Patrick Kinahan: Sitake's frustration mounts over unkept promises

PROVO — During a casual interview several months removed from BYU football's horrendous losing season in 2017, Kalani Sitake vehemently rejected the notion that he was not tough enough to serve as head coach.

In kinder terms, he essentially said, "Try me and see."

Since then, the affable Sitake has guided the Cougars to four double-digit winning seasons, including the last two in the Big 12. Expectations for this year's team have reached an all-time high during his 11 years at the helm.

With the program in excellent shape, Sitake has turned his wrath on the university administration in a brilliant manner. Instead of going off on an anger-induced rant, he is taking a subtle — yet highly effective — approach to make the point that the administration is not keeping promises made last December after he rejected the offer to become the head coach at Penn State.

Speaking on former BYU player Ben Criddle's radio show, Sitake laid out his dissatisfaction without embarrassing the image-conscious university or calling out any individual administrator. In short order, which puts BYU on notice, the story has gone national.

"We've been given the challenge of doing the most with the least, so you lean heavily on culture to win," Sitake said.

To that end, BYU was able to retain nearly all its football roster during an offseason in which defensive coordinator Jay Hill and secondary coach Jernaro Gilford left to join former Utah coach Kyle Whittingham's staff at Michigan. In addition to Whittingham taking several coaches away from Utah, Michigan poached key Utes transfers.

Sitake's plea is to level the playing field with other Big 12 members, recognizing the finances available to Texas Tech dwarfs the other conference programs. His track record, he said, shows the program is financially responsible.

"I'm not going to be the one that's making high demands," he said. "This is very simple demands."

Those demands, he believes, were part of the agreement that led him to turn down Penn State, a program that has a bevy of resources beyond those at BYU. Announcing his decision to stay, Sitake sat next to athletic director Brian Santiago in apparent unison in December.

In truth, the two have not enjoyed the best working relationship. Dating back to when Santiago supervised both basketball programs as an associate athletic director, the football staff was frustrated with the resources allocated to the men's program compared to football.

Even now, they believe coach Kevin Young's program has double the NIL money available to the football program. Last year's basketball roster cost more than $10 million, which is a conservative estimate.

Multiple employees in the department have said Santiago was willingly prepared to pivot to hiring Hill to replace Sitake until leaders from the school's sponsoring institution, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, stepped in to keep the coach from leaving.

Since then, friction has grown to the point of Sitake choosing to delicately speak out on his frustration. As part of the situation, a university spokesman took the unusual route of going on a BYU message board to debunk speculation that Santiago was on the verge of getting fired.

Frustration within the football program extends beyond Sitake, who as the leader has the authority to speak out. Some in BYU athletics want to see the department run more like a business while keeping the mission of the university and its association to the church at the forefront.

They believe the professionalism of running the department as a business does not conflict with BYU's overall mission. In today's climate of college athletics, with its constant cost increases, smart business decisions are imperative to fund a success department.

To that end, athletic departments have branched out to hire more business specialists with expertise to make better financial decisions. The responsibilities go well beyond those of the athletic director, who traditionally has had complete control of the department.

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