BYU in the Independence era has been defined by big wins and horrendous losses. This trend aligns well with the Kalani Sitake coaching style: he leads by emotion more than smarts; he rallies the troops with seismic speeches, not tactics. As a result he has shown a superb ability to motivate his troops beyond their average ability.
During his career this skill has manifest in a road upset of the #6 team in the country; to an upset of 14th ranked Boise; to an upset of 24th ranked USC; to road wins against Michigan State and Tennessee; and to one nice home win over Mississippi State. Make no mistake, those are some very nice pelts to hang in your cabin after four years of head coaching.
But a roller coaster guided by emotion will eventually come down. A speech couldn't save us against UMass. There was zero emotion on the field in a home loss to Northern Illinois. And I'll never understand what happened against South Florida when we lost to a team with a quarterback who literally couldn't throw the ball.
As you fuel your team with passion this is the great risk you run. When the adrenaline and desire is present you can do great things and manufacture great performances; when it's absent there's no way to recreate it and you end up allowing 242 rushing yards to Toledo. And not the Kareem Hunt Toledo. We're talking about the crap Toledo that last year lost to Buffalo and Central Michigan by a combined 61 points.
Bronco Mendenhall understood this risk and avoided it at all costs. Every game was the same, he preached. Rivalry game? What's that? Never heard of it. Our opponents have no faces, he once strangely said in what might have been a nod to Game of Thrones.
To his credit, Bronco's car performed in accordance with the gas he put in it. His teams were extremely even keel, beating the teams they should, losing to the teams they should, and going about .500 in even contests. It was a recipe that proved spectacular when Bronco led a team of Crowton recruits in the late 2000s and a few breaks went our way. During the Indy era, facing disparate schedules populated with big names early and ugly names late, this permanent 3rd gear approach was less stellar.
By the time Bronco moved to Virginia I was ready to roll the dice with a passionate firebender. I had heard the rumors of Kalani as a player tearing apart hotel rooms the night before the Utah game to get his teammates fired up. I could feel the love of BYU radiating out of him as if he'd grown up in Chernobyl, Provo. I knew this could translate into powerful motivation for his players. But I understood the risks too! I assumed his teams could be prone to low-energy showings on the days his rallying cries fell flat. I had heard that at Utah he was caught watching tape of Oregon instead of current week opponent Colorado because he assumed Utah would cruise past the Buffalo and into the title game against the Ducks (they lost to Colorado, by the way).
This isn't my way of complaining about the schedule. In a year like this I'm firmly in the camp of being happy to have my team play period. But I can't help but feel like the opponents are a let down, and if I feel that way I worry the players will feel the same way. You were once going to face Michigan State, Minnesota, Stanford, Missouri, Boise, USU, and Utah. Then when games started getting cancelled you at least had a showdown with Alabama on tap. When that died you had rumors of games against Big 12 opponents to fall back on. And finally after all is said and done you sign deals with Western Kentucky and Texas-San Antonio. If the players are human -- which is to say if the players care about football and looked forward to playing awesome teams and follow rumors and read the news -- then they will probably be viewing this slate of games as a let down.
And more importantly, if Kalani's greatest skill is his ability to inspire his guys to play well when they're underdogs ... how does that work against teams they're on even footing with? Sitake has gone 18-13 in his career against G5 opponents. In other words, it hasn't worked very well.
Put it all together and it looks like Kalani's easiest schedule may turn out to be his toughest.
But a roller coaster guided by emotion will eventually come down. A speech couldn't save us against UMass. There was zero emotion on the field in a home loss to Northern Illinois. And I'll never understand what happened against South Florida when we lost to a team with a quarterback who literally couldn't throw the ball.
As you fuel your team with passion this is the great risk you run. When the adrenaline and desire is present you can do great things and manufacture great performances; when it's absent there's no way to recreate it and you end up allowing 242 rushing yards to Toledo. And not the Kareem Hunt Toledo. We're talking about the crap Toledo that last year lost to Buffalo and Central Michigan by a combined 61 points.
Bronco Mendenhall understood this risk and avoided it at all costs. Every game was the same, he preached. Rivalry game? What's that? Never heard of it. Our opponents have no faces, he once strangely said in what might have been a nod to Game of Thrones.
To his credit, Bronco's car performed in accordance with the gas he put in it. His teams were extremely even keel, beating the teams they should, losing to the teams they should, and going about .500 in even contests. It was a recipe that proved spectacular when Bronco led a team of Crowton recruits in the late 2000s and a few breaks went our way. During the Indy era, facing disparate schedules populated with big names early and ugly names late, this permanent 3rd gear approach was less stellar.
By the time Bronco moved to Virginia I was ready to roll the dice with a passionate firebender. I had heard the rumors of Kalani as a player tearing apart hotel rooms the night before the Utah game to get his teammates fired up. I could feel the love of BYU radiating out of him as if he'd grown up in Chernobyl, Provo. I knew this could translate into powerful motivation for his players. But I understood the risks too! I assumed his teams could be prone to low-energy showings on the days his rallying cries fell flat. I had heard that at Utah he was caught watching tape of Oregon instead of current week opponent Colorado because he assumed Utah would cruise past the Buffalo and into the title game against the Ducks (they lost to Colorado, by the way).
Based on these characteristics it was easy to predict he would do just what he's done: give us a better shot against big teams than Bronco did, while simultaneously putting us at risk of botching games we never should.
I lived with 10 years of every-game-is-the-same Bronco. I've now lived with four years of the Kalani Coaster. I'm not sure which approach is better.
College football is such a bizarre sport. 99% of the teams from day zero have no shot at a national championship, so you have to simply make up your own expectations for success. Is your goal to finish in the top-25? To win 10 games? To win a bowl game? To have a winning record in rivalry games? To beat P5 opponents? All those accomplishments have brought me varying levels of happiness over the course of my life. As a selfish fan the one that brings me the most joy is beating rivals because you live with those guys and work with those guys and family trip with those guys and nothing feels better than when you can lord over them.
But from a BYU program perspective the best thing they can do is be seen looking good, or as it's more commonly described in the Independence era, gain exposure. In an era that has seen their primary rival get promoted to the Pac 12 like a homeless person dropped into a penthouse, getting awesome wins in primetime is their best shot at selling recruits (being ranked constantly in the top-25 would be huge too, but I think recruits pay slightly less attention to the polls than they do a win over Wisconsin on ABC on Saturday afternoon).
I lived with 10 years of every-game-is-the-same Bronco. I've now lived with four years of the Kalani Coaster. I'm not sure which approach is better.
College football is such a bizarre sport. 99% of the teams from day zero have no shot at a national championship, so you have to simply make up your own expectations for success. Is your goal to finish in the top-25? To win 10 games? To win a bowl game? To have a winning record in rivalry games? To beat P5 opponents? All those accomplishments have brought me varying levels of happiness over the course of my life. As a selfish fan the one that brings me the most joy is beating rivals because you live with those guys and work with those guys and family trip with those guys and nothing feels better than when you can lord over them.
But from a BYU program perspective the best thing they can do is be seen looking good, or as it's more commonly described in the Independence era, gain exposure. In an era that has seen their primary rival get promoted to the Pac 12 like a homeless person dropped into a penthouse, getting awesome wins in primetime is their best shot at selling recruits (being ranked constantly in the top-25 would be huge too, but I think recruits pay slightly less attention to the polls than they do a win over Wisconsin on ABC on Saturday afternoon).
In this one sense Kalani has been good-ish for the program? His horrifying losses are ever-present, but did recruits watch us lose to San Diego State on that funky CBSSN channel that I can never find? Or were they swayed more by watching Jamaal Williams run amok over Michigan State, or seeing BYU beat a SEC team on the road in overtime? It's been a little of both hasn't it?
Through four years Sitake hasn't been great but he hasn't been fireable either. His big wins have singlehandedly saved his skin and helped keep down the memories of the losses to the East Carolinas and Fresnos of the world. Which brings us to the current dilemma Sitake faces. The revised 2020 BYU schedule is the worst possible schedule for him. It has absolutely zero big names to get his players excited about. Instead it's loaded with teams he's expected to beat, which is where Kalani is at his weakest. And how do you make up for a loss to Troy if there's no USC or Tennessee on the schedule to redeem yourself against?
Through four years Sitake hasn't been great but he hasn't been fireable either. His big wins have singlehandedly saved his skin and helped keep down the memories of the losses to the East Carolinas and Fresnos of the world. Which brings us to the current dilemma Sitake faces. The revised 2020 BYU schedule is the worst possible schedule for him. It has absolutely zero big names to get his players excited about. Instead it's loaded with teams he's expected to beat, which is where Kalani is at his weakest. And how do you make up for a loss to Troy if there's no USC or Tennessee on the schedule to redeem yourself against?
It's a perfect nightmare for Kalani. Even if BYU goes 10-2 against this schedule it will be more or less expected. Meanwhile a 6 and 6 showing here may be something that his contract never recovers from.
This isn't my way of complaining about the schedule. In a year like this I'm firmly in the camp of being happy to have my team play period. But I can't help but feel like the opponents are a let down, and if I feel that way I worry the players will feel the same way. You were once going to face Michigan State, Minnesota, Stanford, Missouri, Boise, USU, and Utah. Then when games started getting cancelled you at least had a showdown with Alabama on tap. When that died you had rumors of games against Big 12 opponents to fall back on. And finally after all is said and done you sign deals with Western Kentucky and Texas-San Antonio. If the players are human -- which is to say if the players care about football and looked forward to playing awesome teams and follow rumors and read the news -- then they will probably be viewing this slate of games as a let down.
And more importantly, if Kalani's greatest skill is his ability to inspire his guys to play well when they're underdogs ... how does that work against teams they're on even footing with? Sitake has gone 18-13 in his career against G5 opponents. In other words, it hasn't worked very well.
Put it all together and it looks like Kalani's easiest schedule may turn out to be his toughest.
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