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SALT LAKE CITY — Steve Young had nothing personal against Ken Niumatalolo. He just didn’t want the Navy coach to take over the BYU football program.
As usual, when it comes to football, Young got his wish. The former BYU quarterback and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame pushed for Kalani Sitake to get the job, with Ty Detmer as the offensive coordinator. He went so far as to say now that BYU hired both men “this better work because I’m a little bit on the clock.”
Never shy in giving his opinion, Young touched on several BYU-related topics during a radio interview with DJ and PK on The Zone Sports Network in conjunction with his Forever Young Foundation Charity Golf Tournament. He also was adamant in believing BYU must sign 60-70 percent of the LDS high school football players from Salt Lake and Utah counties.
In endorsing Sitake and Detmer, Young knows the tradition that former coach LaVell Edward built a powerhouse upon will continue. That history centers on a wide-open offense with quarterbacks piling up eye-popping passing numbers.
“People have an image and identity that when you come to BYU you are going to play great offense (with) great passers,” Young said. “This is who we are and you need to build off of that.
“My big vote was we don’t want to build off of it in the wishbone — can’t do that. It could be a winning strategy, but in the long term you’re leaving behind what I believe is a huge value that we need every ounce of.”
Young reasoned that more than ever, now that BYU faces the difficult challenge of being an independent in the world of the Power 5 conferences, the program needed to stay true to its tradition going back more than 40 years. Using Young’s thinking, Niumatalolo and the wishbone offense he has successfully run at Navy would have been a bad fit at BYU over time.
Soon after Bronco Mendenhall surprisingly announced he was taking the head coaching position at Virginia, BYU began pursing Niumatalolo, who went public with his desire to check out the possibility of working in Utah. But at no time was Niumatalolo a good fit at BYU, even though he was a high-profile member of the LDS Church.
The thought here was athletic director Tom Holmoe had to speak with Niumatalolo to satisfy his superiors. My guess is all along Holmoe agreed with Young’s thinking in hiring Sitake and Detmer.
Not coincidentally, all four played for Edwards and Niumatalolo did not. All but one member of the current coaching staff played at BYU.
“We need to double down on who we have been and who we are,” Young said. “Kalani really believed in that.
“I was a big proponent in Ty — that was a piece of the puzzle. I wanted them to come together. It made me really nervous for a couple of weeks because it hadn’t happened, but it did work out. I think we doubled down on who we have been and who we’re going to be. We can use that in recruiting.”
From his home in the San Francisco area, Young knows about the number of recruits BYU has lost out on recently, particularly to Utah and other Pac-12 schools. He takes it personal when an instate LDS player doesn’t at least strongly consider BYU.
This is where the new coaching staff can make a big difference.
“Next year I want to lose no athletes in Utah to out-of-state (schools),” Young said. “The idea that we’re getting out-recruited in Salt Lake, those days are ending. I think Kalani and Ty and that coaching staff are going to do a phenomenal job.”
