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

San Jose State football coach Ken Niumatalolo celebrates with his Spartan squad on Sept. 14, 2023. | Thien-An Truong Ken Niumatalolo’s path to coaching success took a gridiron-length leap forward the moment he arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, in 1995.

For Latter-day Saint college football fans, it’s a familiar story: The Hawaii native has just landed his first football job on the mainland — coaching the running backs at the Naval Academy. Two years later, he was the Midshipmen’s offensive coordinator. By 2008, he was Navy’s head coach.

Niumatalolo then spent 15 seasons directing the Navy program, becoming the service academy’s all-time coaching wins leader, appearing in 10 bowl games, hobnobbing with President Barack Obama at the White House and — perhaps most importantly — beating Army 10 times. But when he considers his Navy years today, he believes his Annapolis arrival more than three decades ago was not primarily about coaching. “I thought that I was going there because of football,” he told the Deseret News.

“But looking back now, I know it was for my family and our spiritual goals — but I was also there to do the Lord’s work. ” Yes, Niumatalolo was guiding one of the nation’s most storied football programs — the sort of job that gets you a guest seat each season on ESPN’s “College GameDay” prior to Army-Navy. San Jose State hired head football coach Ken Niumatalolo to lead the Spartans in 2024 following his highly successful coaching tenure at the U.