BYU head coach Kalani Sitake discusses meaningful relationship with Steve Sarkisian
Steve Sarkisian’s apprenticeships under Pete Carroll and Nick Saban have been widely discussed but there’s a third legend, Lavell Edwards, who had an even earlier impact on Sarkisian.
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During his weekly press conference with media on Monday, Sark mentioned how much it meant to him that Edwards trusted the former quarterback’s input. Sark recanted the time BYU coaches mulled over potential play calls during an important timeout. Eventually Edwards, a 2004 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, turned to Sark and asked him for his opinion.
Sark’s circuitous path as a college athlete led him to take an official visit to BYU in 1995. On that visit he was hosted by fullback Kalani Sitake. Sitake, now the head coach at BYU, was asked about him assisting Edwards in landing the eventual two-year starter.
In his unassuming manner, Sitake downplayed his role.
“Sark is all about ball, man, and he saw a really good team,” Sitake said Monday. “I think the biggest concern for him during that time was if John Walsh was going to come out early for the draft or return for his senior year. I think all Sark was waiting for was that moment. I don’t want to sit here and act like I did a great job.”
Sitake would go on to intimate the environment Edwards created played a major role.
“Football at BYU speaks for itself,” Sitake said. “I don’t think he came because of a host or because we went and hung out — I don’t know, played ping pong or whatever it was. I think that he saw the camaraderie, the family atmosphere here, the love that the players have for one another and he was drawn to it. I was just a small part of it.”
Sitake discussed the bond former BYU players and coaches share.
“The thing that was really cool was how it doesn’t matter when you play,” Sitake said. “Me and Tom Holmoe (current BYU Athletic Director) speak the same language because we were raised in the same culture here. Tom played way way before me.”
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This culture certainly plays a strong role in Sark’s and Sitake’s continued relationship. Sitake spoke at length about how much it has meant the two have stayed close despite their different coaching trajectories and paths.
“When we got into coaching he was a GA at USC,” Sitake said. “When we were going to conventions and were nobodies — I mean, I still am a nobody — he was a GA for Norm (Chow) at SC and I was a GA here at BYU. We’ve always been in contact with each other and that’s because Sark cared to do that. Sark was a great quarterback, I’m just a fullback. For him to allow me opportunities to connect with him and then he had this trajectory in coaching that put him in a great spot.
“He became a position coach real quickly. I went to FCS, I went to Southern Utah, and he went to the NFL and did a lot of great things, got position coaching jobs and was never too big to answer a phone call or even to reach out. He would instigate a lot of the conversations. He would hit me up and communicate with me and see how I’m doing. He didn’t just do this with me, he did this with a lot of people. He became a head coach and a coordinator way faster than I did and was the same guy. Always the same, friendly, cared about me.”
Sitake is clearly thankful of Sark’s time but he shouldn’t be surprised. As he said himself, “Sark is all about ball.” Sitake is all about ball, too, just as their common denominator, Lavell Edwards was.
