BYU Football Hires Lewis Walker from North Dakota State, Announces Full Defensive Staff

The Cougars have rounded out their defensive staff for the 2026 season

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake at BYU Football Fall Camp | BYU Photo

On Monday afternoon, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake announced the hiring of Lewis Walker from North Dakota State. Sitake also announced the promotions of two internal coaches who will round out the BYU coaching staff for the 2026 season.

BYU technically hired Walker away from North Dakota State. Walker had recently accepted a job at North Dakota State after spending two years as the defensive coordinator at monmouth University. Walker is a Utah native and a former player at the University of Utah. Walker played for Kalani Sitake when he was at Utah.

Welcome to the Family @lew_walk7 🤙 pic.twitter.com/WfMSxnTOn6

— BYU FOOTBALL (@BYUfootball) February 2, 2026

“I’ve known Lewis for a long time, ever since he was a player for me at Utah,” Sitake said about his relationship with Lewis. “He has a strong expertise teaching cornerbacks and defensive backs and has also been a coordinator overseeing the entire defense for two years. He knows the small details matter and truly cares about the development of the players he coaches. He is from Utah, so he knows our state well. I’m excited to welcome Lewis to BYU.”

“I am excited for the opportunity to join this BYU program,” Walker said in the BYU press release. “I’m really looking forward to being with a lot of familiar people at this elite level and a chance to learn and grow from a great administration and staff here. I can’t wait to get in and develop our cornerbacks and build relationships with all of them.”

BYU also announced the internal promotions of Justin Ena to special teams coordinator and Chad Kuaha'aha'a as the outside linebackers coach. Ena had previously been the linebackers coach and Kuaha'aha'a was a defensive analyst. He came to BYU as an analyst after spending a few years on the staff at UCLA.

“I’m excited to have Justin Ena and Chad Kauha’aha’a stepping into these roles and to announce that Lewis Walker is joining our staff,” Sitake said. “Before we undertook the recent changes to our defensive staff, I intended to emphasize special teams even more within our staff structure heading into 2026. I’m pleased to announce that Justin will be our new special teams coordinator with the responsibility of putting his entire focus into coordinating this important phase of our program. Chad has been a valuable contributor to our defense the past two seasons as a senior analyst, and I’m blessed to be able to promote him into a position coaching role with our edge rushers at outside linebacker, an area where he has exceptional experience and expertise. Lewis has spent more than a decade coaching defensive backs and will be a great addition to strengthen our secondary in the cornerbacks room with Demario Warren overseeing our safeties.”

With those changes, Kelly Poppinga will coach the inside linebackers. Ena will exclusively oversee special teams.