After spending eight seasons under the wing of legendary Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to see Danny Sorensen coaching football.
“Something I love and respect about him (Andy Reid) is the way that he cares individually for his players. He has genuine love for his players,” said Sorensen. “Something he always preaches is he wants you to be yourself and to be the best version of yourself.”
According to Sorensen, Reid made players feel needed for their unique gifts and talents, which led to a positive, welcoming and family-focused environment. He sees a similar culture under Kalani Sitake at BYU.
“It gives the opportunity for a lot of people to thrive,” he said. “When they can truly be themselves and they’re loved and appreciated for that, then they can go out there and play their best football.”
It was his gritty and courageous mentality that earned him the nickname “Dirty Dan” during his years in the NFL. Now, after a two-year hiatus from playing, he has returned to his alma mater with the same mentality as the assistant safeties coach.
“Coaching has always been in the back of my mind, and you kind of make up excuses until those excuses didn’t have a lot of merit or weight anymore,” he said.
A father of five and a family man, Sorensen was well aware of the time commitment that coaching takes. After his youngest son was born at the beginning of 2024, he wanted to spend some time with his family before deciding what he would do post-NFL career.
He visited BYU’s spring camp in 2025 but felt there wasn’t much opportunity for him to coach there at the time. When Kelly Poppinga, who coached Sorensen during his playing days at BYU, was promoted to defensive coordinator, Sorensen reached out.
“He immediately got back to me within a few minutes,” he said.
Soon after, the two met so Poppinga could better understand why Sorensen wanted to coach and share his expectations of what it means to be a coach at BYU. After meeting with Sitake, Sorenson was hired full time.
Sorensen started his BYU career in 2008 and, after serving a two-year mission to San Jose, Costa Rica, returned for the 2011 season. In his 51 games with BYU, he recorded 215 total tackles, 11.5 tackles for loss and eight interceptions.
This led to a 10-year career in the NFL with the Kansas City Chiefs and New Orleans Saints, where he finished with 411 tackles, 14 interceptions, four touchdowns and a Super Bowl ring. He said his experience in the pros is one of his biggest strengths as a coach.
“Having played safety myself, I can put myself in their shoes, whether that’s long days, working out, balancing practice, balancing school, social life — all that stuff — to when you’re out there on the field and you're playing a certain technique,” he said. “What you’re looking for, where you should align, what you should be doing with your feet and eyes — all those things.”
He hopes to shortcut the learning curve and give his safeties the “cheat notes” to prepare them for the NFL. He said there are two things that really set NFL players apart from college players.
“Overall awareness — it goes beyond just knowing what you’re supposed to do,” he said. “A true mark of a good defense is all playing together, and in order to do that, you have to have a bigger understanding of ‘what is this call’ or ‘what is the defense requiring me to do,’ and how you can help.”
In addition to awareness, he feels NFL players are simply faster — physically and mentally.
“The speed, the reaction time — all of that comes with being able to process things and then react very quickly,” he said.
But Sorensen likes what he sees from the safeties at BYU.
“As a group collectively, they bring a lot of skill to the table," he said. "It’s on us as coaches to try to maximize that for each player and for the defense itself.”