Kalani Sitake is one of 28 coaches on the Paul “Bear” Bryant Coach of the Year watch list. He belongs there. BYU is 6-0, ranked No. 2 and fresh off a 28-24 win over the team that occupied that spot a week earlier.
The easy case fits in one sentence. It is also the least interesting version.
Sitake’s better argument is that this BYU team has not needed the same script twice. The Cougars have scored 63 points and won with 17. They have protected a freshman quarterback, rebuilt a backfield after losing LJ Martin and moved a freshman offensive lineman into a starting job against Notre Dame. They have won by 56 and by seven. Through all six, the defense has allowed 91 points.
That is a coaching case, not merely a standings line.
The watch list is recognition, not a ranking
The Bryant list includes 28 coaches, five from the Big 12: Sitake, Texas Tech’s Joey McGuire, Houston’s Willie Fritz, Oklahoma State’s Eric Morris and Utah’s Morgan Scalley. It is a broad first cut, not a ballot that places Sitake second because BYU is No. 2.
The award also waits longer than most. The American Heart Association says the winner will be selected after the national champion is determined and announced Jan. 27. Voters include the National Sports Media Association, college coaches, previous winners, the award’s leadership group and the Bryant family.
So this is not a midseason trophy. It is permission to make a case.
Texas Tech has one, too. The Red Raiders also opened 6-0, and their official release notes that BYU and Texas Tech are both 18-2 since the start of 2025. McGuire was a Bryant finalist last season. Sitake won the Big 12’s coach award in 2025 but did not make the Bryant final eight.
That history keeps the current watch list in its proper place. A mention is nice. The next six Saturdays decide whether it becomes anything more.
Six different games have required six different answers
BYU’s average score through six games is 33.5-15.2. That margin looks comfortable because the 63-7 opener against Utah Tech does a lot of work. The season itself has been less tidy.
| Opponent | Result | What BYU had to solve |
|---|---|---|
| Utah Tech | W 63-7 | Establish a freshman-heavy rotation without letting the opener become sloppy |
| Arizona | W 28-17 | Answer a Big 12 opponent six days later and finish after a competitive first half |
| Colorado State | W 41-23 | Handle the first road trip and turn explosive plays into separation |
| TCU | W 17-10 | Win with 216 yards of offense after Martin’s first-quarter ankle injury |
| Iowa State | W 24-10 | Produce 506 yards while surviving three failed fourth downs |
| Notre Dame | W 28-24 | Respond to a late deficit, drive 75 yards and defend the end zone at the finish |
There is no single offensive identity running through that table. At TCU, Bear Bachmeier led BYU in rushing with 66 yards and scored both touchdowns. A week later, he produced 438 total yards against Iowa State. Against Notre Dame, the decisive work came from a redistributed backfield, a late quarterback response and an offensive line that did not allow a sack.
A team can survive one ugly Saturday on talent and luck. Surviving several different problems usually means the staff knows where the emergency exits are.
That does not make every decision brilliant. BYU went 0-for-3 on fourth down against Iowa State and left points at the goal line. The TCU offense spent long stretches looking stuck. Notre Dame turned three BYU giveaways into a fourth-quarter lead. Coach of the Year should not mean Coach of the Unblemished Film Review.
It should mean the team keeps finding another winning plan before the clock expires. BYU has done that six times.
The 29-4 number is the rebuild receipt
The current season only makes sense next to the two before it.
BYU went 5-7 in its first Big 12 season in 2023 and lost its final four games. Sitake’s official biography records a 23-4 run across 2024 and 2025, with an 11-2 finish followed by 12-2, two ranked bowl wins and a trip to the 2025 Big 12 championship game.
Add this 6-0 start and BYU is 29-4 since the beginning of 2024, an 87.9% winning rate. Sitake’s career record is now 90-45.
The award case lives in the first number more than the second. Ninety career wins tell voters that Sitake has staying power. Twenty-nine wins in 33 games tell them he changed BYU’s Big 12 trajectory after the 5-7 warning.
He did not fix it by importing an entirely new personality. BYU remained a developmental program with older leaders, mission-return timing, selective portal additions and a preference for continuity. What changed was the weekly floor. The Cougars stopped treating Big 12 depth as something they could discuss into existence and started playing enough bodies to survive losses at running back, offensive line and throughout the rotation.
Our July look at Sitake’s tenure edge argued that continuity only mattered if it produced cleaner Saturdays. The first six games have supplied a better answer than any offseason quote could. BYU has been imperfect without becoming fragile.
The freshman proof matters more than the culture slogan
Every coach on an award list can talk about culture. Sitake’s strongest current evidence is that two true freshmen are doing work a 6-0 team cannot hide.
Legend Glasker leads BYU with 24 catches for 444 yards and three receiving touchdowns. He also has 92 rushing yards and two scores on 13 carries. Bott Mulitalo has played in all six games, started two of the last three and took 68 snaps at right tackle against Notre Dame. BYU’s official release credits him with one pressure and no sacks allowed across 83 pass-blocking snaps.
The Athletic placed both on its Midseason Freshman All-America team.
That matters for Sitake because freshman production is a staff-wide result. Recruiting gets the player into the building. Position coaching makes a college role usable. Coordinators have to call enough for a young player without making him the weak seam in every adjustment. The head coach decides whether the program can tolerate the learning curve.
Glasker’s role has expanded from designed speed touches into a team receiving lead. Mulitalo went from shared right-tackle work to the hardest start on the schedule. Neither development happened in a quiet season. BYU used them while trying to protect a perfect record and a freshman quarterback.
The Mulitalo protection analysis and our earlier Glasker role check cover their individual growth. Put together, they strengthen Sitake’s case. BYU is winning now without borrowing every important snap from next year’s roster.
The defense gives the case some backbone
Awards often drift toward the most dramatic offensive turnaround. BYU’s six-game profile is more balanced.
The Cougars have allowed 15.2 points per game. TCU and Iowa State scored 10 apiece. Notre Dame reached 24 despite receiving three takeaways. Across those three games, BYU conceded 44 total points while the offense moved from a 216-yard struggle to a 506-yard surge to a late game-winning drive.
That range is important. A coach of the year case gets thin when one unit has to cover for the same failure every week. BYU’s defense has been the floor, but the offense and special teams have taken turns supplying enough above it.
The Notre Dame finish is the cleanest example. Bachmeier threw an interception with BYU trailing 24-21. The defense forced a three-and-out. The offense answered with a 10-play touchdown drive. Then the defense protected the end zone on the final possession.
No single coordinator owns that sequence. It is the whole team recovering from its own mistake without needing a speech to last longer than the commercial break.
UCF is exactly where an award case can wobble
BYU goes to UCF on Saturday as the highest-ranked visitor ever to play in the Knights’ home stadium. The UCF game center has the 1:30 p.m. Mountain kickoff on FOX, and the watch guide has the full broadcast and radio paths.
The setting is much quieter than Notre Dame. That makes it dangerous.
UCF is 3-3, rested after an open week and carrying a long availability report. BYU is coming off the biggest regular-season win of Sitake’s career, a jump to No. 2 and a national audience of 9.2 million. If the Cougars spend Saturday admiring the new ranking, the Bounce House will provide the sound effects for a very old college-football lesson.
Sitake said Monday that rankings do nothing to help against UCF. The line is sensible. The useful test is whether his team plays like it believes him.
A road win would not clinch an award. It would reinforce the part of Sitake’s resume voters should value most: the ability to carry a program from one emotional temperature to another without losing the weekly work. Notre Dame demanded nerve. UCF demands sobriety.
What Sitake still has to prove
The watch list arrived at midseason. The award comes after the national title game. That distance is the entire point.
BYU still has conference road trips to UCF, Utah and Kansas. Arizona State, Baylor and Cincinnati visit Provo. The Cougars have not reached the Big 12 title game, secured a playoff place or even guaranteed a winning league record. No. 2 in October is a position, not an achievement that survives on its own.
Sitake’s case will depend on whether the roster continues to absorb injuries, whether the offense can find a stable run game without Martin and whether the staff can keep young contributors useful once opponents have a month of film. Close-game answers become less charming if BYU keeps creating the same emergencies.
But the midseason case is real.
Sitake took a team that stumbled through its first Big 12 season and went 29-4 over the next 33 games. This version has averaged an 18.3-point winning margin while proving it can survive when the margin disappears. It has a defense sturdy enough to protect a poor offensive day and freshmen good enough to change a great one.
The 6-0 line got Sitake onto the watch list. The work underneath it is what could keep him there.
Sources and further reading
- American Heart Association: 2026 Bryant Awards overview for the Jan. 27 award date, voting group and post-championship selection timing.
- Texas Tech Athletics: 2026 Bryant watch list release for the 28-coach field, five Big 12 selections and BYU/Texas Tech records since 2025.
- BYU Cougars Wire: Sitake added to the Bryant watch list for the current 6-0 record, No. 2 ranking and career record entering 2026.
- BYU Athletics: Kalani Sitake biography for the 2023-25 Big 12 progression, prior awards, 23-4 two-year run and program history.
- BYU Athletics: Glasker and Mulitalo Midseason Freshman All-America for their six-game production, snap and pressure totals, eligibility standard and selection method.
- Official BYU results and box scores: Utah Tech, Arizona, Colorado State, TCU, Iowa State and Notre Dame.
- BYU Sport Nuts: football hub, schedule, Notre Dame recap and No. 2 poll analysis.
