BYU HC Kalani Sitake on Building on Cougars’ Huge Win vs Notre Dame

Kalani Sitake has a rule about the Notre Dame game: he'll talk about it, the players won't. "Don't tell the boys," the BYU head coach told Rich. "Let the boys focus on this season."

Fair enough. BYU came into the week ranked second in the country and undefeated, fresh off a win over Notre Dame in Provo. Sitake was happy to relive it for a few minutes on The Rich Eisen Show, then made a case for the 24-team playoff, defended BYU's place in a money-soaked sport, and explained why he loves coaching quarterback Bear Bachmeier.

## The fan on the sideline

Rich asked whether Sitake ever takes a second during a game like that to look around the stadium. He does, because he never stopped being a fan.

Sitake grew up a BYU fan in Hawaii, with players from his neighborhood on the roster, and cheered as a young boy when BYU won the 1984 national championship. He later played for LaVell Edwards. And in 1990, he was in Provo when BYU beat No. 1 Miami. "I stormed the field with my father, my family, and so to see that on Saturday night was really cool," he said. There are pictures, he added, of him and his dad in a local newspaper running down the concourse.

He was gracious about the opponent, too. "It's not easy to come into Provo and play that game in altitude, in the mountains, and with the noise," Sitake said. "I was impressed with the way Notre Dame handled all of it."

What impressed him more was how fast his own team moved on. By Monday morning, he said, the team had already turned the page, and some players had moved on in the locker room that night. "Having a mature team with a bunch of leadership has been really helpful for me, and that's been really the key to everything. I wish I could take credit for it all."

Rich called it the rat poison aspect, borrowing a phrase from another coach of note.

## Why Sitake loves coaching Bear Bachmeier

Sitake first saw Bachmeier while recruiting him in high school. "He's a force," he said, and the former fullback admitted his bias. "I like the thick bodies." The fact that Bachmeier wears 47 "speaks to me."

But the football, Sitake said, is "icing on the cake." He praised Bachmeier's family, his work ethic, his commitment to his team, and how he uses his platform to bring smiles to young people. Bachmeier was a true freshman last year and has grown into the leader of the offense.

Rich brought up Bachmeier's postgame comments, when he said the Notre Dame game was personal because he felt the Irish slighted him and his family, and prefaced it by saying his coach would be upset with him for talking about himself.

Sitake wasn't upset. "Our culture is love and learn," he said, something Edwards did for him as a player. "You can make mistakes and you can even say some things that you regret and you just learn from them." Sitake said he's become a better person through his relationship with Bachmeier and his family. "I have not met a quarterback that doesn't make mistakes or throws interceptions," he said. The point is to learn why it happened.

## Building on the win

BYU's path doesn't get softer: a trip to UCF, a home date with Arizona State, and a Utah game Rich said will light up the whole state. Sitake was not looking past any of it.

"Everyone just talked about the Notre Dame game from the beginning of the year. We had five games before that one," he said. His approach is week to week, Monday through Friday, so the Cougars are at their best when they show up against UCF, "cuz we know they're going to give us their best." Seeding, bowl games and the playoff get sorted out at the end of the year.

## Sitake is all in on 24 teams

Then Rich asked about the 24-team playoff, and Sitake was clear. "Oh yeah, me personally I like the 24-team playoff," he said. "I think it will make football more interesting, especially every game will count in November."

He pointed to the FCS and Division II, where bigger brackets have "created a lot of entertainment and a lot of excitement." He said he has been in some of the meetings and understands the criticism.

Rich pushed back with the fan's view: a game like BYU versus Notre Dame would feel lower stakes if both teams were headed to the playoff anyway. Sitake didn't flinch. "If you want to put your hat on that, go ahead and make that statement now, and then we'll find out next year," he said. "I don't know how anyone can even predict it when we haven't gotten there yet."

And he welcomed the complaining. "The more you complain about it or anyone complains about it, it's going to feed the beast," he said.

## Transformation, not transaction

Rich's last concern was money. If playoff revenue explodes, could the rich get richer while BYU gets the short end of the stick?

Sitake acknowledged BYU isn't at the top of the payroll pile. That isn't the focus. As a faith-based institution representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, BYU is still an education institution first, he said, and now the education includes money. "They have to know the difference between W-2, 1099, tax breaks, all those things, and it's my responsibility to teach them that."

"Our focus will be on transformation rather than transaction," Sitake said. "It'll never be about money for us." He noted that the highest payrolls don't always win championships in Major League Baseball, the NFL or the NBA. "Culture beats strategy every time."

## A long line of quarterbacks

Before letting him go, Rich asked whether BYU's quarterback legends have connected with Bachmeier. Sitake said all of BYU's players have a great connection with the alumni, and he rattled off the quarterback lineage: Steve Young, Jim McMahon, Ty Detmer, Max Hall, Zach Wilson, Gifford Nielsen and Marc Wilson, all welcome back anytime.

"This is always going to be home for a bunch of our guys, and in order to make it home it's got to be about transformation," Sitake said. "Can never ever be about transaction."

He signed off with an "Aloha." Rich's verdict once he was gone: "What a great answer that was. You know, it's more than just money."