Kalani Sitake finally chose to stay at BYU. Or did he? The head coach signed a lucrative contract extension this week to remain in Provo after Penn State made him their top target. But the way he described his decision-making process raises some eyebrows.

In a revealing interview on Wake Up Barstool, Sitake admitted he was rather forced by circumstances (or BYU) to make the decision as soon as possible.

“I never want the program to be about one player, and it definitely won’t be about one coach. So, trying to be about the team has been the key,” Sitake said. “But also, when looking at these jobs and opportunities, I was really just trying to wait it out and try to see what we can talk about after the game. But things got sped up, and once people started hearing about what was happening with me and even what was going on with my negotiations here, I had to just make a decision cause it’s not fair to the team, not fair to the staff and the fans, if I were to be thinking about another job.

So I had to make a decision. And so that kind of sped it up a little bit for me, and I had to make a decision yesterday, and the decision was to stay here, coach the team. If the decision was to leave, I would have had to make it then, and I wasn’t ready to do that yet.” 

That last line is particularly telling. He wasn’t ready to leave. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he was ready to commit to staying either. It sounds like Sitake wanted more time to weigh his options. But once word got out about Penn State’s interest and BYU’s counteroffer, the decision was forced on him whether he liked it or not.​

The timing was not in Sitake’s favor. He’s preparing for BYU’s first-ever Big 12 Championship Game appearance against Texas Tech on Saturday. Penn State had been quietly searching for James Franklin’s replacement, and by Monday, multiple national outlets reported that Sitake had emerged as the Nittany Lions’ primary target. 

ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported that the two sides had met and discussed staffing details, with Penn State offering a deal worth eight figures annually. BYU immediately scrambled a counteroffer to keep their beloved alumnus. The school eventually landed on a package worth approximately $9 million per year. 

Sitake has been at BYU since 2016. He has frequently called coaching the Cougars his “dream job.” But his comments on the Wake Up Barstool show that even dream jobs have their limits. In the end, BYU opened its checkbook wide enough to keep him. But Sitake’s own words suggest that he was rather forced into the decision to be loyal than actually being loyal to his team.

Sitake’s message to Penn State: “They’ll be fine.”

One of the best moments from that Wake Up Barstool interview was watching Connor Griffin and Kalani Sitake sitting opposite each other. Griffin, a Penn State alum and Barstool producer, sat there in a full Nittany Lions jumpsuit while Sitake politely explained why he wasn’t coming to Happy Valley. Griffin played the heartbroken jilted lover perfectly. He wished Sitake the best while everyone on the show joked about how the coach had just crushed Penn State’s dreams. But Sitake kept it classy and basically gave Penn State fans a pep talk about why they shouldn’t panic.​​

“I want to say that there’s been a lot of interest from a lot of different schools. But those schools are amazing. They have great leadership and an amazing fan base. They’ll be fine. You look at the talent that they can bring there, they’re going to be fine. And so I’m glad you got the nice-looking jumpsuit there. We’re going to have to send the jumpsuit out to Provo Dave because he’s giving us some luck.”

The “Provo Dave” reference is what really ties this whole thing together. Dave Portnoy, the founder of Barstool, visited BYU in October for Fox’s Big Noon Kickoff show. He basically fell in love with the place and called himself “Provo Dave” ever since. When rumors started swirling about Sitake potentially leaving for Penn State, Portnoy went all-in on social media with a “Stay Kalani Stay!” campaign, saying BYU football “can’t exist without Kalani” and neither can Provo Dave. So when Sitake joked about sending a BYU jumpsuit to Portnoy while Griffin sat there in Penn State gear, it was a perfect little callback.