Here is what former players are saying:
Former BYU Football Players Frustrated With Coaching Changes (kslsports.com)
I think firing Clark is giving Kalani some deserved blowback. His decision, his risk. But it makes no sense to me to sacrifice your knight (or rook or…) with really zero upside, only downside on Kalani’s reputation.
I am a Sitaki fan - great for poly recruitment - near everyone likes the guy - just don’t know about other coaching essentials - he may be excellent. I root for the guy - a very good man.
But this Clark firing honestly bothers me along with focusing on what the players need to do. Maybe I’m just seeing his quotes that directly or indirectly blame the players for the mediocrity that is BYU Football and not much on the coaches need to really step up, including him. Has there been any quotes regarding the coaches, in particular regarding ARod? Why not say all coaches and players will be fighting for their positions or something that suggests that.
I’m really starting to lose just a little bit of respect/questioning his ability to successfully coach. Not saying chuck him now, but he needs to demonstrate that he is serious about making real course changing decisions and not just seemingly throw out some token gestures to CYA.
I hope he can.
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this is all so crazy and hope that Kalani sealed his fate by keeping him. I keep trying to figure out why he did what he did and I can only come up with 2 reasons and the first one scares me. 1. Kalani will use Arod as a scapegoat next year so he can keep his job and then blame rebuilding the offence for the next couple of bad years. then if he can eak out a couple of 7 or 8 wining seasons then he can milk it for even longer. 2. he is just too nice of a guy and can’t get out of his own way to see who really has the talent.
I bet this is how it all went down. Kalani brought in Arod not sure if he was going to fire him (see reason one). they argued about things and Arod through the two guys under the bus and blamed them. Kalani on the fence about what to do said fine if you think they need to go you fire them, but this is all on you next year, and don’t think I wont fire you mid season like I did to Tuiaki. giving us reason one’s outcome above.
Kalani should be fired this year. his recruiting #s are pathetic. he is going through coaches left and right. its time to let him go and let Hill take over.
Not sure about the TE catching everything. I’d like to see the stats on that. Rex fumbled in the overtime when we would have scored a touchdown and 2 point conversion. Wrapping up the ball! The QB coach should also leave for all the fumbles Ratzleff performed.
Tweet Tweet. the little birdie is was ahead on this.
Dead last, just what does it take to be last? Has anyone here been dead last at anything?
Tweet Tweet, the birdie is talkin LOUD
Clark = Scapegoat.
I like the posts both by PMac and fish. I have ALWAYS liked Kalani, both as a guy and as a coach. I want him to succeed. I don’t think the HC has to be great in Xs and Os. He has to be a great CEO. A great HC hires the right people and lets them do their jobs so the HC can play golf, talk to the media, raise money, increase the profile of the university, etc. Kalani has proven that he hired a TERRIBLE DC and stuck with him way too long, and has not done much better with his OCs, and has several total whiffs on position coaches as well. LaVell was great in large part because of French, Reynolds, Chow, Fred Whittingham (yes father of the traitor/BYU hater), and even some great later hires like Steve Kaufusi and Paul Tidwell (I’m sure I’m leaving some great ones out as well). LaVell was INVENTIVE and IDENTIFIED competitive weaknesses and knew how to turn them into competitive advantages–but his TRUE greatness was his ability to hire EPICALLY GREAT assistant coaches. Can Kalani do that? Certainly not so far. Kalani has two good seasons (2016 and 2021), one average season (2022), and 4 poor seasons (2017, 18, 19, and 23). 2020 doesn’t count for obvious reasons. Kalani’s 7 “real” seasons=total mediocrity (50-40). I think Kalani could be awesome at BYU, but not with the current OC.
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Floyd, thanks for sharing–the most amazing thing about this article is that BYU’s second leading receiver among TEs this year was Batty–all 36 yards on the fake punt vs Ok State. So, ARod has a scheme that almost completely ignores the TE position, has the worst offense in the history of football (Ok, let’s be honest–maybe not THE worst, but didn’t it FEEL like and LOOK like the worst ever?), and FIRES THE COACH for the position that isn’t really even part of the game plan? If anything, Rex is known as a fantastic blocker, and I personally rewound several of our TD plays this year to focus on a block by Rex that helped create the score. I can see why Mason Wake “retired,” why Holker transferred, why Rex isn’t coming back, etc. I fear we lose one or both of our 4 star TE recruits as a result of this shizzshow that is Clark’s firing…
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don’t forget, Dallin Holker left Certain People here roasted him but that is a different thread…Holker headed over to CSU. How did that pan out??
64 767 12.0 6 42 1 1 1.0 1 1 0 0
6 tds, 64 receptions 767 receiving yds.
So we throw out the TD coach and keep the OC. BS
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I was talking to someone who deals a lot in the college football scene,
He made a comment that peaked my interest, I am not sure he is right or not, but I thought I would bring it up for discussion.
He said the reason that BYU will never bring in the 5-star talent is because BYU will not do NIL deals.
He said “Yes” they have the built bar NIL, but it no where near what other schools offer,
Not sure if that is the case or not, maybe Tom or Fish has more inside information that could help.
He also told me a story about KWhitt when he went 5-7 for the first two years in the PAC-12. Chris Hill told him that if things did not get better, he was going to be fired. That is when they let ARod go and brought in Taylor who is now the HC at Stanford.
He knows Kalani personally, and said what I said, he has a blind spot for his friends. He agrees that ARod is BYU offenses problem.
I don’t think we need 5 star athletes to win at BYU. We get some 4 stars and really underlooked 3 stars as well that develop into 5 start athletes. That was what Lavell did, right. We should have taken down Oklahoma and OKS with no 5 star athletes. We want players who want to be at BYU not just for football. You watch BYUSN every day and that’s what Collie and Matich were talking about. That’s what Sitaki was saying as well. For the last two games, it wasn’t Arod that lost the game. It was an inexperienced QB throwing a pick6 and fumbling and an experience all Pro in many of your eyes who fumbled. Neither one of them wanted that to happen. It had nothing to do with the preparation and their work ethics either. You just want someone to throw under the bus because it makes you feel better. 
That person is correct partially. BYU will do NIL deals that are equitable for all, such as the Built Bar deal, everyone got the same amount out of the deal. This is a long topic with a short answer…Any player can go out and get their own deals, right? So If, say Adidas wanted to offer 1 million to me as a QB, I take it and BYU has no say. But the Dodge truck deal that Utah got was also offered to BYU but we passed, reason…It was for Scholly players only, creates division so BYU passed.
Thanks, fish for the information, I knew you would have a better explanation of how BYU does the NIL.
I have to admit that if this is true, that they want equal deals for all, I endorse that, because no QB can do squat without a good Oline (just ask Zach Wilson with the Jets).
I also think it helps slow down the destruction of college sports.
Different time and place. Edwards invented a new scheme to to allow his players who were not as talented to win. It also helped that Edwards hire great coaches like Scovil, Holgren, French, Chow, Whittingham.
Kalani track record is not that good in the hiring department or coming up with an innovated scheme.
I don’t think getting 5 star players is solely the answer, just part of the solution.
This year was also a different time. 1st year in the P5 league playing 10 P5 teams. Something Lavell never had to do. Yet, we did beat 3 of them and should have won the last 2. It’s not different times. It’s still football. We know that no coach will measure up to your family person coach. But, give it a rest with Sitaki. He’s got a lot more to deal with than Lavell did.
Kalani and Company had two years to get ready for the BIG12. This was no surprise, since as every media outlet talked about how Kalani, ARod and Hill all was on the Utah staff when they went to the PAC12.
So, they should have known how hard it was going to be. That does not excuse ARod poor play calling, nor the inability to see that the talent we had was not good enough, instead of telling everyone that the players we had were some of the best since he has come back to BYU.
You have no clue what Edwards had to deal with as a coach compared to what Kalani has to deal with.
Remember, Lavell “Built” the legacy of BYU football, and he had to “Maintain” it through all the ups and downs with the fans.
First of all, we aren’t the University of Utah. If you can’t understand the differences then no need to continue. Even with the stupid DEB that Aro talks about, BYU is a much different place. The comparison doesn’t fit unless you want the University to become totally worldly.
Let’s go back to the Lavell time period. I was there 1978-1980. I have more respect for Frank Arnold than Lavell Edwards. Both were the head teachers for the “Coaching Football and Basketball Classes.” LaVell showed up the first class and the last class. Frank came mostly every class. When he was out of town recruiting, Courtney Leashman, the women’s basketball head coach, was there. It was the Graduate assistants that taught the football class.
And, the HC was there and strict as well.
So, were we always 12-0 every year? Not even close. What was Lavell’s first couple years like? I remember losing to hapless UTEP and New Mexico. We played the bottom of the bigger leagues. And, I was at the 1980 SMU Holiday Bowl game. We win some and lose some. The only thing that has changed is we the fans. We have gotten more worldly seeking the wrong things.
BYU only had a handful of winning seasons before Lavell took over. His predecessor, Tommy Hudspeth, won the first BYU conference title in 1965 and he had 3 straight winning seasons and 3 consecutive wins over Utah from 65-67. Prior to Hudspeth BYU had exactly 2 wins over Utah and the vast majority of the seasons before were seasons with losing records. He had a nice run and then the program headed south again and Lavell brought it to a whole new level. Hudspeth made the program competitive and Lavell made it great.
Lavell was smart enough to throw the ball because he understood that the only real success BYU ever had was when Virgil Carter was setting passing records under Hudspeth. Lavell was the defensive coordinator and Hudspeth recommended him as head coach when he left BYU for the UTEP job.
Lavell didn’t exactly inherit a train wreck. BYU had become respectable and had proven it could compete for a conference title given the right
system. The genius of Lavell was recognizing that he needed to do something different and taking the initiative to do it and hiring the right people to implement the system since his experience was on the defensive side of the ball. He apparently learned from adverse experience because he was not a particularly successful high school coach from what I understand.
I met Lavell once in 1974 while I was working on
the grounds crew while I was a student at BYU. Our boss used to drive a tractor with a thing that trailed it that put down the yard lines on the practice field. He was sick one day and a grounds crew foreman
told me I would have to do it and things were behind schedule and before I finished the team was arriving at the practice field. I had never marked the field before so the lines were crooked. Lavell asked me where Gary, my boss, was. I told him Gary was sick and apologized for holding up practice and for the lines not being real straight. He said they would be ok and didn’t seem upset. I can’t imagine Nick Saban would have reacted the same way. That was the only time I met Lavell. He seemed pretty even keeled and unflappable. I suppose those qualities had lot to do
with his success.
The proof with Lavell is in the record books. Almost twenty conference titles, a national championship, domination of the state rivalry games, numerous All
Americans, a Heisman trophy winner, and two
Outland trophy winners. His coaching tree is impressive with Mike Holmgren, Brian Billick, and Andy Reid all Super Bowl winning coaches and all either were players for Lavell, or assistant
coaches.
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I wouldn’t have fired the TE coach. When the O-line is suspect and you don’t really have a running game to speak of, BYU has shown that targeting a talented TE is one of the simplest and most effective ways of hiding those flaws and letting the line develop some breathing room. Utah did this and even now has a tough and talented TE (King) who helped them so often this season. Isaac Rex helped the Cougars many times when they couldn’t get anything else going. Also, consider that the best recruit that the Cougars have coming in is very connected to Clark and I couldn’t blame him were he to decide to transfer. The only thing that will improve BYU’s situation is if they can somehow begin to recruit better players and you just sent a strong message to the best one you had coming in.
— xert
If media reports are correct that Aaron Roderick is keeping his job as OC after the worst BYU offensive season since Ty Detmer’s offense was a major factor in a 4-win season (after which HC Kalani Sitake fired Detmer), then it appears that Sitake is hitching his future to Roderick. This decision is the worst Sitake has made as HC. It will likely cost him his job. Roderick is simply not up to the task of leading an offense in a Power 5 conference. He runs the offense, not the O-line coach or the TEs coach. Is this move by Sitake to protect his cousin, the WR coach Fesi Sitake. Isn’t WR failure as much to blame as TE issues? Does Sitake not have the courage to fire ARod? Whatever the reasons, Sitake will rue the day he decided to leave ARod in despite failures just as egregious as Ty Detmer’s, which led to Detmer’s firing. It breaks my heart to see such wimpi-ness from Kalani. ARod failed at Utah as co-offensive coordinator and Kyle Whittingham fired him. He has failed at BYU and Kalani does not look like he will do what should be done, and fire ARod for his failure. It is a sad day because I fear this will lead to Kalani losing his job after another dismal season next year with ARod running the offense**.**
foot notes from
BYU basketball: Is BYU’s national basketball ranking sustainable? - Deseret News
Good luck Kalani, you are going to need all of it
From Harmon in the Desnews:
“It makes sense if Clark’s replacement is a bones to the wall, all-consuming worker, a gifted recruiter, relationship builder, a guy whose loyalty approaches something of a blood oath giver in a medieval fiefdom. But Clark was all that, and fresh off signing four-star tight end Jackson Bowers with commits from four-star Ryner Swanson [who chose BYU over offers from Oregon and Texas] and three-star Jett Nelson along with a big interest from 2026 four-star Pine View High tight end Brock Harris.”
Mind boggling that Kalani would use Clark as a scapegoat when he has been the most successful recruiter for his position group BY FAR. NOT CLOSE. According to 247, BYU has SIX four stars on the ENTIRE ROSTER. So Clark has one signed, two committed, and one with high interest. It’s ABSOLUTELY INSANE to fire the guy who is recruiting the best (I’d say Jernaro Guilford and Fesi are next in line, followed by Unga).
Clark is the kind of guy you want on staff for 20-30 years. Guys like French and Reynolds and Tidwell loved BYU football more than anything else and turned down every offer that came along. Great recruiters + success in their basic job description + stability is how staff help you build a roster. Instead Kalani fires the guy doing all that (as Harmon eloquently describes) and keeps the guy not doing the basic job. I’ll add that ARod is has lost every recruiting battle for 4 star HS QBs since he’s been at BYU.
I’m not that old (57), but I feel like the old man screaming at the clouds. It’s really hard to believe this is how Kalani has addressed the problem of having arguably the worst P5 offense in the entire country.
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Ok I’ve read a lot of views and all of them have valid points. The main point to me is BYU is no longer independent or in the MWC. If they were, we would be talking about who we are going to play in the bowl game. BYU needs a significant increase in on the field talent and better coaching. ARod could make it as OC in the past, but it’s doubtful he can make it in the soon to be Big16. I didn’t feel like the OL played with much motivation, most of the season, and that can fall on Funk, but it also falls on Sitake. After all, he is the head coach. The defense, imo, really put out the effort, but they were outmatched. Need bigger, stronger, more talented players and more depth. The offense seemed to have the pieces, but didn’t jell. That’s on ARod, and the assistants, but personally, most institutions, hold the Head Coach and the OC accountable. I’ll make a personal guarantee-if Mike Leach were alive and well and the head coach of BYU, you would be planning a plane trip to your bowl game. To me, the mentality of the BYU sports department has to change. If you wanted to be successful in your program, would you want a Mark Pope or Kalani Sitake. I would take a Pope every time. He probably does more with the talent he has, than 90% of the coaches out there. Just my opinion