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BYU heads into the Pop-Tarts Bowl in Orlando with extra weeks of practice, a break to lick wounds and a perfect opportunity to win 12 games when they face Georgia Tech on Dec. 27.
It will be interesting to see how coach Kalani Sitake uses his newfound political and financial capital in the athletic department to get facility enhancements, increase income for his assistants and staff members, and apply additional NIL money beyond the revenue sharing mandate by the NCAA.
First on tap is to retain as many players as are wanted on the roster. Second is to scour the transfer portal to see what immediate help can be obtained to fill gaps. Third is to shore up the team’s preparation for Georgia Tech, a team that gave Georgia a run for its money the last week of November.
Question of the week
Now that BYU has been to the Big 12 championship game and knocked heads with No. 4 Texas Tech twice, resulting in a pair of big losses, what does football coach Kalani Sitake need to do in narrowing the gap with the Red Raiders? Can it be done? How fast?
Jay Drew: Shortly after BYU lost 34-7 to Texas Tech in the Big 12 championship game, receivers Chase Roberts and Parker Kingston and safety Faletau Satuala all said the Cougars would be back in Arlington in the near future. How near?
Clearly, they have a long way to go to be competitive with the highly compensated Red Raiders, whose defensive line alone made north of a combined $7 million in 2025. This is not going to be an overnight fix, and Texas Tech isn’t going anywhere, not with billionaire booster Cody Campbell around. The obvious remedy is more resources and more money, to build a roster comparable to Texas Tech’s.
At Kalani Sitake’s news conference announcing his contract extension to ward off Penn State, BYU officials all said Sitake’s pay raise also comes with more money (revenue sharing, NIL) for the football program. That’s a good first step in narrowing the gap.
But the Cougars need an upgrade in talent, too, and that could be on the way in the form of recruiting. Mining the talent portal is also key — really, the two go hand in hand. For instance, I advocated several times last spring that BYU needed to bring in better receivers and running backs from the portal — but nothing came aside from Tiger Bachmeier, Bear’s brother.
So yes, it can be done. But the competition is fierce. Utah, Arizona State, Arizona and Houston also appear ready to jump into the Big 12 arms race, and Colorado has already shown that in paying Deion Sanders more than $10 million a year.
Talk about not getting any bang for your buck. The Buffaloes went 3-9 this season.
Here’s what Roberts said in Arlington when he was asked where BYU needs to improve the most:
“All BYU fans should be freaking hyped about the next coming seasons and coming back and beating a team like Texas Tech. That’s a great team, and they were able to put together a good squad with all the resources and everything that they have,” Roberts said. “I think now that we’ve been able to step up and have those resources, now we’re going to be right up there with them.”
We will see.
Dick Harmon: BYU definitely needs to step up in many areas to keep up with Texas Tech and the enormous pot of oil money. But a little perspective. Texas Tech has had 30 years of P5 and P4 money to build its football program. BYU has had just three years. Yet, the Cougars went 11-2 and 22-4 the last two seasons. BYU’s staff did this with recruits that ranked in the last third of the league.
According to “2025 Pick Six Predictions,” by Brett Ciancia, BYU ranked No. 1 in the country in win conversion headed into this past season. This is taking the recruiting rank from 2016 to 2024 versus total wins in 2020 to 2024. According to Ciancia, “This stat compares the program’s recruiting level to their actual output in the win column. Some programs sign top classes and still can’t win games. That speaks volumes to the staff’s coaching style, play-calling, system and in-game adjustments and overall ability.”
I’d say a priority is linemen on both sides. This is where games are fought and won.
BYU is a developmental program. For instance, the Cougars need help on the O line and they have half a dozen freshmen on the squad, including Joe Brown, Ethyan Thomason and Andrew Williams, that they are counting on to step up.
Incoming 2026 freshman O lineman Bott Mulitalo, who flipped from Oregon, could play right away. BYU could target a one-year transfer quick-fix player, but they’ll trust their scouting and the talent of their freshmen.
The transfer portal is a huge part of today’s college game and BYU will need to be judicious with who they bring in and spend money on. I don’t expect they’ll go crazy, just target needs like a running back and cornerback since they lose senior corners Evan Johnson, Therrian Alexander and Mory Bamba.
The O line and D line got beat by TT’s trench guys. That’s a starting point, but BYU needs a big-time running back and deep-threat at receiver.
I think it is huge that BYU locked up Kalani Sitake in a long-term contract that enables him to try to keep members of his current staff. These guys just signed the No. 21 recruiting class in 2026 and have proven they can go get talent.
This ultimately will be how they meet the TT supremacy challenge, through high school and strategic portal acquisitions.
Here’s an important thing to remember. BYU’s five-year recruiting rank average is 61st in the country, yet they just played for the Big 12 title and rank 12th. Texas Tech’s five-year recruiting rank average is 37th and they were No. 2 in the portal for 2025.
BYU’s five-year average compares with Houston (66), Kansas (68), ASU (60) and UCF (56). Utah’s average is 31st, just behind TCU (30th), while Baylor is 41st, Kansas State 44, Iowa State 46, Cincinnati 55, Colorado 51, West Virginia 38 and Arizona 54.
The reason to bring this up is because some staffs do more with their talent. BYU ranks No. 1. BYU went to Arlington with the past five recruiting classes of 72nd, 55th, 65th, 44th and 59th. Give BYU a couple of years of recruits ranked in the 30s and 40s and you’ll see results.
Cougar tales
BYU’s disappointing second loss to Texas Tech in Arlington was worse than the first loss in Lubbock with four turnovers. Here’s our coverage of the Big 12 championship game:
- Notre Dame snubs bowl, but BYU isn’t mad (Jay Drew)
- 3 plays that doomed Big 12 title game (Dave McCann)
- First big drive only positive for Cougars (Jay Drew)
- TT proves how far BYU must go in Big 12 (Jay Drew)
- Did Big 12 deserve two teams in playoffs? (Dick Harmon)
- What TT’s McGuire said about title game (Jackson Payne)
- BYU falls in title game with Tech (Jackson Payne)
- How BYU and TT teamed up for charity (Jackson Payne)
From the archives
From X-verse
Extra points
- BYU officially torches CFP committee (Newsweek)
- Here’re BYU’s offseason needs (Sport Illustrated)
- Retzlaff headed for CFP postseason (Deseret News)
Fanalysts
Comments from Deseret News readers:
I would be interested to have the Deseret News contact Utah Athletic Director Mark Harlan and get the “behind the scenes” commentary on how the process played out on how the teams were selected for the CFP.
I am CERTAIN that Harlan was fighting for / advocating for the Big 12 schools to get in —especially BYU!
Harlan did a GREAT JOB on the Committee — making sure that only ONE team from the Big 12 got into the Playoff?!?!
What better “representative” could they have on the committee than a guy who resents the “Truck Stop Conference” and believes that his school is BETTER than the Big 12??!?!
— Ionerebel
As anyone with a functional brain can see the CFP is a partisan joke. Allowing a three defeats team into the CFP is a slap in the face of BYU because BYU’s strength of schedule and the fact that its only losses are to one of the top five teams in the nation should have been enough for them to be included in the CFP. While I have never been a big BYU fan, they definitely got the short end of the stick by the CFP.
—Rob71
Up Next
- Dec. 16 | 7 p.m | men’s basketball | Pacific