PROVO — Jernaro Gilford only spent two years in Cedar City as a defensive secondary coach at Southern Utah University before joining Kalani Sitake’s first-year staff as cornerbacks coach at BYU.

But when the Thunderbirds visit Provo at 1 p.m. MT Saturday to face his current team, the former BYU cornerback will be fighting a lot of emotions.

“Being so close with the coaches and the guys there, we’re all like family,” Gilford said of the current T-birds staff and players. “We hung out, and we still talk to this day. It makes it a little emotional.”

One of Gilford’s best friends is Demario Warren, the former Southern Utah defensive coordinator, who was named head coach when Ed Lamb accepted the BYU assistant head coach job last spring.

Gilford and Warren were frequent travel partners as they maneuvered I-15 and the back roads to recruit talent from rural Utah, Arizona and up and down the California coast for under-recruited gems to come to Cedar City and play FCS football while listening to passenger Warren’s choice of rap, country and pop music blends on the car stereo.

The duo were instrumental in turning around a defensive culture at Southern Utah, and helped produce NFL draft picks Miles Killebrew (Detroit) and LeShaun Sims (Tennessee) before Gilford left for BYU. The two coaches still text and will even speak via telephone 2-3 times per week despite their different schools.

“He’s a great guy, a funny guy,” Gilford said of Warren. “We are also laughing and cracking jokes with each other. He’s my guy, and we talk all the time.”

There are plenty of SUU connections on the BYU staff and roster. In addition to Gilford and Lamb, Sitake was an assistant coach from 2003-04 when he coached defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki.

“I think he’ll tell you he’s better than he was,” joked Sitake, whose oldest child was born in Cedar City. “He did everything we asked, played tailback and a little fullback. He started, was a captain and a great leader, but I’ve known him since we were kids. I was bossing him around when we were little kids. We loved our time in Cedar City, and we appreciate having that in our background.”

Tight ends coach Steve Clark spent six seasons as SUU’s offensive coordinator before accepting the same position at Weber State and then moved back to Provo. Thunderbird quarterback McCoy Hill followed in the footsteps of Ammon Olsen and Brad Sorensen in transferring from BYU, and offensive linemen Andrew Eide and Keyan Norman went the other direction up I-15 from Cedar City to Provo.

“Coach Lamb has been one of my greatest mentors, and coach Gilford and coach Clark were both at SUU. It created a sense of security and a support base,” Eide said. “It was definitely a help, but the team immediately took me under their wing and fellowshipped me. There weren’t many feelings of feeling out of place. It felt pretty natural being up here.”

Southern Utah was Gilford’s first full-time collegiate coaching job. He spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Whittier College where he earned a master’s degree in education in 2014.

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But the Thunderbirds were the ones who taught him how to fit into a program, and he won’t forget his time there easily.

“Joining the staff that was there for eight years, they had things rolling so I just had to be there as a sponge to learn the offense, defense, special teams and all,” Gilford said. “Building the program from the ground up and being a part of that was great for me and my career."

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