Here's where Kalani Sitake might look for BYU's next defensive coordinator

PROVO — Just over a month ago, BYU and its fans, donors and administration rallied to keep head coach Kalani Sitake from accepting a reportedly eight-figure offer to be the next head coach at Penn State.

The university provided him with resources, and for his assistants and staff, and players via revenue-sharing and name, image and likeness commitments for the program.

That staff will include at least one new name in 2026.

The Cougars are on the market for a new defensive coordinator after Jay Hill accepted the same position at Michigan, following his former coach Kyle Whittingham to Ann Arbor, as announced Friday morning by the Big Ten school.

"I want to express my sincere appreciation to Jay Hill for all he's done for BYU football over the last three years," Sitake said in a statement. "He's a great coach and I wish him the best in his new endeavor. Our football program is in a great place as we look to build ont he success of the past two seasons with all the talent we have returning in 2026."

BYU went 23-4 the past two seasons, including a berth in the Big 12 football championship game and a 25-21 win over Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl. The Cougars are 5-2 all-time in bowl games under Sitake, whose three-game bowl win streak also includes wins over Colorado and SMU.

That could lead the former BYU fullback with a primarily defensive coaching background to promote from within for his next defensive coordinator. And sure enough, Sitake's statement seems to allude to a first-look within his own staff.

"I'm excited about the collaborative efforts of our defensive coaches over the past few years and the momentum we have been building as a staff," he added. "We have a lot of quality coaches in our program and I'm proud of their efforts. We'll make the necessary staff adjustments soon, as we continue to find ways to help our players improve and elevate the success of BYU football."

Here's a look at several potential candidates to be the Cougars' next defensive coordinator, starting with potential internal staff promotions.

Internal staff promotions

Gary Andersen, senior defensive analyst

It's unclear how much Andersen would want a coordinator job. The 61-year-old former Utah State head coach has been clear he's enjoying his background role on Sitake's staff while spending more time with his grown children and grandchildren. But if he wants the job, his credentials would make him the leading candidate.

Before he was a head coach (twice) with the Aggies, as well as Oregon State (2015-17) and Wisconsin (2013-14), Andersen was the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and defensive line coach at Utah from 2005-08. He briefly returned to his alma mater in 2018 as the associate head coach and defensive assistant before re-joining Utah State as head coach at the end of the year.

That final on-field coaching job yielded a 7-9 record, including a Frisco Bowl loss in two seasons.

Kelly Poppinga, special teams coordinator/defensive ends coach

Poppinga returned to his alma mater (where he also coached from 2009-15) in 2022 after stops at Virginia and Boise State, and has dramatically upgraded BYU's special teams in three seasons while also coaching defensive ends on Hill's staff.

But he also has experience running former BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall's defense, as co-defensive coordinator for the Cavaliers from 2018-21 and as linebackers coach for the Cougars from 2011-15. That put him in a spot to develop some of the top pass rushers in BYU's modern era, including Kyle Van Noy, Fred Warner, Sione Takitaki, Alani Fua and Spencer Hadley, who all spent time in the NFL.

A former All-Mountain West linebacker at BYU from 2006-07, the native of Evanston, Wyoming, has been vocal about wanting to keep his family in Utah County since his return from the east coast.

Jernaro Gilford, defensive passing game coordinator/cornerbacks coach

Gilford hasn't been a coordinator before, but he was Hill's right-hand man in the defensive secondary for the past three years and took on the added title of defensive pass game coordinator for the 2025 season.

The former BYU cornerback has been coaching since 2012, when he was a graduate assistant at Whittier College. His first full-time job came two years later at Southern Utah before he returned to his alma mater in 2016.

But results have fast-tracked his coaching development, including a nation-best 12 players to record an interception in 2024 for 29 total turnovers — the third-most in the Football Bowl Subdivision.

In just over a decade, he's already coached former NFL standouts LeShaun Sims and Miles Killebrew at Southern Utah, Michael Davis and Jakob Robinson at BYU (among others), and he has a cornerback room that could potentially return Evan Johnson, Tre Alexander, Jonathan Kabeya and Tayvion Beasley and Cannon DeVries (among others) for 2026.

Other potential staff promotions: linebackers coach Justin Ena, defensive tackles coach Sione Po'uha, senior defensive analyst Chad Kauha'aha'a

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