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Are BYU Football & Kalani Sitake Feeling Pressure As Make-or-Break Year Begins?

The BYU Cougars are hiding who their starting quarterback will be Saturday when they open the 2024 college football season against the Southern Illinois Salukis and Jake Hatch said BYU football coach Kalani Sitake's tone and message Monday during his weekly press conference at Brigham Young University (BYU) leaves him with more questions than answers at this point.

Jake then talked about the release of the BYU depth chart that might as well be called the "OR sheet" with a hat tip to Jeff Hansen as the program is not tipping their hand ahead of the SIU opener at all, but the positive side of the release is that the future talent base for Jay Hill and Aaron Roderick appears to be quite strong with 10 true freshman dotting the depth chart.

Finally, the show wrapped up with a look at where Kalani Sitake stacks up nationally in the eyes of The Athletic as Bruce Feldman and Chris Vannini list him in the fourth of their seven tiers of coaches and Jake Hatch believes it's a fair evaluation of where Sitake stacks up at the moment with his showing in the Big 12 Conference set to reveal more about who he is as a coach.

Broadcast on:
27 Aug 2024
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The BYU Cougars are hiding who their starting quarterback will be Saturday when they open the 2024 college football season against the Southern Illinois Salukis and Jake Hatch said BYU football coach Kalani Sitake's tone and message Monday during his weekly press conference at Brigham Young University (BYU) leaves him with more questions than answers at this point.

Jake then talked about the release of the BYU depth chart that might as well be called the "OR sheet" with a hat tip to Jeff Hansen as the program is not tipping their hand ahead of the SIU opener at all, but the positive side of the release is that the future talent base for Jay Hill and Aaron Roderick appears to be quite strong with 10 true freshman dotting the depth chart.

Finally, the show wrapped up with a look at where Kalani Sitake stacks up nationally in the eyes of The Athletic as Bruce Feldman and Chris Vannini list him in the fourth of their seven tiers of coaches and Jake Hatch believes it's a fair evaluation of where Sitake stacks up at the moment with his showing in the Big 12 Conference set to reveal more about who he is as a coach.

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I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill when it comes to the starting quarterback position for the BYU football program, but the way that Kalani Satake decided to shut down all chatter about it in his press conference, quite forcefully, might I add, leads me to think there might be some more question marks about that position group than originally thought. You are locked on Cougars, your daily podcast on the BYU Cougars. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. What's up, everybody? I'm Jake Hatch, your host here on Locked On Cougars, resident of BYU insider. Thank you for making Locked On Cougars, your first view and/or listen of the day and appreciate all of you who we like to call every dayers. Right here on your original daily podcast focused on the BYU Cougars. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Fandold. Now through September 22, all Fandold customers can bet $5 and get a three-week free trial of NFL Sunday Ticket from YouTube and YouTube TV. Visit fandold.com/lockedon to get started today. Alright, BYU held their first weekly press conference yesterday in Provo via Zoom with the media to talk about the upcoming game against Southern Illinois, and quite literally from question one asked of Kalani Satake who I actually asked the question and said, "Kalani, are you ready to announce your starting quarterback is going to be?" He said, "Nope, we are not doing that." The rest of the day, that set the tenor for quite literally the rest of the press conferences that were held with the media. Also coordinator's corner that Greg Rubell hosts on BYU TV and BYU Radio. Aaron Roderick was evasive at best about the quarterback situation, and Kalani Satake, man, he got pretty testy about this. We kept getting brought up about different things about the quarterback position, and I know that Kalani understands that we in the media have a job to do. I don't think he took anything personally, but man, was he forceful with some of his answers. I'm just going to let you hear a little snippet of one in particular. I think it was early on, it was midway through. Him essentially telling the media, "Stop asking. Here you go." Kalani, have you decided that your starting quarterback is going to be this weekend? Yeah, I think you guys have the depth chart, so we kind of have an idea. We know our plan, we know what we're going to be doing, just not ready to tell everybody our game plan yet, so we have an idea of what we're going to do and how we're going to execute our offense, and what we're going to do in all three phases, offense, defensive special teams, so we're excited about it. Kalani, does this mean that we're not going to find out who the starting quarterback is until he runs out on the field on Saturday night? Yep, exactly. Okay. That's why it's listed as an OR, so you keep asking the questions. We have a plan, guys. We know what we're doing. We've been through this before, and we're going to be just fine. What's holding you and A-Rod back from naming a starter, or was this by design all along to just wait until game day? I think it wasn't all by design until we decided that we didn't have to. I think we were trying to respect the process of everything, and then we see that we're in a really good spot, and we have two really good quarterbacks, and honestly, all our quarterbacks are really good. It's more like we just want to get out there and play the game. You guys will see it. I don't think you need all the answers right now, so you'll get them when they come. There you go, Kalani Satake, and he got testier and testier as the day wore on, as it were, when it came to that press conference. Later on, he essentially said that you guys will know when you need to know about the starting quarterback position for BYU. I love Kalani Satake. Let me be very blunt about this right up front. I've got a very good working relationship with BYU and their head coach. The situation at hand, though, is Kalani Satake on edge for a particular reason, because I'm not going to lie. I had at least two media members. I'll read one of them. I know I have the text message read in front of me, I'll pull it up right now, who texted me during the middle of this press conference, and we have back channel communication amongst the media. But one of the questions asked me about this directly sent to me. He, speaking of Kalani Satake, seemed more on edge today than usual. I said, "Yeah. He seems more agitated." That was my response. I don't know if it was Kalani Satake being on edge, and he's worried about his position, worried about his offense, worried about his football team going into this game against something in Illinois, or if he simply missed breakfast, and he was a little hangry, H-A-N-G-R-Y. And I know all about hangry. I've got family members, and I love them absolutely to death, but when they get hangry, they get unreasonable. And I'm hoping it's more of the latter with Kalani Satake. I hope maybe he just had a bad breakfast and didn't agree with his stomach, and he was upset about that. Or, like I said, he maybe skipped the meal, and it just, it was, it was that time for him to get some food in him, and obviously, you know, that whole commercial about, "Hey, you need a Snickers, you know, that, have a situation." Because quite frankly, if BYU is this worried about their quarterback position going up against the Southern Illinois Salukis, and be it far from a dead and great SIU, but they are an FCS program. BYU is a sterling 18-0 record in their history all time against FCS-level programs. BYU should be able to go out and handle their business against the Salukis. I know that they're ranked 11th in the FCS preseason poll. Yes, I know that they have made it to the second round of the FCS playoffs, the last two seasons running. Yes, I know that they have beaten an FBS team, speaking of Northwestern in 2022, and Northern Illinois last year in terms of notching FCS versus FBS upsets the past two seasons. They are a formidable FCS team. But if this is causing Klonysitake this much heartburn and this much consternation about his football program that he has to seemingly play cat and mouse with the media about his quarterback position, he's got a lot bigger things, a lot bigger fish to fry, as it were, because if he's this on edge against Southern Illinois, what's next weekend? What's next going to look like? What's next going to look like when BYU heads to Laramie and the Wyoming Cowboys? The week after that. Heaven forbid, what happens when Kansas State, who is right on the heels of Utah as one of the favorites in the Big 12, will he open Big 12 play against the vaunted Kansas State Wildcats? How on edge is Klonysitake going to be when that comes about if he's this on edge right now? So, once again, I sincerely hope it was just Klonys needing to get some food in him and he was back to being his jovial old self the rest of the day, but I just look at this. BYU should be able to handle SIU no matter if it is Jake Retsloff or Gary Bohannon starting for BYU. I am firmly saying it right now, I've said it since last Friday on this podcast that Jake Retsloff will be the starting quarterback for BYU, I believe that is to be the case. And Gary Bohannon, if BYU does what they need to do against the Salukis, very well could see a lot of action in this game, even if it requires him relieving Jake Retsloff. There is no situation I feel like in this game that you don't see both quarterbacks unless BYU is just intent on saying no, Jake's our guy or Gary's our guy and they're going to ride that pony the entire game. I see it as a situation here, the BYU wants to get a firm evaluation of where things stand with these quarterbacks and this is the perfect opportunity to do that even though I do believe Jake Retsloff will get the start. But I go back to it. What does Kalani Satake so on edge about here? Is he feeling the pressure, the walls closing in on him, is he hearing all the chatter about how there are some BYU fans out there who believe that this is his final season if things don't go well for the BYU football program? If that's the case, all he needs to do is march into Tom Hormel's office and tell me and say to Tom, tell me, am I coaching for my job? That would answer that question for him. I know Kalani fairly well. I want to say it was just him having an off day, but man, it was an interesting press conference, but all the same, I believe BYU will handle their business against Southern Illinois. They should handle their business against the Solukis and if they do just that, I think Cougar Nation might be able to breathe just a little, little sire relief. Also, I'll add this little tidbit. Bill Connolly, SP Plus, ESPN, the analytics, absolute guru. He has got BYU with a 70% win percentage against Southern Illinois. That is actually closer to a pickum in the FCS parlance than almost any game out there. Typically, when an FBS versus an FCS game comes about, if you have a win percentage total of lower than 95%, well, you're an upset alert and that's what BYU is in this game. The projected score from SP Plus is 34 to 26. You want to have Cougar fans on edge even if you win this game, win that game by eight points. Win it by one score. See what the hot takes look like on social media after that. Fill your business, go out there, and just do what you need to do and let me also add this caveat. Maybe Kalana Satake is putting on a show. Maybe he's sounding all agitated and upset about a situation just to make us in the media and you and Cougar Nation feel like he's feeling the heat, whereas it's all a show and he's quietly confident sitting back there in his office saying, "All right, we got some cooked up for SIU." If they go out there and blow the doors off the Solukis, let's say they win like 42 to 10, we'll maybe come out and say, "Hey, got you guys." We'll see what happens, but it was an interesting press conference all the same. The official depth chart is out for BYU, but it's our good friend Jeff Hanson from Cougar Sports Insider and give him help. Brigham said, "It's more of an org chart versus a depth chart. We'll dig into that next. Some of the things you need to know about that depth chart, which includes an oar between those charting quarterbacks. We have more on that and momentarily as we roll on right here on Lockdown Cougars." Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Five Hour Energy. Now, Five Hour Energy is here for you guys no matter what you need to do in your day. A lot of us are tired. It feels like we hit a wall in the afternoon. If you're tired after lunch, you're not alone. In fact, research shows them more than 70 percent of us hit the wall after our lunch. 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If you have not done so already, check out Locked On College Football, your second listen today. Get caught up on all of the news and the off-season talking points for the upcoming season, whether it's the SEC, the ACC, the Big Ten, or as BYU and the Big 12. You can check all of it on Locked On College Football, Spencer McLaughlin, get you covered and get you caught up on everything you need to know about college football. Going into week one, check out Locked On College Football on YouTube or wherever you need your podcasts. And of course, it is a proud part of the Locked On podcast network, your team, every day. All right. BYU's depth chart is out. Now, Jeff Hanson is right. He's got a lot of horse on it. And I'm actually kind of surprised that BYU did what they did with the oars that they put on that depth chart. But I also understand, going back to our previous conversation about Kalani Zidake, why they are doing it. BYU wants to make SIU prepare for every inevitability, every probability, everything under the sun. They possibly can muster from their vantage point. And I completely understand it. Do I completely agree with it? Not really, because I look at it and say, "You know what? This is an FCS team. You don't have to hide that much." But it's college football. And until there is essentially a, I don't know how you say it correctly, a uniform way of going about depth charts, injury reports and the like, whether that comes down from the NCAA, more likely from the conferences, because into the Big Ten and the Mac are requiring game day availability announcements. Now Texas Tech has kind of bucked the trend nationally. They actually put out a release yesterday with essentially an injury report that had guys out for the season. Out for the game this coming week for their opener against Abilene Christian and also guys who are questionable for the game against Abilene Christian. That, man, that's revolutionary. The day that Kalani Zidake does that, I will be absolutely floored. And it's nothing against Kalani, it's nothing against BYU. It's competitive advantage the way that they've gone about things. But the depth chart for BYU has a few notable things that I want to note them. So obviously, Jake Retsloff and Gary Bohan with the OR at quarterback. No QB3 listed. That was interesting. Whether it's McKay Hillstead or Tracy Borgay, it's anybody's guess. Now we also have ORs between the running backs. L.J. Martin, Hinkley-Ripati, is your top two in terms of co-starters with Miles Davis and Polkati. Heunga has the backups, but they have the ORs there. I'm not surprised by that. I think that BYU is quite literally going to play all four of those running backs. There's no reason to run L.J. Martin 30 times against Southern Illinois and risk an injury to him in that game. Let him get in there. Let him get some run maybe in the first and second quarter by halftime. You have coolant on the bench over there while guys like Ruppati, Davis, and Heunga handle the rest of the load. The other one that I saw a couple of you point out on a lockdown cougars inside a group in terms of your reaction was the wide receiver position. There are eight receivers listed with a bunch of ORs there as well. Chase Roberts and Jojo Phillips, Darius Laster, and Keelan Marion with an OR there and Cody Epps and Parker Kingston. I'm urging you, do not be surprised with those six names in particular being listed there as the top six receivers for BYU. Fessi Satake's history and BYU just overall under Aaron Roderick's tenure suggest they will play essentially a six-man rotation at wide receiver and those six, they are truly the best six on BYU's roster and they are the top returning production from that unit outside of Keanu Hill who is BYU's starting tight end. I look at it as you know what, this is actually I think shaping up where BYU is going to have a bunch of bodies that will throw at opposing teams and fingers crossed knock on wood everything you need to do to muster good juju, BYU stays healthy, they have got a ton of depth and that's depth that they did not have a season to go and that obviously is positive. On the offensive line you have four established starters, Kayla B-Tian left tackle, Whelan Lappuahoe left guard, our good friend Connor Payett's center and then Braden Kaimert right tackle. There is an OR all sort right guard, Sonny Makasini and Austin Leusa are competing there. Wouldn't surprise me to see them rotate in this game. I thought on social media, was it, I don't remember who put it out there, if you see this podcast and you were the one that put it out there, I apologize for not giving you the direct credit. But somebody I saw and I wish I would have bookmarked the tweet, they said that based on the ORs they were seeing on the depth chart, they were saying BYU is approaching this game against some of the noise if it's a pre-season NFL game and they really are having open tryouts in this game. And that very well could be the case, BYU may be looking at all options, getting a feel for which guys are most deserving of playing time and that's the perfect time to test that out. Now you can't screw around too much because as we mentioned SIU is a very, very talented FCS program but go out there, let these guys have some run and see what you're capable of. Well, one surprise and one non-surprise, surprise to me, to look at this and see Logan Latoui as a co-starter with Isaiah Bagnon. Now Logan has been very good in training camp, let me be very clear about that but I thought Isaiah Bagnon with his experience, the fact that he's a returning starter, I thought BYU would do him the honors of putting him as the clear cut starter at opposite end, apparently not, Logan Latoui has made his move there and it feels like it's a neck and neck battle at that position. A position you should not be surprised by because I had been talking about this guy all training camp long. There's been a lot of talk about safety and who's going to start at safety for BYU? You know what I mean? You guys asked me, "Well, we're at Rader de Mooney, Jake, what about crew Wakley? What about Michael Harper?" You know who the starter at free safety is and he doesn't have an oarn next to his name? Tanner Wall. Yes, Tanner Wall is going to be a guy that you're going to want to get to know. I've mentioned it a couple of times for those of you who are everydayers on this podcast, at least in the last week, the name to know in that defensive secondary is Tanner Wall. He's the free safety and he's the free safety for a reason. He has been very, very good in camp. Every time I have watched him out there, he's been solid, if not spectacular and it's cool to see a former walk-on who transitioned from wide receiver to the defensive backfield, getting a start ahead of guys like Rader de Mooney who were bonafide four-star prospects and I'm not taking anything away from Rader or Michael Harper or Talon Alfrey. There's a lot of depth on that safety group, but that strong safety position has got three oars on it, whereas free safety has Tanner Wall and then an oar with Tommy Prasas and Falatao Saw Tuwala behind him. So, interesting developments across the board when it comes to BYU's depth chart, but I also want to add one other thing. Did you notice how many true freshmen are on this depth chart? Well, our good friend Casey Lundquist over at Cougs Daily, part of the Sports Illustrated channels, he pointed it out and I did the math myself, I started looking at that, ten true freshmen are on this depth chart for BYU football. That is a very, very cool thing to see. Now, I think it could freak some of the out thing and well, Jake, they're going to be relying on these true freshmen to make up significant portions of their depth this season? Yeah, that could be a little bit scary under the circumstances, but also understand BYU had their best recruiting class to date under Klana Satake, particularly on the defensive side of the football. That talent is manifesting itself and showing itself early on in this season, and that is a positive for the future of the BYU football program. That means if you can retain that talent, continue to hone its craft, develop it, and let it grow at the pace you hope it grows at, those are guys that are projected to be the stalwart defenders and stalwart players overall for future BYU teams in 2025, 2026, 2027. And that sets you up to have some bedrock players you can build around, especially on defense. I look at Tommy Prassus, I look at Fala Tasa Tawwala, that's cool to see them being the co-backups at free safety. You also look at guys like Villiami Pua, you look at guys like a Reiner Swanson at tight end. Look how he hung up running back, Cody Hagen, Tayi Nakua, who else was on that list. Ephraim Asiata, Tommy Prassus, Jonathan Cabay, and Trey Alexander at cornerback. All these guys are going to get an opportunity to make an impression for the BYU football program, and that bodes very, very well for what BYU's evaluation was of these players, and bringing them in and giving them an opportunity to compete. I know that some veteran players may lose playing time to these young players, but that's the simple nature of this game. If you cannot be the best on the field at your position, BYU has to play the best players available. There's just, Kalani said it before, and he'll say it again a thousand times. Best players play, and that absolutely has to be the case. Loyalty to a veteran, et cetera, it's all good and dandy, but in the circumstance BYU's in right now, where they need to win games and win them right now, you got to play the best players, and that bodes well with those 10 true freshmen making up parts of that death chart for BYU. There's a lot of talent in the wings for the BYU football program, and given the adequate time to develop, and obviously hopefully they stick around, there's the transfer portal out there and the like, but so long as they stick around with the BYU football program, that is a very, very positive thing, and that is you project forward for the BYU Cougars of something you can say, okay, they know what they're doing when it comes to the recruiting game. Now, can they elevate that just a little bit more and bring in some even more talented players? They're cooking with Greece, as they like to say, and that'd be a really, really fun thing to track in the coming seasons for BYU and Kalani Satake. All right, we'll finish up today's show, we've talked a lot about Kalani Satake on this program. We're going to finish it up with Kalani Satake. Is he a mid-tier coach nationally? Well, one national publication thinks so, and we'll try and make heads and tells of that as you roll on right here, on locked on Cougars. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Ultimate GM, they have a brand new game called Ultimate College Football HC, and it's an incredible mobile game that allows you to get it in the nitty-gritty details of being a college head coach. For those of you who play EA Sports College Football 25, think of this as like kind of the dynasty off-the-field stuff when it comes to being a head coach. The best part is you can be in control of everything with regards to your program. Even BYU, if you want to do that, with our friends over at Ultimate College Football HC, excuse me. 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If you want to have a chance to go out and watch the Cougars take on Southern Illinois this weekend, join a "LockedOn Cougars Insider" group and get in the mix today. You get a 14-day free trial, just $5 a month afterwards to support the podcast and get updates of what I'm hearing about BYU football. For example, yesterday morning, "LockedOn Cougars Insider" knew who BYU's 14 captains were hours before the official announcement came from BYU. Comes your phone in the form of a text message, you can interact with me one on one via text message as well. So, sign up today, click on the link in the show notes below whether you're watching this on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast and join us on the "LockedOn Cougars Insider" group. All right. The athletic has done a really, really good job covering college football top to bottom. I absolutely love the fact that they cover college football as heavily as they do. Well, Chris Vanini and Bruce Felbin, two of my favorite riders over the athletic, came out with their coaching tiers for the 2024 football season. Now, what this is, essentially, is breaking down where each head coach nationally fits in the pantheon of greatest to worst coaches and there are seven tiers that they have listed here. The top tier are national championship winners and there's quite literally only two members of that championship tier, tier one, as they call it. Those are Kirby Smart and Dabbles Swinney. Well, when you got national championships like they do in their trophy case, guess what? You get to be near the top. Now, Kyle Whittingham, Utah's arch nemesis, the former BYU alum himself leading the University of Utah, he's in tier two this year as he leads the Utes hopefully towards a college football playoff berth, which BYU would love nothing more, than to knock off the Huskies, I don't know the Huskies, the Utes, I just saw Washington school across my feeds, that's why I mentioned the Huskies, but they would love nothing more than knock off the Utes and keep them from making the college football playoff. But where does that have BYU head coach, Kalani Satake? Well, I can hear some of you out there grumbling and we should be in tier seven. I know that there's angst around Kalani, I get all that, but I think it was a measure of respect that BYU head coach Kalani Satake was listed in tier four from Chris Venini and Bruce Feldman. They said this about the group. This is the quote very solid group, they're not on the hot seat and they'll rarely have a terrible season. Now, you can argue that four and nine seasons that Kalani Satake had in 2017 and five and seven a season ago, those might qualify as terrible seasons in your mind, but apparently not in this circumstance. It's also good that he sees a lot of movement, I mentioned that Neil Brown moves up two spots after taking West Virginia to a nine and four season, coming up from tier six to tier four. They don't really write anything about Kalani Satake, but they have him in this tier. It's the middle of the road right here for Kalani Satake. This season could go a long way to moving him up, moving him down, or keeping him right where he's at in this pantheon. But here's the coaches that are around him in this mix. Bill O'Brien from Boston College, who's a brand new head coach, who's coached in the college level before, obviously at Penn State. He's in this mix. Pat Narduzi, the guy that seems to have a bone to pick with everybody, especially when it comes to players leaving his program via the transfer portal, he's on this list. Jeff Monkin from ARMY, who's done a very, very good job. Reason I mentioned Washington is because Jed Fish is in this. He's actually jumped up two tiers into the mid tier here. Mike Elko from Texas A&M, Dave Doran from NC State, Neil Brown, as you mentioned from West Virginia. Brett Boulima from Illinois, and then Kurt Signeti from Indiana. Is that the caliber of coach that Kalani Satake aspires to be? I don't think so. He absolutely aspires to be a top tier bonafide, not G5, a P5 coach. He wants to be a top tier coach. Now, a lot of this is circumstance because I talked about this where guys can jump tiers two and three at a time if they have successful seasons. Let's say BYU puts together an eight and four campaign against the type of season they're looking at. BYU is slated to face all five of the pre-season top 25 teams in the big 12 this season. It is a very, very tough schedule for BYU, but four of those teams come to Provo, Utah. That is an advantage for BYU. If you can handle your business at home and not some upsets, that is going to change the whole tenor I feel like for this football program. And if BYU would say were to beat the odds as it were and go eight and four, it wouldn't surprise me to see Kalani Satake in tier three next year. And if they were to just absolutely just blow the doors off everybody and heaven forbid go for ten wins, I'd see him maybe in tier two at that point. I think this is a fair evaluation of where Kalani Satake is at in his head coaching tenure. You may disagree and I welcome your comments. Drop them in the show notes below whether you're watching this on YouTube or you want to wait you're going to be on social media if you listen to this regular podcast format. Let us know. But I look at this as Kalani Satake getting I think a fairly good evaluation overall. I mentioned some of you probably are grumbling, well he should be like tier six and he should be on the hot seat. Kalani has done a fairly good job and I also want to caution you guys, those of you who want Kalani Satake out for lack of a better term, who's the guy you're going to slate to replace him? Is it Jay who who is his current deputy? Is it Kellen Moore from the NFL, you're going to be able to get BYU to pony up enough money to steal him from the NFL all luck, Kevin Young to the BYU basketball program via the NBA? It's going to cost a lot of money. Is BYU willing to dip back into that pool to pay let's say six, seven million, eight million dollars for a football head coach who's by the way been only a graduate assistant to my knowledge at the collegiate level speaking of Kellen Moore? I just don't know who the like for like replacement or an upgrade in terms of replacement is for Kalani Satake. Now I'm not paid to make that decision that is Tom Holmo's decision obviously is BYU's athletic director, I'm sure that he's got a list of guys he would consider on that shortlist, but I don't think it's very long. I just don't see anybody out there that tells me you know what, in blaring lights, that's the guy BYU needs to go get if Kalani Satake ain't it for the Cougars. This season will tell us a lot of things about Kalani Satake. I think it will tell us a lot about his program as well, but I do think it's a little too early to consider that Kalani Satake is on the hot seat. I just, I don't see making a transition to the power for level giving a guy two years and then saying, yeah, yeah, by the way, get out. I just don't see that being a tenable situation as special or university it is as unique as BYU is, but maybe I'm wrong about that. Maybe Tom Holmo has a plan that I am not privy to and I will never be privy too, but I just don't see that being good business on BYU side of things. All right, that's where I'll leave it for today's show. Coming up on tomorrow's show, we catch up with Connor Pay. Talk about the season opener. Talk about what he expects to be different for BYU this season, so stay tuned for that obviously will be out there practice later on this afternoon with media availability, so notes to come on that as well. So until tomorrow everybody, thank you once again for making lockdown Cougars your first listen to the day. Of course, thank you to all of you for every day or with us right here once again on the locked on Cougars podcast. So visit fandule.com, fandule, America's number one sportsbook. [MUSIC PLAYING]