Kalani Sitake is staying put as Brigham Young’s head football coach — and not coming to Penn State, as first reported by On3 and confirmed by ESPN and several other media outlets. For Penn State, on Day 52 of its head coaching search since James Franklin was fired on Oct. 12, that’s the way the cookie crumbls.
One of Sitake’s biggest backers is Jason McGowan, founder and CEO of Crumbl, who mounted a campaign on X that drew over 2.2 million views, 3,500 likes and 1,500 messages imploring Sitake to stay at BYU.
More than cookies, it seems that dough had a lot to do with Sitake turning down Penn State, which reportedly offered him a multi-year deal worth more than $11 million annually.
According to Pete Nakos of On3, “BYU’s Kalani Sitake is staying in Provo. Had emerged as a top target in Penn State’s coaching search. BYU is committing $10 to $15 million of NIL on top of revenue sharing. New deal is currently expected to pay Sitake roughly $9 to $9.5 million annually over deal.”
Sitake was the likely Mystery Man that a few State College-based writers and national media figures like Adam Breneman, the former Penn State football star who transferred to and graduated from UMass, and CBS Sports commentator Josh Pate, had been writing and talking about — but not by name.
In BYU’s last two seasons under Sitake, the Cougars had a record of 22-3 in the Big 12 Conference — only their third season in the league. They are set to face Texas Tech in the Big 12 title game this Saturday. This season, BYU is 11-1 overall and 8-1 in the Big 12 in 2025. The Cougars were ranked No. 11 in Sunday’s Associated Press Top 25 poll.
Sitake has an overall record of 83-44 at BYU, and is 56-19 since 2020. The only other FBS schools with a better winning percentage in that time are Alabama, Georgia, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Oregon.
WHO’S STILL IN PLAY?
Sitake is the latest big-name coach who has been mentioned as a failed target of Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft. In that mix have been such coaches as Curt Cignetti (Indiana), Matt Rhule (Nebraska), Kalen DeBoer (Alabama), Lincoln Riley (USC), Brent Key (Georgia Tech), Jeff Brohm (Louisville), Bob Chesney (James Madison), Mike Elko (Texas A&M) and Eli Drinkwitz (Missouri).
Sitake’s decision to stay put at BYU — where he was a player and longtime coach — is similar to the decisions made by Brohm and Key.
It may also buttress the case for Penn Stater interim head coach Terry Smith to get the job fulltime with the Nittany Lions. Smith has rallied a team that began the year ranked No. 2, then faltered under Franklin. And in the process, Smith has coalesced the Penn State fan base.
Smith is a former Penn State team captain, with over 100 career catches, and has been a Penn State assistant coach and then associate head coach since Franklin was hired by Penn State in 2014. Smith guided the 2025 Nittany Lions to a 3-3 record (6-6 overall), with three consecutive wins to go bowl eligible, after very narrow losses to Iowa on the road and against No. 2 Indiana in Beaver Stadium. Numerous Penn State players, football lettermen and alumni have called on Kraft to remove the interim tag from Smith.
In addition to Kraft doubling back to some of the aforementioned coaches, also still in play are Brian Hartline, offensive coordinator and wide receiver guru at Ohio State; Iowa State’s Matt Campbell (107-70); and former Penn State linebacker and assistant coach Al Golden, the former head coach at Temple (27-34/20-12) and Miami (32-25/17-18) and the current defensive coordinator with the NFL Cincinnati Bengals. Golden was the defensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2022-24.
Kliff Kingsbury, the offensive coordinator for the Washington Commanders in the NFL, may be a coach worth exploring. He was head coach at Texas Tech (35-40/19-35) and with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals (28-37-1). Kingsbury, 46, has tutored such quarterbacks as Jayden Daniels, Caleb Williams, Kyler Murray, Patrick Mahomes and Johnny Manziel. The Commanders’ quarterback coach, Tavita Pritchard, was hired as the head coach at Stanford late last week.
Pritchard fits the Smith/Brohm/Key model: He is a former Cardinal quarterback who from 2010-2022, had several roles with Stanford, varying from defensive assistant to running backs coach, wide receivers coach and offensive coordinator.
