Kalani Sitake has been masterful on the sidelines as BYU’s head coach. Over the past six seasons, Sitake has led the Cougars to 57 wins, tying him with Clemson’s Dabo Swinney and Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer for third place among coaches with the most wins since 2020.
Joel Klatt Hails Kalani Sitake’s Phenomenal Leadership at BYU
Sitake’s consistency has led Fox Sports lead college football analyst Joel Klatt to place him among the elite, with Ryan Day of Ohio State and Kirby Smart of Georgia the only coaches ahead of him in wins.
In his recent podcast, Klatt shared his Top 10 Head Coaches in College Football, and Sitake was eighth on his list. The analyst said Sitake is phenomenal for building his team in his own image and that his lineup has outplayed physical teams since he handled the Cougars in 2016.
The analyst revealed information that proves Sitake is an elite coach. He ranks tied for third among active coaches in most wins since 2020. Ryan Day (66) and Kirby Smart (73) were the only coaches with more victories.
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Klatt ranked him lower because BYU has missed the college football playoffs over the past two years despite going 23-4 combined.
“Every single year, he builds the same caliber of team, particularly at the line of scrimmage. Over the last two years, he has been outstanding. He’s 23-4 over the last two years, just outside of the playoffs in both years,” Klatt said.
“I think it would have been easier for me to put him higher on the list if he would have gotten into the playoffs in one of those years, but he has not,” he added.
The rest of the list included new LSU head coach Lane Kiffin at No. 10, Miami’s Mario Cristobal (9th), Michigan’s Kyle Whittingham (7th), Texas’ Steve Sarkisian (6th), Notre Dame’s Marcus Freeman (5th), Oregon’s Dan Lanning (4th), Smart (3rd), Day (2nd), and Indiana’s Curt Cignetti (1st).
Klatt’s list featured four Big 10 coaches (Cignetti, Lanning, Day, and Whittingham), three SEC coaches (Smart, Sarkisian, and Kiffin), one ACC coach (Cristobal), one Big 12 coach (Sitake), and an independent (Freeman), showing that despite the Big 10 and SEC dominating the list, power is shifting, as three schools from other conferences are on their heels.
Next season, BYU will open its home schedule in Provo with games against Utah Tech on September 5 and Arizona on September 12. It will then travel to Fort Collins on September 19 to face Colorado State, followed by a one-week break.
After the bye, it will travel to Fort Worth to face TCU on October 3, then begin a two-week homestand against Iowa State (October 10) and Notre Dame (October 17). Following the Fighting Irish game, BYU will visit UCF on October 24, starting a six-week stretch against Big 12 teams.
BYU will play Arizona State on October 31, Utah on November 7, Baylor on November 14, Kansas on November 21, and Cincinnati on November 28. If the Cougars finish in the top two, they can compete for the Big 12 Championship in Arlington on December 4.
