Kalani Sitake gives injury update, gently chides those who said BYU ‘too conservative’ vs. Baylor

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake looks on from the sidelines during the Cougars’ victory over the Baylor Bears Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Waco, Texas. | BYU Photo

For more than 20 minutes during the lunch hour Monday, BYU football coach Kalani Sitake gave an opening statement and answered reporters’ questions about the No. 17-ranked Cougars’ 5-0 start, their injury situation, the successful fake punt in the 34-28 win over Baylor, whether a BYU player would ever quit on his team for NIL reasons, and more.

But when it was time to say goodbye via Zoom and turn his attention to Monday’s practice and the bye week in front of his team, Sitake decided he wanted to get something off his chest.

“Just another thing to add, just to talk about it,” he said, prefacing what was coming next.

Then he gently chided “people” who said, or wrote, that BYU got too conservative in the second halves of the recent wins over Wyoming, Kansas State and Baylor, particularly on offense.

“There is this thought that we are not being aggressive in the second half when we have a lead. It is not true,” he said. “As we go through stuff, we are not a conservative team. We have been very aggressive. So in terms of conservative, maybe we should have been a little bit more in this game, to be honest with you.”

Sitake referenced the fake punt on fourth-and-10 on BYU’s first possession of the second half that Sam Vander Haar ran 22 yards for a first down that resulted in a field goal to give the Cougars a 34-21 lead. He mentioned the first Baylor interception, which came on third-and-9, and the second interception, which came on third-and-2, as examples of BYU coaches being aggressive and having it backfire.

“If anything, we have had leads before and have held onto them (against) Southern Illinois, Wyoming, Kansas State. So when people…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/kalani-sitake-gives-injury-gently-225742892.html

Author : Deseret News

Publish date : 2024-09-30 22:57:42

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