Eleven weeks, zero losses for Kalani Sitake’s BYU Cougars until Texas Tech Red Raiders came calling. Joey McGuire’s boys handed BYU a 29-7 reality check. Yet the biggest culprits weren’t across the field. It was his own team’s blunders that stung Sitake. With College GameDay live on campus and Patrick Mahomes looking on, a handful of Cougars gave a cringeworthy showing, while Texas Tech’s ferocious defense ground BYU’s top-15 rushing attack to a halt. And Sitake in no way tried to hide the culprits in the post-game presser.

On November 8, Kyle Ireland posted a clip of the presser, “Yeah, I mean, the muff punt was a big issue, you know, but, and then, you know, we had a missed field goal. Stuff like that, that’s one characteristic of us. I think we had a punt that wasn’t the first punt that, yeah, just went off the side of our leg. So, talking about the field position, we didn’t help ourselves at all,” said the head coach. Who was responsible for that?

Sitake’s special teams roared through the last two seasons, keeping opponents on high alert. The Cougars’ special teams unit racked up 144 points in 2024 alone as they earned the “best position group” tag from Phil Steele. Cut to the second weekend of November 2025, Sitake’s special teams were a nightmare. Parker Kingston muffed a punt, Sam Vander Haar’s kick went sideways, Will Ferrin missed a field goal, and Cody Hagen turned a simple touchback into a short return. Isn’t this the same Ferrin who gifted Sitake and co. a dreamy night against Utah, this time last year?

Ticking down to the final three seconds, BYU’s Ferrin drilled a 44-yard field goal, sending Rice-Eccles into a frenzy and securing a 22–21 victory in the rivalry clash. Out of BYU’s 22 points, a whopping 16 came courtesy of special teams. Cut to the present, Sitake’s special teams no longer get a shoutout in the post-game speech. The head coach continued, “I say all that, those are the mistakes, like kicking it off the side of your foot and making missing field goals. That’s stuff we can control.” 

Sitake’s squad’s opening drive got off to a rocky start with a shanked 19-yard punt. After Texas Tech went three-and-out, BYU muffed another punt at their own 17, giving Red Raiders kicker Stone Harrington an easy chance for his first field goal. Later in the second quarter, with the wind at his back, Ferrin came up short, missing a 51-yard field goal wide left. While bogged down by his homeboys’ mistakes, Sitake’s mood sank further as Texas Tech’s legendary tortilla-throwing tradition got banned.

Kalani Sitake shares heartbreak with Texas Tech fans

The tradition has been one of the major reasons Sitake has looked forward to when facing off against McGuire’s squad. “We’re looking forward to the game. You know me, I’m a fullback. Tortillas fly in the air. Give me some food so I can put it in,” the BYU head coach sounded all fun in The Triple Option podcast. But how did the funny tradition even start?

After the orange toss was banned in the Texas A&M rivalry kickoff, students searched for a new way to channel their game-day hype. That’s when an ESPN announcer dropped, “Lubbock has nothing but Texas Tech football and a tortilla factory.” And the rest is history. The students took the joke personally. Red Raiders fans had a running joke: the more tortillas flying before kickoff, the better the team was expected to play that night. Yes, that’s how it became part of their culture, which rival coaches like Sitake truly enjoyed. Game-day tortillas? 

Not anymore. Big 12 penalties have forced the Red Raiders to end the tradition. Texas Tech’s tortilla toss tradition now comes with serious consequences: a warning, a 15-yard penalty, and a $100K fine if fans don’t comply. So, Kalani Sitake felt the same sting as any Red Raiders fan. “I don’t have anything personally against what they do,” Sitake said, as reported by Thomas Goldkamp of On3. “For me, it’s sad because I want to see everything.” It was a brutal evening for Sitake- a 29-7 defeat topped off by the absence of his beloved tortilla toss.