​Suddenly, Kalani Sitake has become the longest-tenured coach in the Big 12. The jovial, fun-loving Tongan, whose squad just finished a 12-win season and earned a place in the league championship race, now stands as the veteran elder on the league’s coaching ranks. What a run it’s been. With Kyle Whittingham leaving Utah for Michigan and Matt Campbell moving from Iowa State to Penn State, Sitake wears the stripes with a seasoned confidence. He is the old man of the turf.
At Big 12 media days this past week, after more than a decade at BYU, Sitake found himself still delivering the same message he spoke the day he accepted the job to succeed Bronco Mendenhall. It all starts with a name. Two words: LaVell Edwards. Edwards is the touchstone Sitake uses to explain his tenure, his passion, his philosophy, his culture, his style, and his emphasis. With cameras rolling and recorders buzzing, Sitake repeatedly credits LaVell Edwards as the model for his professional approach.
While preseason magazines and online predictions rightly crown defending champion Texas Tech as the favorite to win the Big 12 football championship, two outlets at the Big 12 media days proposed a different possibility. On3 Sports and Berry Tramel of the Tulsa World conducted their own polls and projections and both picked BYU to win. A large part of that stems from Sitake and the players and coaches he has brought back. Even so, Sitake went out of his way to remind reporters that no one, including himself, can accurately forecast the conference’s winner. There are too many talented coaches, too many excellent venues, and so many programs with deeply rooted football cultures in the league that any given game can yield an upset. “People make predictions, and they’re wrong every time, so they stopped making predictions as a league; they don’t do it anymore,” he what he said.
Like many coaches nationwide, Sitake faces the contemporary challenge of NIL money flooding the market for players. Rumors swirl about Texas Tech’s rumored $40 million roster, while LSU is known for lavish spending in Baton Rouge, and other programs are spending at extraordinary levels to keep pace. When asked about a university’s policy of not necessarily pursuing the highest bidder, Sitake emphasized that there are more important things in football than money—and it should be that way. “If it were all about money, we’d all be somewhere else, right?” That is part of what drew him to stay in Provo after Penn State came calling last November, a moment when Campbell answered the call while Sitake did not.
Sitake also noted that, with the transfer portal making players more mobile than ever, development remains central to a student-athlete’s journey. He hopes players will recognize that the goal extends beyond a single season. “The goal is to see themselves five years from now, not just one. They need to focus on the longevity of it,” he said, underscoring a long-range, player-centered perspective in a sport that prizes immediate impact. His message to the program is clear: build for the long haul, honor the lineage of leadership he embodies, and trust that growth over time will serve both the student and the team well.