There are hot seats at BYU, but not where Kalani Sitake sits

It’s hot at BYU and it’s not just the seasonal heat, but the lingering heat from last season that has conditions uncomfortable.

Five straight losses to end 2023 doesn’t sit well with anyone in Provo, especially with head football coach Kalani Sitake . The skid triggered staff changes, roster moves and strategic revisions to get bigger, stronger and faster ahead of BYU’s second year in the Big 12.

The anticipated new and improved product will be on the practice field in less than two weeks with the season opener Aug. 31 against Southern Illinois. Judgements on the quality and quantity of the improvements will come quickly from an international fan base that didn’t like watching BYU’s second losing season since 2004.

Adding four more conference teams, including rival Utah, and a preseason poll that ranks the Cougars 13th out of 16 teams and the Utes No. 1, only spikes the temperatures further. Some preseason publications suggest Sitake is on the hot seat , meaning BYU will need a good season for college football’s first Tongan head coach to keep his job.

The hot seat

There are certainly some hot seats at BYU, but not where Sitake sits — not yet. A coach in trouble is a coach who refuses to change when things go wrong. BYU is a combined 13-12 over the last two seasons. The results have triggered movement up and down Sitake’s staff.

Since the end of the 2022 season, Sitake has added new faces to oversee the defense, safeties, linebackers, defensive tackles, rush ends, offensive line, tight ends, running game, special teams, and strength and conditioning.

The area Sitake hasn’t touched is the the offensive play calling and that is where the seats are the hottest. Offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, passing game coordinator and receivers coach Fesi Sitake and running backs coach Harvey Unga are under pressure to deliver more production.

The luxury of two NFL quarterbacks (Zach Wilson, Jaren Hall), an NFL running back (Tyler Allgeier), a pair of NFL receivers (Puka Nacua, Dax Milne) and a pair of NFL offensive linemen (Brady Christensen, Blake Freeland) had BYU’s offense rolling in 2020 and 2021. The Cougars went 21-4 and seemed to score at will.

The offense slowed further in 2022 with injuries to Hall and Nacua. However, a 31.3 points-per-game average and a 45% conversion rate on third downs was still enough to win eight games. But last year, during BYU’s 5-7 season, the numbers plummeted to levels foreign to the program’s audience.

The Cougars ranked 90th in scoring (23.1), 118th in rushing (104.3), 90th in passing (205.4) and No. 128 among 130 teams in third down conversions (28%). The school known for changing the game with the forward pass didn’t come close to reaching 300 yards in any of the last eight games of the season.

Betting on improvement

Roderick is gambling that grad-transfer Gerry Bohanon and returning four-game starter Jake Retzlaff can improve the quarterback play. Fesi Sitake has a receiving corps that may be the deepest in program history, even after moving Keanu Hill from receiver to tight end. Unga has a healthy Hinckley Ropati back in the running backs stable to compliment Miles Davis and LJ Martin.

All three coaches are banking on their position groups benefitting from what new offensive line coach and running game coordinator TJ Woods can do with his troops. Woods and new tight ends coach Kevin Gilbride were hired to give the offense more options at the line of scrimmage.

Running the football was the focus of spring practice. Throwing it will be priority No. 1 when fall camp begins on July 30. BYU will need to do a lot of both to keep the heat on the opponent and off the staff.

Unprecedented task

Sitake’s world changed quickly from heading up an independent football program in 2016 to joining the Big 12 and reuniting with rival Utah in the same conference. Remodeling a roster at warp speed is an unprecedented assignment that requires time and booster/NIL support.

The idea of Sitake on the hot seat and eventually replacing him with someone else is easy to spew but hard to sell, especially right now. The BYU job is a tough one for a variety of reasons. Former coaches Gary Crowton and Bronco Mendenhall learned that the hard way.

Crowton dazzled Cougar Nation with a 12-2 record in his first season after succeeding the legendary LaVell Edwards; however, his run was cut short after a series of player-related legal issues and a number of defeats. Crowton learned that his hot seat came with an ejector button, and he was gone after four seasons.

Mendenhall lasted 11 years. Crowton’s former defensive coordinator won 99 games and took BYU to 11 bowl games. His hot seat stemmed from a standoffish persona with almost everybody and the fact that he lost five straight to rival Utah, including his final game in the Las Vegas Bowl.

When a coaching opportunity at Virginia opened at the end of 2015, his bosses and the ticket buyers didn’t shed any tears over his departure — and neither did he.

Sitake is 61-41 over eight seasons. He has had successful teams of 9-4, 11-1 and 10-3, but also some underachieving ones at 4-9, 7-6 and 5-7 (last year). The issues that dogged his predecessors aren’t problems for him. In fact, Sitake’s personality is a dream come true for BYU’s media relations team.

He’s like one of those fourth-quarter fire dancers at LaVell Edwards Stadium who manages to smile even while the flames of unpredictability crank up the heat around him. But don’t be confused by his occasional dance moves in front of the student section — Sitake is all business.

His willingness to change and improve is what’s keeping him off the hot seat. A winning season and a bowl game will help key members of his staff stay off it too.

Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com .