Coach/Bishop Ken Niumatalolo calls timeout to talk covenant keeping, transfer portals — and commanding Spartans

San Jose State hired head football coach Ken Niumatalolo to lead the Spartans in 2024 following his highly successful coaching tenure at the U.S. Naval Academy. Niumatalolo has also served as a local Latter-day Saint leader in both Annapolis and San Jose. | San Jose State University

“And the coaching part is the way I made a living there,” he said. “But I also recognize that the Lord put me in some positions, from a football standpoint, to use that influence to help open some of the doors in the Lord’s kingdom.”

Niumatalolo and his wife, Barbara, were heavily involved in the Washington D.C. Temple open house in 2022. And he introduced countless folks in the Mid-Atlantic region to Latter-day Saint beliefs, participating in community functions and interfaith efforts — while also appearing in a featured role in the 2014 documentary “Meet the Mormons.”

But the coach was also a spiritual shepherd in Annapolis — making Latter-day Saint history in 2019 when he became the first Division I head football coach to simultaneously serve as a stake president.

Now 61 and a grandfather of six, Niumatalolo is a few years removed from the Naval Academy. He’s swapped the East Coast for the West Coast. But he still leads a college football program — San Jose State University.

And, yes, the coach still shepherds.

He’s now “Bishop Niumatalolo” of the Rose Garden Ward, San Jose South Stake.

Commanding ‘Spartan Nation’

San Jose State head coach Ken Niumatalolo addresses his team in the locker room after the Spartans defeated Sacramento State, 42-24, at CEFCU Stadium on August 29, 2024, in San Jose, California. | San Jose State Athletics

Niumatalolo’s historically successful tenure at Navy ended in 2022 as it does for many college football coaches — with a pink slip.

He wasn’t unemployed for long. UCLA’s Chip Kelly hired him in 2023 as the Bruins’ director of leadership and, a year later, as the tight ends coach.

In 2024, Niumatalolo accepted the head coaching job at SJSU.

In today’s “rich-get-richer” college football world, the Spartans have to leap tall hurdles to seize success.

A member of a Group of Five conference — the Mountain West — SJSU simply can’t offer recruits and rostered players the payoffs available to Power Four athletes.

Meanwhile, the NCAA’s laissez-faire transfer portal means that this year’s Group of Five star athlete is likely going to be donning another team’s helmet next season.

Every Spartan player who made a 2025 all-conference team, and had college eligibility remaining, has transferred to a Power Four program — including new University of Utah wide receiver Kyri Shoels.

But Niumatalolo’s Navy experience makes him well-equipped to manage competitive disadvantages.

Service academy football programs, of course, have always been a tough sell for top-flight high school athletes with little interest in a military career. And while today’s underclassmen at, say Army or Navy, can transfer out of the academies, the academies have no access to athletes in the transfer portal. It’s not allowed.

So each Saturday at Navy, Niumatalolo knew his guys were lining up against football players who were bigger, faster and stronger.

But his Mids still beat seven ranked teams during his tenure in Annapolis — including three victories over Notre Dame.

Now at SJSU, Niumatalolo acknowledges the challenges defining college football in 2026. But, he’s quick to add, “Coaching is coaching.”

“None of that changes. You’re still trying to develop people. You’re trying to bring a team together and get everybody working on a common goal.”

Niumatalolo’s first year at SJSU ended with a bowl game. Last year, the Spartans struggled.

The coach is learning to spot the “right guys” to wear his team’s blue-and-gold.

Recruiting today’s college athletes to San Jose, he said, is a bit like shopping. Don’t bother wasting time in high-end “stores” shopping for multistar players. That’s for the deep-pocketed programs.

But quality, he insisted, is still plentiful at the affordable stores. And Niumatalolo’s certain he found some bargains going into the fast-approaching 2026 football season.

“Our ‘sell’ (to recruits and transfers) is our family environment,” said Niumatalolo. “You get a great education. And you’re in Silicon Valley — so you’ll find job opportunities when you finish playing.”

Coach Niumatalolo x 3

College football fans have fun diagramming “coaching trees” of influential coaches such as Nick Saban, LaVell Edwards or Urban Meyer.

Niumatalolo has cultivated a family coaching tree.

Both of his sons are on the coaching staff at Division 1 programs. Oldest son Va’a (a former BYU player) is the assistant linebackers coach at Navy. Younger son Ali’i now works as Michigan’s assistant tight ends coach under the direction of his former coach at Utah, Kyle Whittingham.

“I kind of tried to warn them,” said the elder Niumatalolo, laughing, when asked about his offspring pursuing the college coaching ranks.

Having a familiar last name might help get a young coach through a program’s door — but if the coach can’t do the job, he won’t last long.

“The profession is too hard,” said Niumatalolo. “A (head coach) can’t hire people because of nepotism or favoritism. That’s going to get you fired. It’s based on merit.”

Still, Niumatalolo relishes watching Va’a and Ali’i build their own respective coaching careers and reputations in a brutally competitive, unforgiving profession.

“We call and talk all the time — but I’ve got my own issues to deal with here. I just check on them and see how they’re doing. I’m proud of both of them.”

Niumatalolo fires quick “hang-in-there” texts to his sons if one of their teams has a bad Saturday.

“But to be honest, they were counseling me a lot last year,” he said. “They would both tell me, ‘Hang in there, Dad. We know you can do it. You’ll get the next one.’”

Outlasting game results: Faith and covenants

The rising generation of Niumatalolo pigskin coaches know well the ups-and-downs of college football seasons. You can be the hottest coach in the game — and a year later, on the hot seat.

“We just finished learning about Joseph in Egypt in the ‘Come Follow Me’ gospel study program — and (college football’s) kind of like that,” he said. “We’ve had some years of prosperity. We’ve had some years of famine.”

And Va’a, Ali’i and daughter Alexcia watched their father during the good years and the lean ones.

“But I think the greatest lesson, hopefully, that I left with them is that my faith in the gospel has not wavered one bit,” said Niumatalolo.

“Even through our down years at Navy, or during our down year here, I have never questioned the Lord or my covenants,” he added.

“My wife and I, who’s phenomenal, just stay strong to our covenants. We keep serving wherever the Lord calls us. We keep doing what we’re supposed to do. And we don’t let our temporal circumstances affect us.”

Forgive the analogy, but life can be a bit like a 60-minute football game. There are touchdowns, penalties and injuries. Wins and losses.

And to be clear, Ken Niumatalolo hates losing.

Prior to the 2020 Navy-BYU game, a reporter was working on a story about the uniqueness of a college football contest featuring, on opposite sidelines, two Latter-day Saint head coaches of Polynesian descent — Niumatalolo and BYU’s Kalani Sitake.

One of Niumatalolo’s oldest friends, BYU football relations director Jack Damuni, busted into laughter sharing the memory of playing against young Ken Niumatalolo’s ward in a church basketball game in Hawaii.

Damuni’s ward won the game — and Niumatalolo was apparently very, very unhappy. The two pals soon put the game behind them, but Damuni hasn’t forgotten his friend’s competitiveness.

Niumatalolo has now spent almost four decades in the college football coaching business. He’s celebrated wins and endured losses.

But the coach/bishop’s eternal perspective still allows him to approach each season, game and huddle with assurance.

“It’s tough when hard things in life happen,” he said. “Trials come — but those are the times when you cling to your covenants harder. That’s not when you push the Lord aside. That’s when you get closer to him.

“I hope that my kids have seen that.”