When Kalani Sitake made the walk from BYU’s football offices to the parking lot late Monday night, he was greeted by a student camping out beside his car in the 30-degree weather.
The faithful BYU follower was there to deliver an urgent message to his head coach: Please stay.
“I asked him how long he was waiting there. And he said a couple hours. He had no idea when I was going to be there,” Sitake said. “When you ask me what BYU means, it’s the outpouring of love. That’s BYU. It’s family.”
Sitake paused and added, “How could I walk away from that?”
That BYU fan, and an equally restless fan base, got their wish 24 hours later.
Sitake, the man who grew up sneaking into BYU games at halftime, played for LaVell Edwards and eventually molded his own Cougars team into a national power, is staying in Provo for the foreseeable future.
Even after flirting with Penn State for the last 48 hours, Sitake turned down one of the country’s premier jobs to sign a long-term extension.
He always envisioned staying in Provo, he said. But he was waiting on a financial commitment that would allow him to chase national titles as they do in Pennsylvania’s Happy Valley.
Now with the investment in place, BYU’s favorite son is ready to get back to work in Utah’s Happy Valley — just like his mentor, LaVell Edwards, once did in his two-decade run as the Cougars’ lead man.
“Let’s just quit all the drama. I am here,” Sitake said. “My wife said the last day or so has probably been one of her favorites. She called it a love bomb from all the fans. Thank you for making [BYU] a loving place, where my children can be proud of their dad. Those are things we can hold onto forever.”
Sitake’s stewardship of his alma mater guided BYU into one of the winningest programs in the country over the last two years. After entering the Power Four in 2023, Sitake took BYU from a five-win team to going 11-2 in 2024 and now playing for a Big 12 title this week. With a win, the Cougars will play in the College Football Playoff for the first time in program history.
BYU has been ranked inside the top 10 each of the last two years and is 22-3 in that time. Sitake’s coordinator hires of Aaron Roderick and Jay Hill elevated BYU to the top of the league.
And this week, Sitake will sign BYU’s best recruiting class in the team’s history — headlined by five-star quarterback Ryder Lyons and four-star tight end Brock Harris.
But with the success, Sitake felt BYU was at a crossroads. It was on the doorstep of becoming a perennial power in the Big 12 and in the playoff discussion. He pitched Harris and Lyons on that idea in the recruiting process.
To sustain that success, he needed more resources — particularly to retain his staff and compete on the recruiting trail.
In the last two days, Sitake lobbied hard for further commitments to his assistant coaches, multiple sources told The Salt Lake Tribune. With the new deal, BYU will make a significant uptick in those resources.
“There is an opportunity to take care of my players and my staff,” Sitake said. “Make sure we are all headed the right direction with what we want to accomplish. It’s our third year in the Big 12 and I feel like we made some really cool moves. We are in a place we’ve never been before. But we can accomplish a lot [more] things.”
From a broader perspective, this extension also begins to match the resources BYU has poured into basketball. In the last two years, BYU has lured NBA coach Kevin Young to Provo and signed the No. 1 recruit, AJ Dybantsa, for several million dollars.
New BYU athletic director Brian Santiago was key in those investments as he directly oversaw the basketball program as a deputy AD for over a decade.
But the question remained how committed Santiago was to football. Santiago believes he answered those doubts.
“We are all in on this program,” Santiago said. “We are climbing the mountain. We are chasing greatness the BYU way. We are interested in the long-term sustainability [of this run]. We aren’t just trying to win a few games for now.”
One barometer for BYU’s success moving forward is against league rival Texas Tech, against whom the Cougars play in Arlington for a Big 12 title on Saturday.
The Red Raiders invested millions last offseason into becoming a football power and just signed their head coach to a seven-year extension. It will likely be the program BYU is measured against for the foreseeable future. It’s been on Sitake’s mind recently as he considered his own program’s path to the playoff in the years ahead. It won’t look the same, but BYU had to keep up with its investments.
“It’s not like we take the system Texas Tech has and use it for here,” he said. “It won’t work. BYU is unique and different and we have to do it our own way. But there are some things that are similar.”
When Sitake was a fullback at BYU, Edwards told people his captain would be a great head coach one day.
And as Sitake weighed his decision, he looked at his idol’s career for guidance.
Edwards was offered other jobs after winning a national title at BYU in the 1980s. The Detroit Lions, among others, kept calling.
But Edwards stayed in Provo and never looked back.
“I’ve had amazing mentors, including LaVell Edwards and Kyle Whittingham, who like sticking where they are at,” Sitake said. “This is where I want to be for the long run. I grew up cheering for this team. I played here.”
Now he will be the coach here too, where young fans will sneak into Sitake’s games as his Cougars chase titles.
Just like a young BYU fan once did in the 1980s.