After T-shirts spotted Saturday at LaVell Edwards Stadium let the cat out of the bag, BYU made it official Monday morning: Cougars football coach Kalani Sitake is getting a contract extension, one that will extend his stay in Provo through the 2023 season. Cougar Insiders Jay Drew and Brandon Gurney discuss why the extension made sense and why the timing of the news is so important. They also look back at the Cougars’ win over Idaho State (it wasn’t as flawless as the 42-10 score might indicate) and ahead to this week’s tilt at lowly UMass. They also revisit the men’s basketball team’s thrilling win at Houston last week. That and more on this week’s episode.
Brandon Gurney: Welcome to this edition of Cougar Insiders podcast brought to you as always by Mr. Mac. On this edition we’ll discuss the big news of the day, maybe of the year, the extension of Kalani Sitake through the 2023 season. What are our thoughts on that? We’ll discuss a big win for BYU basketball over Houston on the road and we’ll recap the Idaho State (football) win. This and a lot more on this edition of Cougar Insiders podcast.
Welcome to this edition of Cougar Insiders podcast. I’m not Dick Harmon, I’m merely Brandon Gurney. I’m employed by the Deseret News. With me, as always is Jay Drew, an expatriate from the Tribune, who is now with the — Can you say that? Expatriate? Whatever, right? Anyway, we’re thrilled to have him. Jay Drew with the Deseret News, adding his insight and his expertise. How you doing, Jay?
Jay Drew: Well, it’s been a busy morning. It’s been crazy. They came out today, BYU did, and announced Kalani Sitake’s contract extension. Then we had the press conference with Kalani, the regularly scheduled one, so it’s been quite a morning.
BG: What I like about it is they tried to orchestrate it — it kind of broke not the way they wanted it to. Someone leaked on social media, which always happens. So everyone was kind of tipped off this was going to happen. But what was the process? How did you learn about it, Jay? And what were your feelings when you heard that this was going down?
JD: Well, like everyone, I heard the certainty of it when BYU announced it via email, you know, a few hours ago. Obviously, after Saturday and the T=shirt thing, #ExtendKalani T-shirt that Tom Holmoe was wearing in the locker room, and like you said, that leaked out on social media. So everybody knew it was probably just a matter of time until the announcement came. Kalani did say this morning or at noon in his press conference that it was finalized this morning, so it was maybe rushed a little bit, who knows.
But as far as my overall feelings, I think it was a long time coming. I think Kalani deserved it. I’ve been on the record saying that. I think he’s in a very, very difficult job, as BYU’s head football coach with all of the other things that go into that. And I think he’s done an admirable job. And I don’t think there’s a viable replacement out there for him. If you had a superstar rising LDS coach lined up, maybe I could see looking in a different direction, but no, I’m all for it. I think he’s done a commendable job. And I think he deserved it.
BG: He’s not perfect. We all know that. But since that disastrous season in 2017, I think he’s made very important moves within the program. Some of them are visible to the public just as far as hiring coaches, but inside it as well. And it’s an adjustment, I don’t care who you are. Yeah, Kalani Sitake is a BYU guy. He came to BYU, is a BYU guy, but there is a learning curve that coaches just have to get over. I mean just to be a head coach in general, but especially at BYU with all the hoops you have to jump through. I think he’s made really good moves within his staff. I still believe in the staff. I know they haven’t been great. A lot of people have been frustrated with the offensive production, the inconsistency, the defensive production and all that. But by and large the product is improving, BYU is still a very young team, and everyone hates talking about injuries, everyone has injuries. I think BYU’s injuries have been really significant. And just seeing them overcome them. And just like I said, it’s still a really young team, it’s a young product that’s going to get better. It’s marked for good improvement in the coming years when you take it position by position group. And I think for recruiting. It had to happen before the signing period. This is a really good thing to happen right before the signing period, to tell recruits Yeah, this is going to be your coach. He’s going to be there for a long time, at least until you’re through, unless you’re going on a mission, obviously, but it gives stability to the program. So overall, it’s something that needed to be done. And I think it’s a good move by BYU for sure. So should we talk about Idaho State? Is that worth talking about?
JD: Well, we don’t really have to talk about each score or whatever. But I think overall, and I wrote this in my piece for Sunday’s Deseret News. BYU didn’t get a lot out of this game. I don’t think they improved. I don’t think they showed any sort of dominance. They had a lot of mistakes. Twelve penalties, the turnover that Zach Wilson threw, the interception. So, you know, this is a sort of game where you gotta just blow it all out there and look good and show your fans that you’re making progress. And I just didn’t think that happened. And I think the same could probably be said for this week at UMass, who is 1-10. This is the week that they gotta show that they’re making progress, that they’re making positive steps that they’re — you know, I hate comparisons to the University of Utah because they’re on different levels of funding and all that, and in academic restrictions and recruiting and all that. But Utah, just waylays opponents, even opponents like UCLA. And BYU had an opportunity to do that last week and this week, and it will be interesting to see if they can.
BG: To circle this back to Kalani Sitake. To me, that’s the one thing you want to see improved more than anything else is the consistency from week to week. Bronco, very good consistency. I think the team’s effort — you kind of knew what BYU was going to bring every week. I don’t know that with the Kalani Sitake team. A lot of it’s due to the staff being relatively young, not to mention the players. But to me, that’s the big thing that they can improve is just the consistency from week to week. Because it’s just not there. It hasn’t been there this year. You’ve seen some really good effort. You’ve seen some efforts just like what are they doing? To me, that’s the one thing that has to get better. So yeah, you hit the nail on the head. You need to know what to expect from this BYU team. You can’t have a first quarter like you had against Idaho State. I was just watching like, what am I watching? This is awful. Why can’t they go out there and just get it done? That’s what’s frustrating to a lot of fans, and I think Kalani is going to make good strides to address that, but absolutely, the consistency to me is the No. 1 thing about BYU football overall and just the effort and what you’re seeing from week to week needs to improve.
And you touched on it — UMass is just an awful, awful football game. It’s an awful team. A lot of people said, oh you’re overlooking that opponent. Yeah, sure. I probably did with South Florida, but come on. UMass is probably the worst team in all of FBS. I don’t think I’m going too much out on a limb to say that. They have been terrible this year.
JD: Yeah, I mean, they’re ranked 130th in most categories out of 130 teams in the ESPN rating system. Their only win was against Akron, who I don’t think has a win yet. They’re just giving up 52 points a game. Let me just go down the list. The only thing I will say that maybe might entice some BYU fans to shell out the money to watch the game, which is another topic, you have to pay for a streaming service for this game. The only reason maybe to stay tuned is it is hard to win college football games on the road. It just is. You have the travel, you have the time change. You know, I’m not going to try to oversell this or whatever but stranger things have happened.
And this will be UMass’ final game. Maybe it’ll be senior night. Maybe there’ll be some more emotion involved. I still expect BYU to roll over them. But, you know, it’s college football. They’re 19-, 20-, 21-year-old kids, and they sometimes do unexpected things. So I would just maybe play devil’s advocate to your soliloquy about UMass’ weaknesses. You know, it’s still college football. They’re still on scholarship. And you never know.
BG: And it’s still a Kalani Sitake-coached BYU football team, so what you’re going to get from week to week isn’t always consistent.
So one other football topic I want to touch on is Zach Wilson. I was kind of surprised by the rancor I encountered on message boards just regarding Zach Wilson as opposed to Baylor Romney, where there’s a lot of fans that believe Baylor Romney’s the better quarterback. Which I was a little surprised by. Do you feel that’s justified, Jay? I mean, I’m seeing a lot of talk about that. A lot of fans are convinced that Baylor Romney right now is a better quarterback than Zach Wilson.
JD: Yeah, I would argue that the coaches went through spring ball, they’ve gone through fall camp. Zach Wilson has been their guy. They identified him as the best quarterback going in and he played, he delivered a win over USC, he delivered a win at Tennessee. And yeah, he’s your guy. If he’s healthy he’s the starter like he was. I think it was curious that they said Baylor Romney — in the postgame press conference they said Baylor was a little bit banged up. Which is why they went to Joe Critchlow in the fourth quarter in garbage time instead of Baylor. And that was a nice moment. Joe went 5 for 5 and looked really sharp and led them down the field. So that said, I don’t put much stock into any argument outside of Zach Wilson is the man.
BG: You could qualify a lot of whatever deficiencies Zach Wilson’s encountered. I’d argue the offense has made significant strides since Zach Wilson got hurt. I think Baylor Romney fit into a much more coherent offensive system that could game-plan better for him. I believe they’ve made really good strides that way. And with Zach coming back the first game, shaking off the rust, just kind of write that off and let’s see what he has for UMass. But I’m not ready to hear arguments the Baylor Romney’s the better quarterback. I’m absolutely not even close to that right now. You can qualify way too much. So fans, relax.
JD: And remember, they didn’t have Aleva Hifo, they didn’t have Lopini Katoa. They held out some guys — they didn’t really play Matt Bushman much. So Zach didn’t have all his weapons.
BG: Yeah, if you’re going to base stuff on Idaho State, I’d caution against it.
Wow, the BYU basketball team. I was covering preps and I remember jumping into my car and there was a minute left in the game. I was like, they have a chance to beat Houston? I was kind of following it throughout the prep game I was covering, but to me that’s a big win for this program. I remember sitting in the Marriott Center when BYU took on Houston last year and just thinking they are really overmatched. Really overmatched again against this team. And to go to Houston — I don’t know Houston lost and who was returning, I didn’t know as much with regards to that. But to me, that is a big, big win over over a team that made a deep run in the NCAA tournament last year. What are your thoughts?
JD: Yeah, absolutely. This is a quadrant 1 win, as they say, a tier 1, whatever, to beat a top 50 RPI team on its home floor. It’s huge. It wouldn’t surprise me if BYU goes on a little run here and then people start wondering, man what might have been if they’d beat San Diego State at home in that third game of the season. They struggled with SUU earlier in the week and maybe some people’s eyebrows were raised that wow, what’s wrong with BYU? But a lot of people don’t understand SUU is pretty good team. They beat Nebraska on that Big 12 team’s home floor. Big Ten, excuse me, forgot they’re in the Big Ten now. So SUU is legitimate. And I think BYU being 3-1, not having Yoeli, I think they’re in pretty good shape.
BG: Yeah. That’s a huge win for the momentum of the program. I think a lot of fans were left wondering after kind of a lackluster win against SUU. There’s a lot to unfold. There’s a lot of question marks. So absolutely a big win. And maybe they can make some noise in Maui. Boise State’s going to be tough, as you mentioned, and yeah, I think it’s a fun year just because you don’t know what to expect from BYU basketball.
So anyway, my final thoughts. I’ll go first because I want to touch on soccer. The women’s team, of course they blew by their first-round opponent, Boise State, you expect that. Now it becomes interesting. That first game Thursday you expect them to win and then Saturday might be a little more of a challenge. I haven’t looked out to see who they’re probably going to play, but this is absolutely a team that acquitted itself nicely that first game. They’ve acquitted themselves nicely all game. So get out to South Field. It’s a great environment. It’s going to be really cold. And support the women’s team. They’re doing great things and it’s absolutely a team that I feel can compete for a national championship.
JD: Yeah, very skilled team indeed. My final thought is we should mentioned BYU received a bowl invitation, they’re going to play in Hawaii on Christmas Eve against a team either from the Mountain West or the American Athletic Conference, the AAC. Not the best time slot at all. But as Zach Wilson said after the game, a lot better to spend your holidays in Hawaii than in Idaho. So I’ll leave it at that.
BG: Absolutely. It’s a good win. Anyway, thanks for joining us on this edition of Cougar Insiders podcast, brought to you by Mr. Mac as always, and we’ll see you next week.
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