BYU coach Kalani Sitake is scrapping the Cougars’ confusing substitution pattern

Kalani Sitake made it official: The last remnant of Ilaisa Tuiaki’s defense is gone and it isn’t coming back.

Tuiaki, BYU’s former defensive coordinator, became known for employing a substitution pattern that too often had BYU’s starters on the sideline. Tuiaki wanted to rest and preserve starters to prevent injury. But in reality, it just allowed offenses to feast on second- and third-string players who weren’t always up to the challenge.

This year?

“When it comes to the game, you have to have the best guys on the field,” Sitake said.

Fall camp has mirrored that. Sitake hasn’t given as many reps to the third string and focused mostly on the starters and the two-deep, he said. He doesn’t plan on playing third-string players much in the game anyway this year.

“We don’t have reps to go for threes. That is just not going to happen anymore,” Sitake said. “And hopefully in the season we don’t get there.”

With a new defensive coordinator and a Big 12 schedule, it was a change bound to happen. And it was a necessary one with a team still developing Power Five depth. Sitake knows it. Which is why he needs to go down with his best players this year, not players still developing.

“I think the two-deep is as good as we can get. We would be lucky to have three,” Sitake said. “But we think if you are a third on our team, you can probably get better by going against the ones and the twos on the opposite side.”