Just because it was expected, doesn’t mean it was insignificant.
Last week’s avalanche of departures and hires at BYU were widely anticipated for months. But they were also the first real breath of Big 12 life for BYU, something that shouldn’t go unnoticed.
Before we go forward, here is a rapid-fire recap of what has happened in the last seven days:
BYU associate head coach Ed Lamb was let go by the program, then landed as the head coach of Northern Colorado.
Defensive ends coach Preston Hadley faced a similar fate, then followed Lamb to Northern Colorado as the defensive coordinator.
Kalani Sitake hired former Weber State head coach Jay Hill as his associate head coach and defensive coordinator.
Former BYU star Kelly Poppinga was lured away from Boise State to become the special teams coordinator and assistant defensive coach at his alma mater.
It was a flurry of activity necessitated by a 7-5 season in which the defense largely disappointed.
And most saw this coming after former defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki was reassigned mid-season.
But for a long time, necessity didn’t always translate to action in Provo. Just look at last year for example. BYU had the same injury issues in 2021, but the strength and conditioning staff stayed. The defense also took a step back last year, but every coach on staff was retained (one of only two teams in the country to do so).
This time, need and action correlated. Swiftly and monetarily. And that should at least be enough to recognize why this last week was important inside the program.
It can be hard to part ways with coaches who have been around the program since the Sitake era started, like Lamb has. It can be even more difficult to let go of strength and conditioning staffers, like Justin McClure, who had been around since the 90s.
Yet, Sitake did it. He made the moves and overhauled the staff like other Big 12 programs would. Also, Hill’s hire shows a new monetary commitment befitting of a Power Five program, which we wrote about earlier this week.
There is still a long way to go for BYU to be a legitimate contender in the Big 12. In terms of infrastructure and operations, there is work to do.
But this week was something. Not just hiring more support staff — which even Sitake has admitted isn’t enough — or announcing a schedule, this was BYU acting like a Big 12 program for perhaps the first time.
An overcrowded college football schedule?
The new transfer portal window in college football is complicating things. Sure, it is what coaches wanted so they don’t have to worry about the transfer portal year-round.
But by opening the first window Dec. 5, it means coaches are preparing for bowl games, recruiting high school kids, putting together a staff and mining the transfer portal all at once.
SMU head coach Rhett Lashlee, who BYU will see on Saturday, basically admitted there is not enough time to do all of it. Usually, bowl game prep gets put on the back burner.
We asked Sitake if he thought this college football calendar is too crowded right now, and if the portal needs to be pushed back. This was his response:
“I just go with whatever is out there,” Sitake said. “I mean we [added] a mid-year signing day. That wasn’t there years ago and it is still fairly new. We are going to try to take advantage of it.
“It all depends on what the NCAA allows,” he continued.” You can see with NIL, transfer portal and everything that is happening, we just roll with whatever is happening. We adjust and try to make it an advantage for us. A lot of teams do it their own way. We definitely do it our own way that is right in alignment with our church’s mission and our university’s mission.”
So it was mostly a non-answer, but something to think about going forward.
Should Jaren Hall play in this bowl game?
I saved this for last, because I’m sure we will have more on it as the week progresses.
But the simple answer, in my view, is no.
Hall has nothing to gain from playing in this game. Bowl games, as Sitake has mentioned, are about players making the right decisions for themselves. And Hall playing on a hurt ankle in New Mexico is not the right decision for his future.
A healthy version, frankly, also shouldn’t touch the field.
Hall is turning 25 years old and has already done enough to be draftable in April. Nothing he does against a bad SMU defense will improve his draft stock. If he gets hurt, or more injured, that could significantly hurt him.
Hall has meant everything to his program for the last two years. It is time for BYU to do the right thing for him and sit him out.
