PROVO - BYU’s early bye week may not be the ideal spot on the calendar, but Kalani Sitake isn’t treating it like dead time. After the Cougars opened 3-0 for the fourth straight season, the break is being used as a reset button: get healthier, keep building depth and get ready for a nine-game run that starts Oct. 3 at TCU.
“For the first three games, I feel good about where we're at,” Sitake said.
The No. 9 Cougars have already done the part that makes the next stretch possible.
They rolled past Utah Tech and Colorado State and picked up an important early conference win over Arizona, and in those games they were able to pull away early enough to give backups real snaps instead of just sideline viewership. That matters now, because once the bye is over, there won’t be another break.
“This week will be a work week, and so we'll have to get some things done,” Sitake said. “It's the only bye week we have.
We'll go nine in a row after this, and so we already knew that, had a plan for all of it to happen, and so we'll execute the plan starting today and then we'll go throughout the whole week. The only difference is we won't be playing a game, so this will be another work week for us, and I'm excited to see our team get better this week and then be ready to play against TCU.”
That plan includes using the extra time to get some bodies back, with tight end Roger Saleapaga and offensive lineman Kyle Sfarcioc among the players who missed Saturday’s game and could benefit from the pause.
Sitake has also made it clear that the early cushion was part of the bigger picture. The blowouts against Utah Tech and Colorado State weren’t just about putting games away; they were a chance to get younger players on the field and turn those snaps into something useful down the line.
“We're making it a competitive advantage for us, and so that's the whole point of getting more guys reps early in the games that we had control over and getting, especially this last one against Colorado State and in the Utah Tech game, getting those guys valuable reps,” Sitake said.
That depth work has already been tested by injuries. The safeties and running back rooms have both had players go down, and the extra snaps have at least given BYU a better read on who can handle real game action if the attrition keeps coming. Sitake knows the errors show up with that kind of rotation, but he values the payoff.
“It didn't go error-free, but those are valuable reps that if we do need to get to a depth, like we have seen with some of our position groups already, that if we do need to get to our depth eventually in the next nine weeks, that we'll be ready to roll, and the guys, it won't be their first time getting on the field and playing those type of situations.”
The most obvious example came Saturday, when freshmen running backs Journee Tonga and Devaughn Eka got extended work with the game well in hand. Tonga ran for 91 yards on 10 carries, and Eka added 28 yards on four touches.
“They're still trying to learn the game and trying to learn the playbook, and that's coming,” Sitake said. “You can see a little bit more that they're understanding the game a little bit more and understand the concepts. The offense is pretty difficult for our guys to learn, and I think throughout the next few weeks, especially this week, we'll start to see them learn the playbook a little bit more.”
Safety depth remains a live issue as well, especially after starting safety Raider Damuni’s injury. Kennan Pula got on the field in Fort Collins and finished with four tackles and a pass deflection, another small but meaningful piece of the evaluation process.
Sitake said the Cougars have been planning for this kind of stretch from the start, building their weekly workload around a season that has 13 straight weeks of preparation and play no matter where the bye lands.
“We're prepping ourselves to go 13 weeks straight. That's what we did from the very beginning, no matter where the bye falls, and then we adjusted the schedule and our workload according to wherever the bye falls in. Regardless, we plan on practicing, and being ready 13 times.”
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