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College Football Podcast: On the move with new BYU coach Kalani Sitake

New BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and his wife, Timberly, join the SI College Football Podcast to discuss the whirlwind transition of a coach in his first off-season at a new job.
College Football Podcast: On the move with new BYU coach Kalani Sitake
College Football Podcast: On the move with new BYU coach Kalani Sitake

The beginning of the off-season is always a whirlwind for college football coaches, who must quickly transition from their on-the-field tasks to finalizing their recruiting classes in the run-up to National Signing Day. It’s even more of a rush for coaches switching jobs, and in particular assistants becoming head coaches for the first time.

That’s the situation Kalani Sitake has experienced since the former Oregon State defensive coordinator took the head-coaching job at his alma mater, BYU, on Dec. 19. Sitake dove straight into hiring his coaching staff and recruiting for the Cougars, finishing with a class that ranked 50th in the country, according to Scout.com.

He didn’t even have time to fully move in his haste to get up to speed at his new job, staying at his dad’s house. But with Signing Day over, it was finally time for Sitake, his wife and their three children to pack up after a year with the Beavers and head to Provo, Utah, as a family.

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Host Lindsay Schnell went to the Sitakes’ home in Corvallis, Ore., as they finished packing to discuss what led Sitake to take the BYU job, the differences in recruiting to a Mormon school, and what life is like for a new head coach and his family.

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Lindsay Schnell
LINDSAY SCHNELL

Staff writer Lindsay Schnell joined SI in 2014 as a national college sports writer after covering Oregon State athletics for The Oregonian.