On Saturday, BYU head coach Kalani Sitake will stand on the sideline opposing Texas head coach Steve Sarkisian.
But it wasn’t too long ago that they stood on the same sideline.
Sarkisian and Sitake have a relationship that dates back to their college days, when Sarkisian transferred to BYU from El Camino College to play quarterback and Sitake was a true freshman fullback.
“I knew him when we were nobodies,” Sitake said about his relationship with Sarkisian. “Just being able to connect when you knew someone from day one when they didn’t always have the spotlight on them, he’s always been real to me.”
Both of them achieved great success in their time at BYU: Sarkisian led his team to win the 1977 Cotton Bowl and Sitake helped his team make it to the first Mountain West Conference Championship in 1999.
After playing in Hall of Fame coach LaVell Edwards’ program, both Sarkisian and Sitake dipped their toe in the pool of professional football; Sitake signed a free agent contract with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2001 but was forced to retire due to an injury, while Sarkisian played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the Canadian Football League for three seasons.
Applying what they learned over years of playing football, Sarkisian and Sitake both moved on to coaching.
In Sitake’s early years as a coach, he moved around a lot between different schools and positions, picking up his first position at Eastern Arizona as the defensive backs and special teams coordinator in 2001. After a year, Sitake moved back to Utah to coach at his alma mater, BYU, where he coached for an additional year.
Through the next 10 years, Sitake remained in his home state, transferring to Southern Utah for two years before moving to the University of Utah to coach for eight years.
In Sitake’s extensive time at Utah, he helped the Utes win seven of their eight bowl games, mentoring 14 NFL draft picks such as Morris Trophy winners Star Lotulelei and Nate Orchard.
For one season, Sitake took an assistant head coach and defensive coordinator job at the University of Oregon, but when BYU offered him their head coach position in 2016, Sitake jumped at the opportunity.
“He’s always been a great coach, a guy that I’ve had a chance to compete against in his days when he was a coordinator,” Sarkisian said about Sitake. “He’s earned a great opportunity, and he’s done a great job leading BYU to this point, and we do stay connected and stay close that way.”
In 2020, Sitake’s Cougars 11–1 record was the first one-loss season record since 1996, back when Sarkisian led BYU to a 14–1 record as a star player.
However, this year, the Cougars have been seeing more struggle in the process than they hoped in their first year as Big 12 contenders. They currently have a 2–2 conference record after losing to Kansas and TCU and Sitake will be expecting another tight game against the Longhorns.
