BYU will play its first FBS foe, Stanford, of the season on Saturday night.
BYU opened with a 69-0, incredibly dominating win over Portland State, while Stanford had a bye this weekend. Stanford opened its season the week before with a 23-20 loss at Hawaii.
Both teams will enter the matchup with a lot to prove, with the game available on ESPN to see if Stanford is up to the task of defending the rush. However, as Stanford and BYU prepare to play each other, it seems the programs have more good to say about each other than negative.
Kalani Sitake, Frank Reich Praise Each Other’s Programs
BYU head Coach Kalani Sitake recently revealed at Monday’s weekly press conference that he believes Stanford holds a key advantage over the Cougars entering into college football’s Week 2.
“[The] matchup with Stanford this week, they had the game against Hawaii in Week 0 and then they had a bye so they will have [had] a couple of weeks to prepare for us,” Sitake said.
“I think the benefit, I’ve said before, is that we have all our staff, our coaches back for another year. The negative part of that is that everything you saw from film last year is the same guys that are calling the shots right now, [on] offense, defense, and special teams. So they have a lot of film to look at and we have been prepping for a while, while we were getting ready for the first game, they’ve been prepping for us.”
Sitake is currently in his 10th season overseeing the BYU football program and is the 14th head coach in history, and only the fourth since 1972. He was a former Cougar running back himself and has guided BYU to double-digit victory seasons in three of the past five years.
Sitake’s admission of the key advantage he feels Stanford has over BYU comes after the Cardinal’s interim head coach, Frank Reich, said he wasn’t shocked at Bear Bachmeier being named the starting quarterback after witnessing his talent at running the football.
“No. Wasn’t surprised. Wasn’t surprised. I mean, he’s a talented, talented guy,” Reich said of Bachmeier.
“No. Wasn’t surprised. Wasn’t surprised. I mean, he’s a talented, talented guy.” – Frank Reich on BYU QB Bear Bachmeier https://t.co/HBLos5JU2A
— Kyle Ireland (@kyleireland) September 1, 2025
Reich was named the interim head football coach back in March of 2025 and is the No. 36 head coach in program history. Kick-off between Reich and Sitake’s programs takes place on Saturday at 9:15 p.m. EST at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
