Kalani Sitake says No. 22 Cougars won’t let success go to their heads

Saturday night’s 38-9 upset of then-No. 13 Kansas State was one of the most significant, and one of the most insane, wins in BYU football history, the Cougars all acknowledged Monday when they met with reporters via Zoom to rehash the historic victory and look ahead to this week’s matchup with Baylor.
But coach Kalani Sitake quickly urged anyone who would listen to move past the euphoria and zero in on the task at hand, which is to avoid the same type of emotional crash that has plagued several other college football teams this season after monumental wins.
“Looking at the landscape of college football, teams have big wins and then it has this everlasting effect even into the next week,” Sitake said. “We have to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
The Cougars expect a hungry, angry home team (2-2, 0-1) in Waco, Texas, after Baylor gave up a Hail Mary that forced overtime and then lost by a touchdown to Coach Prime’s Colorado Buffaloes.
The morning kickoff (10 a.m. MDT, 11 a.m. in Waco) also throws an interesting twist into the mix, as BYU’s past struggles in all-daylight games has been well-documented.
“It is a cool environment (at McLane Stadium, capacity 45,140). I really like that stadium a lot,” said Sitake, whose team fell 38-24 to Baylor there in 2021 in a non-conference game. “We will learn from last week, but we gotta stay humble, stay hungry, and that is what our approach is this week. I know a lot of guys on this coaching staff. They will have their team ready. They will be ready to roll. We just need to make sure we are ready to roll, too.”
The Cougars (4-0, 1-0) will be without their top running back, LJ Martin, for the third-straight game, Sitake acknowledged. The sophomore from El Paso, Texas, isn’t even on the depth chart released Monday.
RB2 Hinckley Ropati, who also missed the Kansas State and Wyoming games, is back, along with Enoch Nawahine, Miles Davis and the backfield star of the KSU game, freshman Sione I. Moa.
The Cougars have their first of two bye weeks after the Baylor game.
“I think we are counting on him taking advantage of the extra time that we can get and hopefully get him back by the sixth game (against Arizona),” Sitake said. “Looking at it, there are only so many reps. … Whether you are able to go is not really the question. Are you better than the guys that are at full strength?
So we look at that. If you ask our running backs, they want to play. But we gotta make the best decision and take advantage of the extra time of healing for him.”
Sitake also playfully chided reporters who asked for more details about Moa and his recruitment, after the Timpview High product ran for 76 yards and a touchdown and caught three passes for 17 yards.
“He is a great player, and we are excited about what he is doing. He’s got some improvement to make. That is what we are going to focus on,” Sitake said. “So stop blowing his head up. We gotta keep him humble and keep him hungry.”
Actually, the same could be said for the entire team, after BYU got ranked (No. 22) in both major polls Sunday for the first time since 2022 and celebrated exuberantly after the blowout of a Kansas State team that was picked to contend for the Big 12 title.
BYU’s offense tallied just 241 yards, but it did average 5.0 yards per play, a more important statistic to Sitake than total yards. With the defense scoring a touchdown and giving the offense great field position several other times, quarterback Jake Retzlaff did what he had to do: take care of the football and make plays in the red zone.
“I am excited to see what the offense does against Baylor. This is going to be a cool matchup. I am excited to see our guys work and improve,” Sitake said. “We have improved every week. I can’t imagine that changing at all. I am looking forward to the movement we can make and the improvement we can make as an entire team, especially in all three phases, including the offense.”
As for the less-than-optimal kickoff time, which BYU didn’t learn until Sunday, Sitake said the Cougars’ daily practice schedule — 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., roughly — won’t change. Temperatures in Waco are expected to reach 85 degrees on Saturday, with 56% humidity.
“We are an afternoon practice team. We like that because we can get in the heat, in the fall, the hottest part of the day,” Sitake said. “We like to be outside when we practice and even if the weather gets cold.
That’s kind of what we do. We will adjust some other things — meeting times, things like that. We have been in this situation before.”
Safety Crew Wakley said nobody on the team or coaching staff cares what time kickoff is.
“We were excited (when game time was announced),” Wakley said. “Whether 11 a.m., 2 p.m., 8 p.m., we are just going to play football. So there are all these stats and all this and that. Whether there is correlation, I don’t know. I know we played basically this same time last year against Oklahoma, and that game went well for the most part.”
Defensive lineman John Nelson was a freshman on the BYU team that lost at Baylor on October 16, 2021, when the kickoff was at 1:30 p.m. MDT.
“It is a hard place to play. They bring a good crowd and they are a tough team to play at home,” Nelson said. “Yeah, it is going to be a little bit hotter, especially on turf. A little bit of humidity. It is something we gotta prepare for. … We gotta wake up at 6 a.m. or something like that. We will address it as a team, get on the same page, get our sports scientists talking to us, get us zoned in. The early kickoff time shouldn’t be that much of an issue.”
No. 22 BYU (4-0, 1-0) at Baylor (2-2, 0-1)
• Saturday, 10 a.m. MDT
• At McLane Stadium (Capacity: 45,140)
• Waco, Texas
• TV: Fox Sports 1
• Radio: 102.7 FM/1160 AM