Sitake ignoring the ‘distraction’ that is UCLA head football coaching vacancy; talks up East Carolina

Four weeks into the 2025 college football season, the coaching carousel is already up and running, with UCLA and Virginia Tech firing their coaches over the weekend after 0-3 starts and embarrassing losses to Group of Five conference opponents.

Shortly after those openings were announced, BYU coach Kalani Sitake’s name was thrown around as a possible replacement, particularly at UCLA. The Athletic and ESPN were two of the more prominent outlets to suggest that Sitake would be a good fit in Westwood.

Monday, Sitake was asked about his interest in the jobs, and his response was similar to what he said last year after leading the Cougars to an 11-2 record and Alamo Bowl win over Colorado in their second season in the Big 12. BYU is off to a 2-0 start this season, with a 69-0 win over FCS Portland State and a 27-3 win over Stanford.

“I don’t talk about anything other than football and what we’re doing right now as a program. And I think people have heard me make statements before and obviously, listen, these guys need me to be focused on East Carolina more than anything else,” Sitake said.

The Cougars travel to Greenville, North Carolina, to take on the 2-1 Pirates of the American Conference on Saturday (5:30 p.m. MDT, ESPN2).

“I’ve told (players) to avoid any distractions that come along the way. And so distractions come in a lot of different forms. So we’re going to avoid distractions, stay humble, keep working hard and then try to do our best when we show up this weekend against East Carolina,” Sitake said. “Other than that, just try to keep focused on these young men.

“We have amazing young men, amazing culture in the program, and I just want to make sure that we stay focused on that. But I am always down to talk to the boys about whatever they want to talk to me about.”

Sitake signed what BYU called a “longterm” contract extension last December and was recently promoted to associate athletic director within the BYU athletic department. He’s made it clear time and again that he grew up a BYU fan, is in his dream job, and is not looking to go anywhere else.

UCLA fired coach DeShaun Foster after falling 35-10 to New Mexico at the Rose Bowl on Friday. The Bruins were also defeated 43-10 by Utah at home and fell 30-23 to UNLV at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.

Here are some other takeaways from Sitake’s weekly press briefing conducted via Zoom:

JoJo Phillips remains out, but other injured stars could return

Having announced last Monday before the bye week that redshirt sophomore JoJo Phillips was going to be out for “some time,” Sitake acknowledged that the starting receiver had upper-body surgery and will be out for multiple weeks.

“He’s not (out) for the season,” Sitake said. “In the medical profession, they’re really conservative on (when) they’re going to allow you to come back. What we’re told is that he could come back before the year ends and play a significant amount of time.

“It just depends on how he progresses in the next few weeks. So that’s what it’s going to come down to. But I’m glad that we are going to see him back on the field eventually.”

Redshirt freshman Cody Hagen spoke to reporters Monday and said he is ready to move into the WR3 role, although others, such as Tiger Bachmeier, Tei Nacua and Reggie Frischknect, could also see more playing time as well in Phillips’ absence.

Senior middle linebacker Choe Bryant-Strother didn’t play against Stanford and is also off the depth chart for the ECU game; Sitake said he would let the UCLA transfer make a statement or an announcement regarding his future, but hinted that the issue is the linebacker’s health.

“I just want to express my love and appreciation for him, what he’s done for our program,” Sitake said. “So that’s pretty much what it comes down to.”

Oklahoma State transfer Justin Kirkland is on the depth chart for the first time and could make his debut at defensive tackle/nose tackle for BYU this week, Sitake said.

“Last week, he practiced,” Sitake said. “That’s a good sign, and practice with pads on. So that’s an even better sign. We will see how it goes this week.”

Projected starting left guard Weylin Lapuaho also practiced last week after having missed the first two games with an undisclosed injury, “and we’re excited to have him back,” Sitake said.

BYU coaches, players have plenty of respect for ECU

East Carolina is 2-1 all-time against BYU, including a 27-24 win over the Cougars three years ago in Provo. Sitake coached in that game, and also in the 33-17 loss to ECU in 2017 in Greenville. He said BYU is a “different team” than it was three years ago, but still expects a dogfight in North Carolina, for a variety of reasons.

The Cougars will leave Provo on Thursday, two days before kickoff, which is what they’ve done the past few years when they have played in the Eastern Time Zone.

“We’re going into our third year in the Big 12 now. We’ve made some moves and made some changes. I’ve learned quite a bit as a head coach since the last time we faced them, but it’s not really about the opponent. It’s more about where we’re at currently as a program,” he said. “I feel like we’re in a really good spot right now, that we can only control what we control.”

He said BYU expects a “great environment” at 51,000-seat Dowdy-Ficken Stadium, considerably better than in 2017 when both teams entered the game with 1-5 records.

“When you watch it on film, you can see how talented they are, and you can see how well-coached they are, and that’s not an easy environment to go into. Their fans are gonna be excited for that game, but we’re just as excited too,” Sitake said. “We get to go on the road. This is gonna be fun for us to go see our fans in the East Coast, but also for our guys to rally together and bond even closer than what we’ve been and we’re already a close team.”