Kalani Sitake’s standing in the Big 12 is looking pretty clear these days: national analysts have him at the top of the league’s coaching pecking order.
USA Today’s Jordan Mendoza and On3’s Brett McMurphy both slotted the BYU coach at No. 1 in their preseason rankings of Big 12 head coaches heading into the 2026 season. That’s a strong nod for Sitake, who is entering his 11th season in Provo and now finds himself as the conference’s longest-tenured head coach after a wave of coaching changes around the league.
“Even without a playoff appearance, Sitake has built himself into the standard of coaching. He’s had winning seasons in eight of his 10 campaigns at his alma mater, the most of any other coach in the league, and he’s 57-20 since 2020,” Mendoza wrote.
“That comes with back-to-back 11-win seasons, with the Cougars finding their footing in the Big 12 and on the fringe of making the playoff, with a great chance to be back in the conversation one more time. There’s a reason Penn State wanted this man.”
McMurphy put it even more bluntly when explaining why Sitake landed at No. 1.
“In the past two years in the Big 12, no one has done it better than Kalani Sitake. The BYU alum has led the Cougars to a 15-3 record in Big 12 play, the league’s best mark.
Last year, the Cougars reached the Big 12 title game and in 2024 finished in a four-way tie for first place. Overall, BYU is 23-4 the past two seasons,” McMurphy wrote.
“Sitake enters his 11th year at BYU with an 84-45 record (.651), including double-digit wins in four of the past six seasons. Sitake’s success has garnered notice nationwide, including an offer from the Big Ten’s Penn State last year, which he turned down.”
Sitake’s rise comes at the same time Utah’s Morgan Scalley is just getting started as a head coach. Scalley, who spent the past decade as Utah’s defensive coordinator after a long run on staff, is one of four first-year head coaches in the Big 12.
The early rankings weren’t kind to him. Mendoza placed Scalley 15th out of 16 coaches, while McMurphy had him at No. 12.
McMurphy pointed to Scalley’s first game on the job, Utah’s Las Vegas Bowl win over Nebraska, as a promising start.
“Morgan Scalley‘s head coaching debut came earlier than expected, but he’s 1-0 after leading Utah to an easy victory against Nebraska in last year’s Las Vegas Bowl,” McMurphy wrote.
“Scalley has been part of Utah’s staff since 2006, including the past 10 years as defensive coordinator. In that stretch, Utah finished in the top half of the Pac-12 or Big 12 in total defense in nine of the 10 seasons.”
Mendoza also noted Scalley’s background and the challenge ahead.
“The Utes coach-in-waiting finally gets his shot after the strange departure of Kyle Whittingham. Scalley built Utah into a tough defensive program, and knows the landscape as well as anyone since his playing days in Salt Lake City,” Mendoza wrote.
“However, the Utes’ defense did take steps back in recent years, and Scalley will be compared to Whittingham a ton, as the fanbase awaits to see if he can sustain success when he’s in charge.”
The rest of the first-year Big 12 coaches landed in a mixed range. Oklahoma State’s Eric Morris, who spent the past three seasons as head coach at North Texas, was the highest-ranked newcomer, coming in at No. 8 for McMurphy and No. 12 for Mendoza.
Iowa State’s Jimmy Rogers, who has been a head coach for the past three years and coached at Washington State in 2025, checked in at No. 14 in both rankings. Kansas State’s Colin Klein, also in his first season as a college head coach, was last at No. 16 on both lists.
For now, the contrast between Sitake and Scalley is hard to miss: one is the league’s established standard, and the other is just beginning to find out where he fits.