BYU Hires Veteran Defensive Assistant, Alumus Justin Ena to Staff

Jan 3, 2023 - 12:05 AM

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BYU rounded out its defensive staff as the school announced they hired San Diego State defensive line coach Justin Ena.

BYU announced the role for each defensive assistant.

• Jay Hill: Defensive Coordinator, Safeties, Associate Head Coach
• Justin Ena: Linebackers
• Kelly Poppinga: Special Teams Coordinator, Defensive Ends
• Jernaro Gilford: Cornerbacks
• Sione Po’uha: Defensive Tackles

A longtime college football assistant, Ena played linebacker at BYU from 1997-2001. He was a two-time First Team All-MWC linebacker before playing in the NFL for four seasons, mostly with the Philadelphia Eagles.

This will be Ena’s seventh school he has coached. He has coached at SUU (2008-2013), Weber State (2014), Utah (2015-18), Utah State (2019-20), Utah Tech (2021), and San Diego State (2022). Ena has coached linebackers at each school until he was the DL coach at SDSU this past season. He has served as a defensive coordinator for seven seasons at SUU, Weber State, Utah State, and Utah Tech. He was on the coaching staff under Jay Hill at Weber State.

BYU’s defensive staff has quite a bit of experience and should be an improvement over the prior one. Jay Hill has stated he wants to go with a 4-3 defense, and this staff is catered to that defensive scheme.