Speaking Monday during a Big 12 media availability promoting the conference championship game, Sitake danced around direct questions related to his interest in the coveted Big Ten job.
Several media outlets and websites list the BYU coach as a leading candidate to replace James Franklin, who was fired earlier this season despite leading his team to the national playoffs last year.
With the possibility of a pending playoff invitation dependent on the outcome, the Cougars will face Texas Tech on Saturday at Dallas Cowboy Stadium. Commissioner Brett Yormark and Texas Tech coach Joey McGuire answered questions on the game, but the matchup between two 11-win teams played second fiddle to Sitake’s surprising upset with Penn State.
Sitake, aware of the widespread speculation on social media, admitted that he would address the issue with the team. He called it a “good distraction”, meaning that BYU has performed well enough to attract attention from other programs.
“I would say it’s not about me,” Sitake said. “What I’ve asked my team to do is to focus on what we’re trying to accomplish.”
I wish it was as simple as Sitek makes it out to be. The distinct possibility of losing the coach, who adheres to the industry standard of demanding the same focus each week, is a major – and not good – distraction.
Even though Sitake is only interested in using his current situation and his staff at BYU as better leverage, it can’t help the program competing for its first playoff bid against the heavily favored Red Raiders. Texas Tech dominated BYU in Lubbock in October, preventing BYU from earning an at-large bid into the playoff.
“I’ve told my team to focus on what we can control,” Sitake said. “Right now, we’re just in control of what we’re doing as a team and not worrying about all the distractions. Honestly, it’s a big distraction, but right now we need to focus on making sure we’re at our best in this game against Texas Tech.”
History is not usually kind to teams in these situations. Four years ago, as rumors swirled that Oregon coach Mario Cristobal was heading home to take the Miami job, Utah crushed the upset Ducks in the Pac-12 championship game.
In what was Lincoln Riley’s last game as Oklahoma coach four years ago, the Sooners lost to Oklahoma State for the first time in seven seasons. Riley was officially announced as the new USC coach the next day.
When pressed a second time, Sitake gave a brief answer that probably did not reflect the reality of the situation. “I’m all about the Big 12 Championship, so I’ll avoid all distractions,” he said.
Its very late.
Critics may scream at bad timing, but this is not an isolated case. The coaching carousel rotates each year and new jobs are filled long before the season ends, often leaving assistants to run teams during postseason preparations.
For BYU, the best-case scenario is Sitake’s loyalty that started as a young boy and ultimately continued with a player’s victory. To get there, the university needs to increase its salaries along with other reforms to make the program more economically competitive with companies like heavyweight Texas Tech.
After BYU went 11–2 last season, Sitake received a long-term contract extension, with then-athletic director Tom Holmoe saying in a statement, “It’s good to know we’ll have a consistent leader for a long time.” Even with the new deal, Sitake’s salary is believed to be significantly less than that offered by Penn State.
In December 2021, BYU signed Sitake to a contract through the 2027 season. Around the same time, basketball coach Mark Pope received a re-contract before moving to Kentucky. BYU then spent enough money in the program to hire Kevin Young as an assistant coach in the NBA.
The highlights for this article were created with the help of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is entirely human-written.
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