Jay Hill .... semiofficial

I say semiofficial because BYU didn’t announce the news this late at night, but Pete Thamel, sportswriter for ESPN tweeted out the following tonight: “Sources: Weber State head coach Jay Hill is leaving to become the defensive coordinator at BYU. A deal has been finalized. Hill went 68-39 over nine years at Weber State, called the defense there and is the all-time wins leader there. He took Weber State to six FCS playoffs.”

I call this an A+ hire. Hill is a great coach. I had my list of favorites for DC and Hill was not on it. That’s because Hill is at the top of my list to replace Sitake. But I hope Hill can help Sitake gain the toughness that seems to be missing from the coach.

Ya, I believe I mentioned that to you and others in another post. Thanks for the information. I’d Like to see you tell Sitaki he isn’t tough.
And, try to remember that Hill is working for Sitaki. Sitaki interviewed Hill. Hill will be doing the bidding of Sitaki.

Hill at $1 million per year. ARod to Sitake office, hand out.

Desnews is reporting the same thing.

Jay will get 1 million a year for his services (currently making around 297k).

Apparently they have been talking for a long time, but Jay wanted to wait until after Weber State season ended (Which happened in the second round of the FCS playoffs).

Jay turned Weber State around and a power in the. Big Sky and FCS playoffs. The funny thing is that his first OC at Weber that turned the team around was no other than our own Fesi Sitake.

Now if we can get ARod to leave and let nepotism run and put Fesi into the OC position. The only difference between Tuiaki and Sitake is that Fesi proved himself before coming to BYU,

Not sue what you mean?

BTW, was it you that said you wanted Jay Hill as DC as your dream coaching team? Sorry can’t find the post now, so I. thought I would ask.

Nepotism aside, I like Fesi and Unga:
Fesi’s position group has been fantastic, and he has recruited depth—the ONLY position group where the 2s have been almost as good ad the 1s.

Unga: has done a great job with Allgeier and Brooks, developing power backs (similar to his own style), and lower backs thrive in our zone run scheme.

Jay Hill: I like it. I was hoping for Lance Anderson, but he may not have had any interest anyway. Hill hill have a strong hand and hopefully the passive BYU D is dead.

You Sir, are very wise.

I’m back on the Sitake wagon. Great great hire! Takes care of the Polarization issue.

Gotta give Tom a shout out on Lamb and Tuiaki leaving. We all knew Tui was leaving but Tom was the only fan to point out Lamb’s fingerprint on a sinking D porgram. Cudos.

A Deseret News source said BYU coach Kalani Sitake and Hill have been in discussions for several weeks, but the Wildcats’ coach did not want to make a move until Weber State’s season concluded. Weber State went 10-3 in 2022 and defeated North Dakota 38-31 in the first round of the FCS playoffs before falling 33-25 to Montana State in the second round last Saturday.

Turns out Sitake had been forward thinking all along, hence, I am back on board in a big way.

Poppinga hire has to be coming from Hill even if he wasn’t official yet??

If I had to go with one more surprise hire, it would be Paul Peterson as offensive coordinator.

I realize there will be more coaching changes. I don’t know how much of a surprise they will be. I could see former BYU player Matt Ah You joining BYU in some capacity. He is presently Weber State’s linebacker coach and is the brother of Jasen Ah You, BYU’s Assistant Athletic Director for Football Academics. Monty in the Morning said last Friday that according to his sources Shaun Nua had been contacted about being BYU’s defensive coordinator. His sources conflict with the Deseret News article that says Sitake had been talking with Hill for several weeks. Either way, I will be very surprised if Nua now joins the BYU staff.

I just meant that ARod, if he stay on at the Y, would be asking for a raise if Hill really will make $1 million per year.

No, I did not mention anything about Hill.

I heard that last night on KSL News which I thought BYU would not disclose that and he was making 200K a year at weber state.
So I assume coach Sitaki Getting a big raise and same other coaches? And yes ARod needs to go! He did not use backup players like it should be (QB RB and especially not enough fo TE).

And one more as a head scratcher when comes to third and fourth down within inches to attempt a first down which was so puzzling and stupid for not using stronger more physical running back Or Hall. Katoa was not the answer.

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Here is what is being said about Hill…

BYU taps Weber State’s Jay Hill as next defensive coordinator | KSL.com

Two interesting notes:

  1. Hill will be the DC as announced, as well as the Assoicate Head Coach
  2. Popinga is the new Special Teams coach and defensive coach

BYU football: Kelly Poppinga returns to BYU coaching staff - Deseret News

The next time I see Sitake I’ll make sure to bring up the topic of his not being tough, and then he and I can discuss examples and semantics.

I like the way Spencer Linton described it during this morning Sports Nation: Sitake is player’s coach; Hill is the accountability coach

I think it sounded more like Hill is also a player’s coach. I’m sure he’s well aware of the problems on defense as well as offense. He will be a big plus for ARod as long as he’s still going to be the OC. Sitaki can now be the head coach.

Lamb: See ya later.
Hill: had the job for the taking a month ago but good job not breaking the news until his team was out of the FCS playoffs. Respect.
Hill: lands KPopp. Good start.
Hill: retaining Jernaro Guilford, which is REALLY smart. Guilford, who is a great recruiter, will finally be able to go after 3 and 4 star DBs without having to bow to Lamb’s philosophy of recruiting guys who are long and fast but not good enough to be recruited by any other D1 programs. Guilford is our L.A. recruiter and it’s a big deal for him to be able to go into the home of a DB and say “I went to BYU as a non-member and loved it. Your kid will love it too.”

Here are your key defensive stats to measure aggression and disruption of an offense:
Sacks (Weber was 22nd with 29 and BYU was DEAD LAST with 12 KILL ME NOW))
TFL (Weber 48th with and BYU 129th)
3rd down D (Weber 5th and BYU 120th)
Passing efficiency D (Weber 4th and BYU 116th)
Total D (Weber 15th and BYU 93rd)

Bottom line: Hill’s combination of recruiting, coaching, and scheme resulted in one of the best and most disruptive defenses in his division. BYU’s combination of recruiting, coaching and scheme has resulted in one of the LEAST DISRUPTIVE AND WORST defenses in the land. This thing should have been blown up years ago. I guess it’s better late than never, but it’s a huge mess for Hill and he’s really behind the 8 ball heading into the B12. He will have to work hard to earn that $1m/year and I hope he turns out to be the guy. The people I know in the program are pretty excited about this hire.

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Does that mean I get to watch defense again? just asking for a friend.

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There may be a good chance the Popinga will coach the linebackers.

if they keep Clune, he should move to the D line.

but all we are doing is guessing right now.

I still think Arod needs to go as well.

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Based on Gilford being retained and the other two being under evaluation, I think Clune and Hadley are gone.

A couple of coaches could come from Weber, Matty Ah You for example. As much as I’d like to see Jasen Kaufusi or Shaun Nua, BYU would be a lateral move (That actually sounds good: A move from Arizona or USC would be "a lateral move.). But two favorites of mine, Frank Maile (BSU) and Justin Ena (SDSU), are experienced and could be lured by P5 money.

Articles like the following have me excited about the future:

Lets hope Hill is coaching the D in the SMU game. This is what has me salivating.
BYU football: What Jay Hill brings to BYU defense heading into Big 12 - Deseret News

Will he be the BYU defense’s savior? Not immediately. As the former University of Utah player and assistant coach and Weber State head coach for nine years has said throughout his coaching career, “players win football games,” and right now, BYU does not have enough good players to win in the Big 12. D NEWS

In what had to be music to BYU fans’ ears, Hill said his defense will be on attack, blitz frequently, and look for players who can get pressure on the quarterback. The words “drop eight” and “bend but don’t break” apparently are not in his vocabulary. D News

What I got out of the article:
BYU’s D talent is not good enough to compete in the Big 12, Hill will change that. He is a fantastic instate recruiter (you have to win the local wars before you can reel in big fish elsewhere).

The D will be aggressive. Big name guys like Fano won’t have to leave to get some glory stats, gets me fired up.