As college football becomes game of musical chairs, BYU bucking the trend

While chaos has blanketed college football in the state and more than 30% of college players are in the transfer portal, BYU coach Kalani Sitake’s regime has, well, kind of escaped.

As of Friday afternoon, not one starter from the 2025 team has left for the transfer portal.

Sitake lost his defensive coordinator, Jay Hill, who took his cornerback coach, Jernaro Gilford, with him. But nobody followed them. Not one player.

Knock on wood.

That’s the roster heading into this weekend.

Why?

Well, one could preach culture or momentum, all that stuff. But it boils down to one single huge factor that clearly stands out since the Cougars defeated Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando.

BYU has become a player-driven team.

Like 100%.

And that is a huge factor heading into winter workouts, spring practice, acceptance of returning players from church missions, and a sprinkling of transfer portal players expected to be announced in the coming days.

Hill’s replacement, Kelly Poppinga, told a BYUtv audience Friday that the retention effort began the day after the bowl game. He described coaches taking to the phones for 12 hours a day to re-recruit their stars.

But that was matched or even surpassed by player-driven emotions wanting to keep it rolling, to come back.

Now, nobody’s naive enough to think this wasn’t done without BYU’s collectives and revenue-sharing program having a lot to do with shoring up NIL contracts.

That’s reality today.

But it was done, starting with some of the most prized players, like honorable mention All-America safety Faletau Satuala, whom many believed would be targeted by Hill and Michigan.

But, somewhat surprisingly, Satuala announced his return quickly. So did tackle Keanu Tanuvasa, Isaiah Glasker, Siale Esera and other defenders.

The offense followed, capped by Big 12 offensive player of the year running back LJ Martin.

Poppinga said he expects the late news on corner Evan Johnson, BYU’s best cover athlete, is soon to come out in BYU’s favor.

That is quite remarkable.

On Friday, USC tight end Walker Lyons, older brother of QB commit Ryder Lyons, announced he was transferring to BYU to compete for departing Ryan Carsen’s job.

On the day Hill announced he would follow his friend Kyle Whittingham to Michigan, it became a full three days of working the phones, said Poppinga.

“Ultimately, I just think the players love Kalani. And a lot of those guys, all of them, came to play for him. Hill would say the same thing. Jay is a humble guy, and he sees things, he knows that no one person or player is bigger than them.”

Poppinga said BYU players ran this team with a feeling of retention and continuity.

“Obviously, us coaches, you’ve got to put them in the right positions and make sure that we’re making the right adjustments and doing the right things. But when you have great players and great leadership, I think everything else takes care of itself.”

Corner Tre Alexander began his own campaign to maintain the roster on TV right after Jay Hill announced he was going to Michigan. He then texted Poppinga, saying, “Coach, just so you know. I ain’t going anywhere.”

“And he’s like, ‘And I’m going to call everybody right now. I’m going to help you out to keep everybody here.’

“He’s the best,” said Poppinga.

“He’s like, ‘Coach, I’m rallying the troops.’

“And then a couple of hours later, he’s like, ‘Coach, nobody’s leaving.’”

Poppinga: “There are so many pieces to this thing. And it’s just not one player, one coach. I think it’s just the collective unit that we have. It’s been special. And it all starts with Kalani and his leadership and just this culture he has here.”

Sitake, said Poppinga, was the biggest portal guy when Penn State came calling.

“He went in the portal and stayed.”