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BYU football survived the coaching carousel. Now it’s built to win big
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- BYU football survived the coaching carousel. Now it’s built to win big
PROVO, UT – Kalani Sitake wants you to take out your AirPods.
That's the first thing to know about the dude who, unquestionably, should be flying on a private jet but instead is standing alongside you in general boarding.
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Brigham Young's football coach is biding his time, chatting with high school coaches and John Q. Public as he's boarding a flight inside Charlotte's Douglas International Airport back to Salt Lake City.
Not the hometown Provo Airport; Sitake is landing at Salt Lake City International and making the 45-minute drive.
He doesn't mind.
More: Penn State offered Kalani Sitake its head coach job — but couldn't offer what BYU could
Big 12 football post-spring rankings: Who benefits most from Texas Tech uncertainty?
Thus, four months later as the Big 12 Conference wraps its business meetings in the Dallas suburbs, Sitake again is a standard passenger on a commercial flight.
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And he's taking notes while a grandmother in the seat beside him bends his ear.
"The key to life is just people; it has nothing to do with money or fancy things," Sitake, on lunch break during BYU 's youth camp with roughly 300 frenetic children trampling outdoors, says. "The grandmother, who told me she served in the military and for decades, was giving me a lot of advice and didn't know what my job was or anything. And I was just taking notes, because it all has carryover to my life and how I can be as a person.
"I kept thinking, this is such a golden moment. I think when you share stories, you can learn from life. I've met people before on flights that they don't want to talk. They put their headphones on or they don't want to talk, and it's like, 'Oh, dang it.' But, yeah, man, if anyone wants to talk, I'm going to hang out and get to know them. At a time where everybody's so focused on their phones, I think it's probably better. With my role, people want to talk to me but it's me that wants to learn from them. I can learn from all these little kids, too. Just love the kids running around and how much they, like, want me to sign their shirts. One day, no one's going to want my signature, and I'm gonna miss it."
That moment seems further away than at any prior point in Sitake's BYU career.
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The Cougars enter 2026 on the heels of a 12-win campaign for the first time in a quarter-century. They return a quarterback, star Bear Bachmeier ; star running back, LJ Martin ; star linebacker, Isaiah Glasker .
With scandal at Texas Tech, BYU suddenly is a preseason frontrunner for the Big 12 Conference's top spot.
Despite entreaties again otherwise, BYU returns offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick. Kelly Poppinga, one of at least six former Cougars players on the positional coaching staff, ascends to the defensive coordinator role after three seasons running BYU special teams.
Maybe none of them is in Provo this year, preparing for a season inside LaVell Edwards Stadium replete with College Football Playoff expectations, without the return of Sitake for his 11th season at the helm.
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BYU's favorite son is back following intense pursuit from Penn State , with multiple people familiar with the situation telling USA TODAY Sports of Sitake's residency as Penn State's offered candidate before the Nittany Lions ' hiring of Matt Campbell away from Iowa State.
"Some of it was probably private enough that I wouldn't share, but I will say that, I mean, it was a legitimate story; it was happening," Roderick, architect of Cougars offenses scoring 31 or more points per game in four of the past five seasons, tells USA TODAY Sports. "It was … it was possible. My connection to him and my appreciation for him is such that I was, you know, I was hoping they would work out for all of us to stay here, but, I'm super loyal to him, too.
"The whole time I was hopeful that the university would step up and find a way of retaining him and they did. You know, I'm really glad they did because I want I want to coach for him and coach here as long as I can. And I've had chances to leave. You know, we've had some good years and each year somebody comes calling and, it's tough to leave him. He's awesome."
Irrepressibly kind, Sitake nonetheless points to the future and wants little to do with that oh-so-brief Penn State past.
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"Well, first of all, I was really honored. And I think I've said a lot about it. I've had tons of respect for Penn State," a reluctant Sitake, major college football's first-ever head coach of Tongan descent, says. "That's a storied program and an amazing university. [Penn State's pursuit] was, to me, it was a huge compliment. It was like, wow, you know, that they would consider me. And I met some amazing people with that whole process.
"But this is my alma mater. This is the school that I cheered for growing up. And then I got to play for an amazing head coach, LaVell Edwards, a legend. And I became a captain for him. And he became a huge mentor for me. And so, yeah, this is home. It's an honor for me to have other schools that are interested in me, especially amazing places. But this, this is home."
With a new recruiting lounge presently under construction, as well as a new premium seating area online for the 2027 season, it is not the staid old home of BYU football yesteryear.
The Cougars recruit aggressively to Sitake's family-centric program and lean into their Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints roots.
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They also have a robust name, image and likeness presence in the recruiting and retention space; are fully participant in revenue-sharing via the House Settlement and develop players into pros – 10 Cougars earning NFL opportunities on the heels of 2025's success.
There's enough appeal for, say, Walker Lyons to choose to transfer to BYU from Southern California in this past winter's transfer portal cycle.
But in Sitake's program, money never is a foundational component.
"I want to be more about transformation than transactional," Sitake says. "There's different ways of compensation. And if the only way that motivates a player is the bank account, then it's not going to work here. We're not really focused on money. Although, we have an opportunity to pay the players, and we do. We won't be the top bidder [in a bidding war]. That will never happen.
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"And if they need that, then that's fine. But what we will do is show them how compensation comes in different forms and how you can have a really good thing here."
Here, as still hundreds of kids run scattershot amidst Cougar Cubs football camp, Sitake peels back more of what makes BYU his home.
"They always say that grass isn't always greener on the other side, but I think it's important that we show how green our grass is first," says Sitake, winner of 10 or more games in four of the past six seasons. "We do that. Some guys are great for your team, and some guys move on. That's ok. But our attitude is someone else will come along and make it work.
"Fortunately for us, we've had those guys that want to be here. And with that success rate, I think all of our younger guys are looking at it going, well, 'I kind of like being here.' I don't know if you want to be a guy that's gone to three, four different schools in a career. We do have resources and funds, I have a general manager for a reason. That's not my job. I'll never look at a player like he's a price tag. Coaches and programs can run it however they want. We just choose to do it this way. And I think it's working."
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Remove the headphones. Sitake's sending a BYU football message for all to hear.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: BYU football survived the coaching carousel. Now it's built to win big
