BYU faces a tough test tonight against No. 2 Notre Dame in a top-10 matchup. The unbeaten Cougars have playoff hopes on the line, yet head coach Kalani Sitake looked loose and energetic hours before kickoff. His dancing and light mood on the set caught the eye of Nick Saban.
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That moment happened on ESPN’s College GameDay on October 17. One clip posted by the official account showed Sitake moving around with the mascot Cosmo. Seeing a head coach dance and emote like that just hours before a major game stood out to a lot of viewers.
“I think it’s been a long time coming, and these fans are ready for it, and it’s going to be a lot of fun tonight,” Kalani Sitake said during the College GameDay interview. “I think we’re going to shock the nation with some sober noise tonight. It’s going to be awesome,” he added.
Sitake’s ability to stay loose and dance before such a big game prompted a contrast with Saban. The Alabama legend watched the BYU coach and then spoke from his own experience. “You know, my hat’s off to you. You’re up here dancing before a game,” Nick Saban said during the same ESPN’s College GameDay. “I was so nervous before a big game I couldn’t spit.”
The exchange left two different pictures of how coaches handle the same kind of pressure. Saban leaned on preparation and discipline through his Alabama years. Sitake brought energy and openness on the set in Provo.
Saban coached Alabama from 2007 through 2023, and won six national championships with the Crimson Tide in that stretch. The program set a high standard year after year, and that success brought constant expectations. Every big game carried the weight of keeping the standard high.
Winning titles did not remove the anxiety. In some ways, the responsibility of holding up a championship program made the stakes feel even larger. He has described similar feelings from earlier in his career.
Before the 2004 BCS National Championship, when he coached LSU against Oklahoma, Saban said he felt a “tremendous amount of anxiety.” He told his son in the locker room that he did not think he had ever been that nervous or anxious. He did not want the players to see his uncertainty or pick up on his nerves.
Saban has also said he felt nerves going into every game. Sometimes the feeling was stronger when Alabama was favored. He worried the team might not treat the opponent with enough urgency. He warned players about “rat poison,” his term for outside praise and media narratives that could lead to complacency. Those habits helped him manage the anxiety so it did not hurt the team.
Sitake’s dancing is not new for television and has been part of his coaching style for years. He performs traditional Tongan dances that display his heritage and celebrates with players and Cosmo. “Dancing takes no skill… just effort,” in a 2021 interview with Deseret News, he explained the approach. “You only regret not having a great time with the people that you love and the people you work really hard with.”
BYU’s culture does not center on alcohol, so the dancing becomes part of how they create that atmosphere instead, as the stakes of the upcoming game are already high. It was College GameDay’s first visit to BYU since 2009. Notre Dame leads the all-time series 7-2, and the game offers BYU a chance to make a national statement at home.
BYU reached this point at 5-0 overall and 3-0 in Big 12 play. The Cougars sit No. 8 in both the AP and Coaches polls. Their most recent result was a 24-10 win over Iowa State on October 9. The defense has held opponents to around 13-14 points per game through the early stretch.