There’s a new energy swirling around Provo, and it’s not just the Rocky Mountain winds. It’s something you can feel on the BYU campus, especially if you wander by the football practice fields as the sun sets. There, you’ll see players lingering after drills—stretching each other out, running plays, laughing, and, most notably, acting like brothers. That’s not just a figure of speech. This season, the BYU Cougars football team boasts seven sets of actual brothers, one of the highest numbers in program history, and it’s fueling a culture shift that’s taken the Cougars to new heights in the Big 12 Conference.
Since joining the Big 12 in 2023, BYU has exceeded expectations, and now, in just its third year in the league, the team is competing for the conference championship—a feat not achieved in over 25 years. The question on everyone’s mind: What’s Coach Kalani Sitake’s secret? According to players and coaches alike, it’s brotherhood—both literal and figurative—that’s shaping the Cougars’ destiny.
“[BYU] really is a team of brothers,” said Cole Hagen, who shares the field with his younger brother Cody. The Hagens, from Draper, Utah, are just one of seven sibling duos on the roster. “Something Kalani talks about a lot is how we’re all a family and we’re all brothers,” Cole added. “I think that having actual brothers on the team helps us act more genuine in that way. Just having those natural connections, I think, makes a big difference.” Cody, ever the supportive sibling, nodded and chimed in: “There’s a lot of real brotherhood within the system. Coach Kalani [breaks] every huddle as ‘brothers’ instead of ‘family’ and ‘team,’ because brothers keep each other accountable and keep each other unified.”
This emphasis on brotherhood isn’t just a catchy slogan. Special teams and defensive ends coach Kelly Poppinga, himself a former BYU player who suited up alongside his brother and NFL veteran Brady Poppinga, knows firsthand the impact siblings can have on a squad. “Brady kinda showed me what to do, leading me to be disciplined and be accountable. I would just say more than anything, he showed me an example of how it's supposed to be done,” Poppinga recalled.
Poppinga points to the Alfrey brothers—Talan and Berkley from Auburn, Washington—as exemplars of this culture. “I just see a group of guys that you can tell have been brought up the right way,” he said. “The kindness and the service that they give to the rest of our team … I’ve been really impressed with those two guys and the leadership qualities that they can bring.” Talan, the elder Alfrey, admits his younger brother played a pivotal role in his journey: “Growing up competing, and then being the first one to go through the process, [I wanted] to set a good standard. He helped push me to be the best and be able to want the best for our future and let BYU come in the picture. [BYU was] both of our dream schools and I wanted to make it happen.”
Berkley, a true walk-on, credits Talan for making his own BYU dream possible. “Him already being on the team was a huge bridge for me to be able to build the connection with the coaches, and then he was able to show me what I needed to do to make it to where we're at now,” he said.
The brotherhood culture at BYU isn’t just about warm fuzzies. It’s about trust, accountability, and resilience—qualities that have become the backbone of the Cougars’ success. “You can count on them when you need to, when [the team is] down and you gotta fight back. You know, they're resilient,” Cody Hagen explained. “So I feel like growing up with someone, obviously, having a brother on the team helps a lot to build the brotherhood of the team.” Cole echoed this, saying, “You know, being a team, you got to rely on everybody else to do their part. You can't do it all on your own, so you gotta trust that the other guys are gonna do their thing.”
This trust was put to the test on October 11, 2025, when BYU traveled to Tucson to face Arizona. The Cougars entered the game undefeated and looked dominant early, jumping to a 14-7 lead before a rain delay halted play. When the game resumed, Arizona stormed back, eventually leading 24-10 with just five minutes left in regulation. It was the kind of moment that could fracture a team. Instead, BYU leaned on its brotherhood.
“We were losing after the rain delay,” Cody Hagen said. “And I think everyone showed really great resilience and brotherhood. Maybe the offense messed up, but the defense wasn't pointing fingers, or the defense messed up, but offense isn't pointing fingers, so it was like a true brotherhood.”
The Cougars rallied, scoring 10 unanswered points to tie the game and force overtime. Special teams coach Poppinga watched the team’s unity up close. “When we were in Arizona, we were down 24-10 with like 5 minutes to go in the game … And there was a sense of calmness, a sense of confidence. And I think, a sense that we were gonna be competitive in that situation, but we were also gonna excel,” he remarked. “I think that all comes back to just this brotherly love and the culture that Coach has set for us. And in that moment, like, there was support.”
BYU’s defense held strong, and the offense did just enough to push the game into double overtime, where the Cougars clinched a thrilling 33-27 victory. “There wasn't anybody panicking, there wasn't anybody that was nervous. It was just like, ‘Hey, we got this. We're gonna do this.’ And the next thing we knew, the game's tied, and then we go into overtime, and we win the game in double overtime,” Poppinga recalled.
As the season has unfolded, the brotherhood culture fostered by Sitake has only grown stronger. Senior Talan Alfrey noted, “I love what Kalani's trying to do, ’cause it's been an emphasis switch from a couple years ago, from just saying family, to going into the brothers [mindset]. The distinction he makes is that family is all sweet and nice and everything, but brothers will hold the other one to a higher standard and be more demanding.”
This shift has not gone unnoticed off the field, either. The Cougars’ success has attracted significant media attention, and their unique culture has become a talking point across the Big 12. As Poppinga put it, “Football is all about chemistry, right? And the chance to get all other guys on the same page at once is our ultimate goal … And so you have people that have been together their whole entire lives, that chemistry, I think, becomes that much closer.”
Meanwhile, as BYU’s season continues, there’s speculation swirling around defensive coordinator Jay Hill, who is reportedly “very, very” close to joining Michigan as their new defensive coordinator under recently hired head coach Kyle Whittingham. While head coach Sitake has acknowledged Hill’s importance to the program, he deferred confirmation of Hill’s departure to the coach himself, saying, “Jay is going to make his own statements. I’m just acknowledging that Kyle is at Michigan and guys have decisions to make.”
For now, the Cougars remain focused on their brotherhood and the challenges ahead. As Berkley Alfrey summed it up, “Being united and trusting each other … that'll show on the field.” And as the BYU football program continues to evolve, it’s clear that the power of brotherhood—both by blood and by bond—will remain its guiding force.