Baton passed.
The speed at which Kalani Sitake elevated Aaron Roderick and Fesi Sitake tells you all you need to know about the trust, confidence and trajectory of the offense the head coach believes he has sans Jeff Grimes and Zach Wilson.
How so?
Well, the latest chunk of evidence is how BYU’s offense set records in its blowout win over UCF in the Boca Raton Bowl when Grimes was absent. That night, BYU set a school record by gaining 681 yards total offense, surpassing the NCAA bowl record for total offense set by Ty Detmer’s BYU team against Penn State in 1989.
Kalani Sitake has made it clear the past few years he wanted BYU’s offense to be aggressive and put more pressure on opposing defenses.
It’s been a work in progress. First, there was recruiting bigger, stronger offensive linemen to develop, getting a payoff for taking lumps by playing a lot of freshmen and underclassmen, getting spot transfer help, and increasing the effectiveness of QB/receiver play.
Roderick and Fesi Sitake were all part of that the past three years.
Grimes began the 2020 season labeling his offense “controlled violence” and said during the summer he wanted BYU’s front line to be more physical and aggressive. Back in 2019 Grimes wanted more chunk plays and he got it. In 2020 he wanted better red-zone productivity and the offense produced it.
Grimes ultimately got all that in attacking a modified, albeit softer 2020 schedule, and he has publicly praised his staff for being part of the project, each taking a role in creation and implementation.
This move leaves BYU with an opening to add one more full-time coach. Kalani Sitake will likely take his time making this decision. He covered the Grimes departure with Roderick, a veteran, experienced play-caller, and P5 coordinator.
Fesi Sitake has proven to be a real technician, as displayed in his work with Dax Milne, Gunner Romney and Neil Pau’u.
And remember, when Grimes returned to BYU for the second time three years ago, he hired three former offensive coordinators in Roderick, Fesi Sitake and Steve Clark. That trio remains intact. At that time he said he believed he assembled the best offensive staff in the country.
In an outstanding exit interview Monday with Ben Criddle of ESPN 960, Grimes said elevating Roderick and Fesi Sitake was a no-brainer. He also said it was imperative for BYU to retain continuity by keeping offensive line coach Eric Mateos because the O-line room trusted him. At Baylor, Grimes hired Troy offensive coordinator and previous O-line coach Ryan Pugh to join him in Waco.
Grimes said the biggest lesson he learned during his first offensive coordinator job was to take a big playbook and narrow it down, make it simple for players to execute, but disguise what those plays were for defenses by placing them in multiple formations that featured shifts and motion.
As an example, he described how his zone-wide series was basically the same concept but it took on all kinds of looks and variations with a lot of dressing — and it was effective. It morphed into such because it was more simple for the players to execute and learn.
The next addition?
There’s a lot of speculation bouncing around.
It could be a defensive coach and recruiter.
It could come from within, elevating someone like Gavin Fowler, currently a graduate assistant coach, like Sitake did with Harvey Unga after AJ Steward left for Arizona. Fowler’s intelligence and feel for the game have been long-held as an impressive trait by coaches. Elevating Unga appears to have been a home run hire after the success of Tyler Allgeier and Lopini Katoa.
Kalani Sitake could hire former Utah State interim coach and former defensive coordinator Frank Maile, a very popular player coach. Maile is related to at least one member of the current Cougars staff. He could turn to Snow College, where one of BYU’s most devastating pass rushers in school history, Jan Jorgensen, is currently the defensive coordinator.
Sitake might look at Dixie State, where former Cougar and NFL player Loni Fangupo is a defensive line coach, or consider Kevin Clune, who was a linebackers coach at Memphis in 2019 and has been a defensive coordinator at Oregon State, Utah State, SUU and Hawaii.
He could turn to the offensive side, but it appears things are set with Roderick as coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Sitake as the pass-game coordinator and receivers coach, Unga has running backs, Clark the tight ends and Mateos stays with the offensive line.
If Roderick feels he wants a specialist to help him with quarterbacks, he could look at Dixie State head coach Paul Peterson, brother of former BYU quarterback Charlie Peterson, who played QB at Boston College, was the former head coach at Snow College, and had success at both SUU and Sacramento State.
Again, with Roderick, it seems BYU’s offensive staff is set in concrete.
Another road BYU might take is to follow the emphasis in college and professional sports and look for a minority hire, specifically an African American coach. While BYU is independent in football, its other sports are associated with the West Coast Conference and this past summer the league adopted “The Russell Rule,” which declares every school should make the consideration of minority candidates a priority for any major hire.
Again, BYU football is not governed by the WCC, but the Cougars’ athletic program is associated with its community. The WCC is the first Division I program to adopt such a rule, which states specifically, the league “requires all member institutions to include a minority among the pool of final candidates for every athletic director, senior administrator, head coach and full-time assistant coach within the athletic department.”
Regardless of the tact, it will be an interesting hire for Kalani Sitake after an exodus of critical players like Wilson, Milne and All-American left tackle Brady Christensen, as well as Grimes.
One of Grimes’ greatest contributions was to the program’s culture. He held players accountable, fostered competition for playing time, and was highly respected. Sitake might just make a hire to primarily sustain and elevate the team culture, a strong personality like Grimes and former OC Robert Anae. Just plug him in somewhere that fits.
On the other hand, Sitake has enough veteran voices with experience. Jorgensen or Fowler might be great hires.
Stay tuned.