Kalani Sitake
Kalani Sitake went 90–45 as a head coach, 2016–2026, at BYU. Wikipedia’s season articles record one season differently (2026, 5–0); by them his record is 89–45. Share
- Record
- 90–45 career
- Seasons
- 11
- Schools
- 1
- Final AP top 10
- 0 seasons
- Born
- Oct 10, 1975
- Alma mater
- BYU 2000
- Best season
- 2020 11–1, No. 11
Season by season
| Season | School | Record | Conference finish | Bowl | AP final | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | BYU | 9–4 | Poinsettia Bowl W | |||
| 2017 | BYU | 4–9 | ||||
| 2018 | BYU | 7–6 | Famous Idaho Potato Bowl W | |||
| 2019 | BYU | 7–6 | Hawai’i Bowl L | |||
| 2020 | BYU | 11–1 | Boca Raton Bowl W | 11 | ||
| 2021 | BYU | 10–3 | Independence Bowl L | 19 | ||
| 2022 | BYU | 8–5 | New Mexico Bowl W | |||
| 2023 | BYU | 5–7 | T–11th | |||
| 2024 | BYU | 11–2 | T–1st | Alamo Bowl W | 13 | |
| 2025 | BYU | 12–2 | T–1st | Pop-Tarts Bowl W | 11 | |
| 2026 | BYU | 6–0 (Wikipedia: 5–0) |
Each season links to the team’s season page; bowls and playoff games link to the game. Conference finishes from the Wikipedia article’s record table.
Players he coached
Every player from his seasons with a Heisman top-five finish, a national award, consensus All-America honors or a first-round pick. Photos: Wikimedia Commons, free licenses; credits on each player’s page.
How his teams did
| Kind of game | Games | Record | Won |
|---|---|---|---|
| Against ranked teams | 27 | 12–15 | 44% |
| Against top-10 teams | 7 | 3–4 | 43% |
| Against rivals | 13 | 7–6 | 54% |
| Conference games | 30 | 20–10 | 67% |
| Bowls and playoffs | 8 | 6–2 | 75% |
| Decided by 8 points or fewer | 52 | 30–22 | 58% |
| At home | 65 | 49–16 | 75% |
| On the road | 56 | 33–23 | 59% |
| At neutral sites | 14 | 8–6 | 57% |
| As our Elo’s favorite | 95 | 75–20 | 79% |
| As our Elo’s underdog | 40 | 15–25 | 38% |
His own 135 games on file, 2016–2026, as played (vacated wins counted, ties as half a win). Ranks are the AP poll going into the game; rivals are the ones either program’s Wikipedia article names; favorite and underdog by our own Elo rating, which reads only scores.
Against other head coaches
| Coach | Record | Their schools | Games | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kyle Whittingham 2016–2025 | 3–4 | Utah | 7 | |
| Bryan Harsin 2016–2020 | 2–3 | Boise State | 5 | |
| Brent Brennan 2017–2026 | 4–0 | San José State, Arizona | 4 | |
| Mark Whipple 2016–2018 | 2–1 | Massachusetts | 3 | |
| Nick Rolovich 2017–2019 | 2–1 | Hawai’i | 3 | |
| Dave Aranda 2021–2024 | 2–1 | Baylor | 3 | |
| Sonny Dykes 2023–2026 | 2–1 | TCU | 3 | |
| Matt Wells 2016–2018 | 1–2 | Utah State | 3 | |
| Joey McGuire 2023–2025 | 1–2 | Texas Tech | 3 |
Kalani Sitake’s record against the head coaches he met three or more times, from the games on file, as played.
Most-faced opponents
| Opponent | Games | Record |
|---|---|---|
| Boise Stateseries | 7 | 3–4 |
| Utahseries | 7 | 3–4 |
| Arizonaseries | 6 | 6–0 |
| Utah Stateseries | 6 | 4–2 |
| Massachusettsseries | 4 | 3–1 |
| UCFseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Cincinnatiseries | 3 | 3–0 |
| Wyomingseries | 3 | 3–0 |
How he was hired
- Hired by BYU for the 2016 season from Oregon State, where he was defensive coordinator. He had a prior connection to the school.
Power-conference head-coaching hires since 2010, with each coach’s previous job and ties to the school as collected by hand from Wikipedia: Hiring facts: M. Schuckers, cfb_coach_analytics.
Other roles
- Team captain, BYU 2000
From each season’s Wikipedia article.
Career
| Years | Team | Job | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Eastern Arizona | Defensive backs and special teams coach | |
| 2002 | BYU | Graduate assistant | |
| 2003 | Southern Utah | Running backs, fullbacks and tight ends coach | |
| 2004 | Southern Utah | Offensive line, fullbacks and tight ends coach | |
| 2005–08 | Utah | Linebackers coach | |
| 2009–11 | Utah | Defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2012–14 | Utah | Assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| 2015 | Oregon State | Assistant head coach and defensive coordinator | |
| 2016–present | BYU | Head coach |
Every job as the infobox of his Wikipedia article lists it (CC BY-SA), assistant jobs included.
Coaching tree
Worked under
- Gary CrowtonBYU
- Gary AndersenSouthern Utah, Oregon State
- Kyle WhittinghamUtah
Assistants who became head coaches
- Ed LambSouthern Utah, Northern Colorado
- Jay HillWeber State
- Gary AndersenUtah State, Wisconsin, Oregon State, Southern Utah
- Demario WarrenSouthern Utah
Worked under (3)
| Head coach | Team | Years | His job | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gary Crowton | BYU | 2002 | Graduate assistant | |
| Gary Andersen | Southern Utah | 2003 | Running backs, fullbacks and tight ends coach | |
| Kyle Whittingham | Utah | 2005–14 | 2005–08: linebackers coach; 2009–11: defensive coordinator and linebackers coach; 2012–14: assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach | |
| Gary Andersen | Oregon State | 2015 | Assistant head coach and defensive coordinator |
Coached under him, later head coaches (4)
| Coach | With him | Head coach at | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ed Lamb | BYU, 2016–22: assistant head coach and special teams coach | Southern Utah, Northern Colorado | |
| Jay Hill | BYU, 2023–25: defensive coordinator, assistant head coach and safeties coach | Weber State | |
| Gary Andersen | BYU, 2024–26: analyst | Utah State, Wisconsin, Oregon State, Southern Utah | |
| Demario Warren | BYU, 2026: safeties | Southern Utah |
Other assistants under him (7)
| Coach | With him | |
|---|---|---|
| Ilaisa Tuiaki | BYU, 2016–22: defensive coordinator and defensive line coach | |
| Ty Detmer | BYU, 2016–17: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Aaron Roderick | BYU, 2017: offensive consultant; 2018–20: passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach; 2021–26: offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach | |
| Jeff Grimes | BYU, 2018–20: offensive coordinator | |
| Ryan Pugh | BYU, 2018: offensive line coach | |
| Justin Ena | BYU, 2023–25: linebackers coach; 2026: special teams coordinator | |
| Kelly Poppinga | BYU, 2023–25: special teams and defensive ends coach; 2026: defensive coordinator and inside linebackers coach |
From coaches’ Wikipedia infoboxes (CC BY-SA) and each season’s article for its coordinators: an assistant’s seasons at a school count under its head coach in our records; jobs in the NFL and elsewhere, under the head coach whose own article lists the job that year. Names without a page here link to their Wikipedia articles.
Pay
| Year | School | Job | Contract pay | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Oregon State | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $166,111 | $730,008 USA Today | |
| 2014 | Utah | defensive coordinatorbonuses up to $41,667 | $500,000 USA Today |
USA Today’s coaches salary database (2014–17, from public-records requests to the schools; Rachel Ehlers’ copy): the season’s contract pay, school pay plus outside money, before bonuses.
Pay of public employees in their public job only: head coaches, and assistants in the seasons our records name them a coordinator, at public universities.
How he coached
Sitake’s teams went for it on 25% of fourth downs and on 44% of those where the model said go for it, passed on 49% of plays and took 26.8 seconds a play, 2016–2026.
| Season | Went for it on fourth | When the model said go | Pass rate | Seconds a play | EPA a play | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 12 g | 18 of 90 20% | 20% | 47% | 25.8 | +0.02 | |
| 2017 13 g | 26 of 105 25% | 37% | 54% | 25.7 | −0.15 | |
| 2018 13 g | 20 of 98 20% | 45% | 47% | 26.9 | 0.00 | |
| 2019 13 g | 17 of 95 18% | 29% | 54% | 25.1 | +0.06 | |
| 2020 12 g | 22 of 61 36% | 46% | 49% | 26.5 | +0.27 | |
| 2021 13 g | 24 of 78 31% | 66% | 48% | 26.1 | +0.22 | |
| 2022 12 g | 22 of 75 29% | 41% | 48% | 26.9 | +0.16 | |
| 2023 12 g | 26 of 110 24% | 57% | 55% | 26.4 | −0.10 | |
| 2024 13 g | 24 of 87 28% | 52% | 48% | 28.2 | +0.05 | |
| 2025 14 g | 31 of 101 31% | 58% | 45% | 28.6 | +0.12 | |
| 2026 6 g | 5 of 28 18% | 43% | 44% | 30.0 | +0.22 | |
| All 133 g | 235 of 928 25% | 44% | 49% | 26.8 | +0.07 |
His seasons as a head coach from 2004 on, from ESPN’s play by play: fourth downs where he went for it out of every fourth-down decision; how often he went when SportsDataverse’s fourth-down model said going for it was the better call; the share of his offense’s plays that were passes; seconds of game clock per offensive play (lower is faster); and expected points added per offensive play (EPA, a measure of how much each play moved the offense toward points). The season in progress counts its games so far. SportsDataverse’s coach tendencies, from ESPN’s play by play; the EPA and the fourth-down model are SportsDataverse’s.