BYU football defensive back Keenan Ellis to medically retire, program adds staff
Isaac Hale Daily Herald
Utah Utes wide receiver Solomon Enis (21) pushes away Brigham Young Cougars defensive back Keenan Ellis (30) after a play during a game between Brigham Young University and the University of Utah held Saturday, Nov. 24, 2018, at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. Isaac Hale, Daily Herald
In 2018, the BYU football defensive backfield saw glimpses of the potential of a young redshirt freshman named Keenan Ellis. He officially tallied nine tackles and a pair of pass breakups in 12 games.
The hope was that he would be an athlete who would make big contributions for the next few years.
His health, however, didn’t allow that to happen.
He only played in nine more games as a Cougar, eight of which came in 2020 when he had 13 tackles and three pass breakups.
He was hurt on one of the first plays of the 2021 season during BYU’s win at Arizona, which ended up being his final game.
The Cougars announced Friday that Ellis would be medically retiring.
“It’s tough,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said. “It’s a sad part of sports that sometimes you lose players to injury and in this case, it just doesn’t benefit him to keep going. The advice we received from the doctors and the specialists is that in order for him to have a good life, this is going to need to happen.”
Sitake said that he was “really happy” Ellis was able to finish his college degree (he’s listed as majoring in computer science) and knows that he’ll have a “bright future.”
The Cougars still hope to benefit from Ellis’s positional experience as well.
“He’ll still be involved with the team,” Sitake said. “He just won’t be able to do it on the field. We have a bunch of new guys coming in, so they’re gonna need his his knowledge and his advice and guidance. He’s committed to doing that because he loves this place. Although it’s unfortunate what happened to him, he understands how much we care about him and how how it matters to us that he has a good life.”
BYU also announced Friday that it has filled five additional staff positions.
Three will be analysts with two already being familiar faces in Provo.
Former Cougar defensive back Gavin Fowler had been a graduate assistant for the team but will move into a defensive analyst role.
Matt Marshall was an analyst for BYU before he spent the 2021 season at Baylor with former Cougar offensive coordinator Jeff Grimes. He now returns to Provo to be an offensive analyst again and he will be joined by Tyson McDaniel in that role.
BYU also announced the addition two assistant strength and conditioning coaches in Spencer Reid and Dalton Elliot.
Sitake said he is thrilled to have a larger staff because he feels like it will allow him to do more to help the players on the team.
“I’m so excited about having added resources and staff because that gives me more people to find ways to be creative, to find ways to make this experience here at BYU unique and special,” Sitake said.
BYU starts its 2022 spring camp on Monday.
