BYU joins Ohio State, Indiana and Texas A&M as only undefeated teams.
Will Big 12 get two CFP bids? Cougars aim to take fate out of committee’s hands.
BYU has fit and alignment in spades with Kalani Sitake and administration.
So, Sitake will leave crowd surfing to the university’s president.
“I think people would probably turn me down if I tried,” Sitake quipped to USA TODAY, adding he’d fear for the safety of BYU fans if they attempted to hold him aloft.
Sitake’s giving BYU fans much to celebrate. He coaches one of the nation’s hottest programs, and the Cougars specialize in one-possession games. Fans rushed the field after a three-point win against rival Utah earlier this season.
BYU President C. Shane Reese joined the throng to congratulate any players and coaches he could find. One BYU player lifted the university president into the air in jubilation.
Here goes nothing, Reese thought. Next thing he knew, he was on his back, crowd surfing.
“I’m not going to lie, it was awesome,” Reese told USA TODAY.
So is BYU’s momentum.
In the past two seasons, the Cougars are one of four teams with just two total losses. Ohio State, Indiana and Oregon are the others.
Who can blame Cougars fans for reveling in the success?
Three years ago, BYU was an independent, where a great season produced the Boca Raton Bowl. Now, it sits in the Big 12’s catbird seat. A conference championship would clinch the program’s first College Football Playoff bid.
“It’s just an exciting time,” Reese said. “I’m a statistician by training, and even the nerdiest of faculty are feeling a lot of the excitement around what’s happening with the football team.”
BYU’s goal: ‘Finish’, and don’t leave destination in hands of CFP committee
BYU joins the Buckeyes, Hoosiers and Texas A&M as college football’s only undefeated teams. BYU debuted at No. 7 in the first CFP rankings.
The Cougars know this place. They started 9-0 last season. They lost two of their final three in November, missing the playoff. Two-loss SMU, which lost to BYU at home, received the committee’s final rose. The two-loss Cougars got stiffed with a No. 17 ranking on selection Sunday.
While coaches and administrators of three-loss SEC teams squabbled and squawked about their playoff omission, BYU humbly accepted the committee’s decision and smashed Colorado in the Alamo Bowl.
“I’m not in the business of complaining about stuff,” Sitake said.
This time around, the Big 12 enjoys a better shot at two bids. Three Big 12 teams are ranked in the first CFP rankings (Texas Tech, 8th; Utah, 13th). The Cougars want to take their fate out of the committee’s hands.
“We’re going to finish,” wide receiver Chase Roberts said.
Texas Tech looms as the biggest Big 12 foil. The one-loss Red Raiders will host the Cougars this weekend in a game that will hint at the conference’s true frontrunner.
“If we can find a way to win all of these games, there’s no way they could possibly leave us out of this thing,” safety Tanner Wall said. “For us, it’s like, don’t give the committee a reason to slight you or pick someone else over you or put yourself in a spot where you’re cheering for some other team to lose or some crazy upset. Just keep the cards in your hand.”
Kalani Sitake’s pep talks shape BYU’s culture
Stay humble and hungry.
That four-word phrase plays on a loop within this program.
On a recent Monday, Sitake gathered the team before their film review for one of his signature motivational pep talks. The message on this day: Stay humble and hungry, but don’t allow humility to become the enemy of confidence.
“He wants to see us play with more confidence and belief,” Wall said, “instead of being in a situation where we get down 24-10 before we have a spark and fire in our eyes.”
Even if overcoming deficits is becoming BYU’s trademark.
Reese stood on the sideline wearing what must have been a pallid expression while BYU trailed Arizona by two scores in October.
“I had player after player talk to me and say, ‘Wipe that look off your face. We are going to win this game,’’ Reese said.
Promises made, promises kept.
Quarterback Bear Bachmeier scored with 19 seconds left to tie the score. He scored again to uncork a double-overtime victory. This, from a three-star freshman. BYU tried to land Bachmeier out of high school. He chose Stanford before transferring in May and swiftly becoming the engine behind one of the Big 12’s top-scoring teams.
“He’s something special,” Wall said.
Bear Bachmeier meets BYU’s moment of need
Bachmeier took command of the huddle and implored his teammates to take it to the defense. Full steam, no let up. His intensity might have suggested this was a two-minute drive in a conference clash. But, no, this occurred during a preseason practice. The defense Bachmeier implored his teammates to carve through was BYU’s own.
Roberts remembers this as the moment he thought the Cougars had found their starting quarterback.
“We were able to rally behind him,” Roberts said.
Bachmeier’s older brother, Hank, played at Boise State. He, too, started as a true freshman.
BYU already had a starting quarterback when Bear and his brother, Tiger, a wide receiver, transferred in from Stanford. Jake Retzlaff quarterbacked the Cougars during their 11-2 season, and he had another year of eligibility.
Retzlaff, though, would have faced a seven-game suspension for violating BYU’s honor code. He transferred in the summer to Tulane. Bachmeier grabbed the reins, impressing his teammates and Sitake with his toughness.
“With those names, you have to be tough,” Sitake said of the Bachmeier brothers. “You can’t have a name like ‘Bear’ and be fragile, that’s for sure.”
As a bonus, imagine the fun a sportswriter can have after a big game from Bachmeier. When BYU beat Iowa State by 14 points in Week 9, the Cyclones must have found it un-Bear-able.
“When they make plays,” Wall said of the Bachmeiers, “it’s like there’s so many puns and plays on words you can make. It’s pretty awesome.”
At BYU, alignment pays off
Talk to any coach or administrator for long, and they’ll reference the paramountcy of fit and the alignment between a coach, athletic director and university president. It almost starts to sound a bit hokey or overblown, until you consider BYU’s success, and you examine the fit and alignment of key stakeholders.
Sitake fits Provo, Utah, like a pair of hiking boots. Born in Tonga, Sitake’s family immigrated to Hawaii. His childhood coincided with BYU’s glory days, and he rooted for the Cougars growing up on Oahu’s North Shore. He played for LaVell Edwards, forever a BYU legend.
And, what of Sitake?
“He’s a rockstar in this community,” said Reese, the self-described stat nerd and fellow BYU alumnus who became the school’s president in 2023, shortly before the Cougars’ first Big 12 season.
Athletic director Brian Santiago is a Provo native. He was Edwards’ neighbor and also the bishop at his Latter-Day Saints congregation. BYU, Santiago says, is “in my blood.” He served as a longtime lieutenant under former athletic director Tom Holmoe before succeeding him in May.
Add it up, and “there’s a united front” at BYU, Santiago says.
And still one can’t help wonder, as this coaching carousel spins wildly, with so many high-profile jobs open, whether a BYU coach who’s 19-2 the past two seasons and marching toward his fourth season of at least 10 wins in the past six years, might have allure to a school hiring for someone who’s an excellent culture builder, an established leader and a proven winner.
Would Sitake ever consider leaving his alma mater? He steps past that question by pointing to his appreciation for his job.
“I grew up a BYU fan,” he reminds me. “I played for LaVell Edwards, who’s a legend. … I’m in a really good spot, and I get to coach amazing young men, and I get to be around amazing fans. I love what I’m doing.”
“I’m trying to appreciate everything I have,” he added.
For Reese’s part, the BYU president says he couldn’t fault another school for being interested in Sitake.
“We love Kalani Sitake, and he’s always been my guy. I’ll stand by him every day of the week,” Reese said. “I worry about it, but for us, he’s a perfect fit.”
There’s that word again. Fit.
You know the word that comes next.
“We’re aligned,” Santiago said. “There’s great trust in our relationship between Kalani and me and our president and our administration.”
Fit and alignment. BYU has that in spades.
It also has a freshman quarterback turning heads, a team with the mettle for turning two-score deficits into victories, and a coach who’s tailormade for this program, even if he chooses to celebrate with his two feet on the ground.
About that, though …
“I still think we could get him up there,” Wall said.
Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.
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