’ Guys loved it.”
Eventually, maybe tonight in the relaunch of the ‘Holy War’ as BYU travels 45 minutes north to face archrival Utah, the Cougars are going to encounter real adversity in this surreal season.
There will, inevitably, be external and internal distractions.
Which means Poppinga, and all BYU coaches, will convene more dinners.
“It’s super-important man, the authenticity, and that’s one of the reasons why we do it,” says Poppinga, his family season-ticket holders in Section KK during his youth and still smiling at the memory of rushing the field for 1990’s comeback-win against Washington State. “You’ve got to have good relationships with your players, because you know if you don’t have good relationships with your players, somebody’s going to slip in and create relationships with your players [to get them to look at the NCAA Transfer Portal]. And even around the Portal window, we do a lot of team activities with our players and being around our players, to keep everybody involved; Kalani is big on that. And last year, we lost maybe two or three guys. I believe that’s the biggest reason why we’ve had so much success between last year and this year; the continuity, we went through some adversity together and some hard times, but I think that’s made this team stronger this year. Going to Oklahoma State and losing a really tough game in double-overtime, going 5-7 and not going to a bowl game. I use a Tony Bennett quote, I’ve used it ever since (Virginia) lost in the (NCAA Tournament) First Round: If you handle adversity the right way, it will buy you a ticket to something that you never thought you could achieve.
“And that’s what our message was to these guys: If you handle this the right way, even though it’s hard right now, this sucks, but if we handle it the right way, learn from it the right way, it can take us to a place we never thought we could go. Right now, we’re on that track. We’ve got to continue to put in the work, go through the process but it’s really put us in position to be successful this year.”
Master of the middle-eight, winner of its first eight. All things attainable for BYU in 2024.