Poppinga brothers to line up against each other at BYU/Utah State game
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
The Bible says it. Abraham Lincoln said it during the Civil War.
Dennis Poppinga isn’t worried, although some parents in his situation might be. When BYU comes to Logan to play Utah State Friday night, he’ll have one son on each side of the ball.
Casey Poppinga, a senior, is the starting tight end for USU and Brady Poppinga, a sophomore, is the starting defensive end for USU.
This is not the “Battle of the Brothers,” or even “Casey versus Brady,” Casey and Brady said. It’s simply BYU vs. USU, an exciting in-state rivalry for both of them.
“We’re one-11th of each of our teams,” Brady said.
Casey said, “For us it’s really not that big a thing. It’s 11 of us on offense against 11 of them on defense.”
However, Casey said he’s excited to face off against not only Brady, but other players from his high school playing days.
“It does pump you up, especially because it is BYU,” he said.
Brady said he was excited to line up against his brother, but “it’s not to me any kind of big deal.”
“I’m going to play him like I’d play any other tight end,” he said.
Casey said, “We’ve always had to go against each other in every sport, so it’s pretty much nothing new.”
He said they have talked to each other about the game and they have an agreement: “Don’t treat me any different from any opposing player.”
And if it comes down to the final play of the game and Brady is the only one between Casey and the goal line with no time left and USU needing a touchdown to win the game?
“I’m going to put him down. I’m going to tackle him,” Brady said.
It doesn’t mean Casey and Brady will not be friends after the game.
“We’re going to stay up there [in Logan] and watch conference together,” Brady said. “It’ll probably be the only time we don’t both have a game on Saturday, and we’ll already be up there [in Logan].”
Brady said he thinks they will line up against each other at most 15 times in the game out of an average 70 plays a game. He respects Casey as a tight end, he said, and has been watching him on film all week.
“I think [Casey’s] good,” he said. “I think he’s one of the best tight ends we’ll play.”
Given Brady’s early season success for the Cougars, Casey has to respect Brady as a defensive end also. Through the first four games, Brady has five sacks, putting him on pace to break the school single-season record for sacks.
Brady said breaking the record is not a goal for him, however.
“My focus is to do what it takes to win,” he said. “Stats and all that stuff is just secondary.”
Their father, Dennis, played tight end for BYU from 1968 to 1971, and his wife Vicky is also a BYU graduate, but Dennis said, “This week we’re not cheering for either team.”
When Casey played for Wyoming against BYU before serving a mission and transferring to Utah State, Dennis said they made the switch to brown and gold to cheer for the Cowboys. This week they will be cheering for their boys in blue on both sides of the ball.
Dennis said the entire family and a lot of the in-laws will be there for the game. Although they missed the Iowa game, he said they try to make it to all of Casey’s games because he is a senior. Next year, they will try and see Brady’s games because he is only a sophomore this year.
Right after Casey came home from his mission to Brazil and returned to Wyoming, he said the coach who recruited him left and the new coaching staff used a four-receiver offense without a tight end.
He said he had the choice to either gain 50 pounds and become a lineman or go somewhere else to play at the position he loved.
He said he based his decision on what he would want to look back on in 30 years and reminisce about, and he’s happy with his choice.
“It’s by far the best decision I could have ever made in that situation,” Casey said.
Football isn’t the only thing Casey said he is happy about. His wife had a baby boy, Treyson, on July 15.
“[It was] by far the best moment ever. Football could never compare to that,” he said.
-royburton@cc.usu.edu