Timing of Doman, Poppinga announcement

It has been 16 days since Bronco Mendenhall gathered his offensive staff and told them their jobs were not secure and to spiff up resumes. Today, at 3 p.m., he announced Brandon Doman would be offensive coordinator and QB coach and Kelly Poppinga would be elevated from a graduate assistant to fulltime outside linebacker coach.

In between, Robert Anae resigned as offensive coordinator last Friday and accepted the offensive coordinator job at Arizona on Monday. Some folks expected it Monday, or last week via Mendenhall in Mexico.

The announcement came when it did for the sake of the players, who’ve been scattered all over for the Holidays and returned Tuesday.

Bronco Mendenhall had the Doman/Poppinga deal in the works for some time, although he was vacationing in Mexico. Mendenhall made the promotion announcements today because on Monday, BYU’s football players were still arriving for the start of winter semester today. After they completed classes, players arrived in the football office for a team meeting where Mendenhall told them of the changes. An hour later, BYU officially posted a press release.

In that team meeting, I am told Mendenhall was as animated and excited as he’s ever been around the team. He lit a fire under the players about the future and later told the media he would not put a “ceiling” on how high his program would be in the future. He also said he had no timetable to get it done — including any other changes.

There was no other announcement of any other changes on the staff. When asked about any future additions or subtractions, Doman said it would be a head coach decision.

I believe in coming days, this issue will be examined more fully by Doman and his boss. There have already been feelers put out to prospective hires. There is also a sifting through of applications received since assistant coaching job(s) were posted on the university website after that Mendenhall meeting with the staff.

One prospective interviewee is Timpview High coach Louis Wong. He is not available this week due to a coaching commitment with the Under Armour All-America Bowl activities.

I do know of other applicants who are waiting to be interviewed if Mendenhall and Doman keep options open for more changes.

I think it was interesting when Doman was asked how he felt after the meeting 16 days ago. He said he totally enjoyed Christmas and went sledding with his kids and had a lot of fun.

The meeting didn’t make him blink a bit. As predicted was the case through all of this.