Provo • Led by its keenest eye, Kalani Sitake, in a coal-black sky, BYU football is looking in that deep dark for what it needs most: stars.
Every new football season brings what it should.
Hope for that, for having them, for depending on them, for finding them.
August screams hope, shouts it to the mountaintops, wraps its arms around it, and as it does, it simultaneously clears minds of defeat’s darkened debris of the past, giving energy to the here and now in practice sessions, encouraging players to work hard, coaches to think hard, and fans to ramp up newfound excitement.
There’s nothing wrong with any of that, even if reality sings a slightly different tune.
That’s what’s happening at BYU right now, a mixing — maybe a collision — of soaring aspiration and sagging actuality, a mashup that will blow straight on through to season’s start just more than three weeks away, when the Cougars kick off against Southern Illinois on Aug. 31 at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
Where are the stars? Their stars? Where are the difference-makers, the playmakers who can bump BYU from an also-ran in the Big 12 to something more, something better?
Sitake is dialed in, searching for them.
He believes they are there, somewhere. Already, he said he’s getting glimpses, glimpses no one on the outside sees.
It’s his job as a head football coach to believe like that, to turn belief into truth, glimpses into eyefuls.
Last week in the Cougars’ Indoor Practice Facility, Sitake answered questions from a handful of reporters, questions about the offensive line, about the running backs, about tight ends, about linebackers, about the defensive line, and, as is obligatory at BYU, the quarterbacks, and about the team-wide progress made thus far during the offseason and preseason practices. How is it all coming together? He answered with an upbeat tone, as though he knew something nobody else did.
“We’re ahead of where we were last year,” he said.
“All of our quarterbacks can run,” he said. With an unproven offensive front, that’s a good thing.
“I’d like to name a starter there as soon as we can,” he said.
“I think [the QBs] are improving, doing a good job,” he said. “We’re not new to this stuff.”
“The running backs are going to be fine,” he said. “It’s a full room. We have capable guys.”
“Tight ends … they’re all ready to play,” he said.
“The linebackers are a talented group, there’s a bunch of guys,” he said.
He rattled off a plethora of names that have developed and impressed at nearly every position.
“I anticipate us doing better this year,” he said.
When the questions died down, the coach and I walked over to an isolated space on the field and talked for a half-hour about what is imagined, what is hoped for, what is real, what is personal. And Sitake spoke from both his brain and his heart.
He acknowledged what is plain to know — that BYU struggled last season, limping to a 2-7 record in the Big 12, including five straight defeats to close out the season. He also acknowledged without making excuses that some of those losses might have been wins, had mistakes not been made. He also recognized that his team’s offense was lousy and the defense wasn’t a whole lot better.
He said lessons had been learned — by players and coaches — in the Cougars’ first run through the Big 12, adjustments had and have been made. And he feels particularly confident that his coaching staff is better prepared to handle situations with greater garnered acumen — “We know what to expect,” he said — than it did and had in the inaugural season. “Plus, we had the resources to go get [assistant coaches] T.J. Woods, and Kevin Gilbride, and Jay Hill, and Sione Pouha, and Kelly Poppinga, and Justin Ena.” Some of those staffers were already aboard.
He added, without getting specific, that there are spots on his team that still trouble him, but he insisted on developing what he has there instead of freaking out over deficiencies.
“You can make up the difference on a lot of things if you have the work ethic, and I think we do,” he said. “We have the passion, the intelligence, and the commitment to get this thing right and we’ll get there. I’m excited. I want everyone to see what we see.”
Asked if he can see and has seen no-name players transitioning into stars this season, he answered: “Yes. I’m counting on it. That’s what this team can and should be doing. There will be some that nobody anticipated, and some who will take advantage of new opportunities. We have a lot of guys here who can play at the next level. I’d like to see them make some big-time plays here before they move on. We’ve recruited the talent and developed it. I feel good about that …
He paused.
“… We’re a bit of a mystery. And I don’t mind it. There’s nothing wrong with people on the outside not knowing what we have. We’re watching practices and seeing the talent that’s there. We’re way different than we were last year.”
BYU has a history, in the good years, of taking undervalued players — it’s also whiffed on some in the bad — and making them better than evaluators thought. Especially at the quarterback position. Rarely have coaches needed a large dose of that more than they do now, leaning up against an unfriendly Big 12 schedule. If Jake Retzlaff, a quality athlete with a strong arm, overcomes the mistakes of last season, and delivers the ball to the right target at the right time for the right reason, Sitake’s optimism could be partially consumable. That’s the way it goes at BYU.
Sitake called last season, the Cougars’ first in a P4 league, a “painful learning experience,” but that learning has been, he said, fully absorbed. There’s also a fresh sense of camaraderie inside the culture at BYU, something he’s particularly optimistic about: “Adversity is really cool when you power through it. There were a lot of new things last year that our guys didn’t know. Now, they do. They’ve come together. When you combine all those factors, I feel confident going into this year.
“I don’t know what the record will end up being, nobody does. But I don’t think people have us right. We’re bigger and we’re faster. We are a better team. I’m excited. We’ll see.”
Sitake, given that most so-called experts have the Cougars placed in the preseason near the bottom of the Big 12, and Vegas earlier listed him as the sixth-most-likely college head coach in the country to be fired first this time around, may be the most well-adjusted football coach on the planet.
Despite his calm exterior, exhibiting a comfort zone in his general demeanor the size of Jimmy Kimmel’s, and regardless of what happened last season and what’s projected for 2024, Sitake knows he’s charged with winning. The processes that make that more complicated at BYU are seen as benefits, advantages even, by his churchy bosses. He’s been in Provo long enough to be fully aware how that works, and he’s good with most of it. His recruiting classes haven’t been stellar, at least according to the people who measure such things. And BYU football’s NIL efforts could use the kind of boost currently helping Cougar basketball. But no one’s crying for Kalani Sitake, nor is he crying for himself. Like every self-respecting coach, the man loathes losing, the mere prospect of losing. Losing to him feels worse than winning feels good.
But he does feel good.
His confident, comfortable responses are neither disingenuous, nor, in his mind, delusional.
He figures his team last season played poorly against Iowa State and West Virginia, but the Cougars, from his viewpoint were rarely physically overwhelmed. “There were things we did to shoot ourselves in the foot at times,” he said, “but why would anyone think we’ll be worse this season? We have a talented team made to compete. We thought our problems were fixable, and they are.”
He points to a player like receiver Darius Lassiter who is capable of lifting the entire team. Other emerging talents include vets such as cornerback Jakob Robinson and defensive end Isaiah Bagnah and talented newcomers on varying schedules of growth like freshman safety Faletau Satuala, freshman corner Trey Alexander, and sophomore linebacker Harrison Taggart. Sitake said he feels not just at ease, but enthusiastic about the progress and promise of his program.
More than that, he is at peace with Kalani Sitake the coach, and Kalani Sitake the person. He likes the effect he’s having on his players, on the football side and on the personal. He’s attempting to continue creating an environment at BYU where LDS athletes and non-LDS can find his same comfort and go on to thrive there.
“I’m committed to learning and committed to getting better and having my players do the same,” he said. “What happens in sports can happen in life, too. I’m positive about my life, about my team and the success it’s earning.”
He knows folks — smart folks — are doubting him and his team, and he’s OK with it. He said he won’t throw it in their faces when the Cougars prove them wrong, if they do. That doesn’t mean he won’t enjoy it, if they do.
“We have work to get done before the season starts,” he said. “But I’m looking forward to it.”
So it is that BYU, led by its keen eye in the sky, in the dark midst of good hope, looks for both answers to questions and newfound stars. The Cougars are, indeed, hopeful, as they should be at this point. Subsequent losses will do their damage and their dimming, but if stars shine brighter against night’s darkness, now would be the best, the perfect time for their illumination. It’s long been dark enough in Provo.
