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Vol. 36, Issue 19A– December 14, 2015
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Hanging Chad the Hang Up on Naming Coach
Okay, there was the recount several years ago in Florida between Bush and Gore. Now there is the recount in Provo between Sitake and Niumatalolo.
Ken Niumatalolo was in Provo today and will be in Annapolis tomorrow. Kalani Sitake was in Corvallis today but will be in Provo tomorrow. Meanwhile BYU fans are in limbo today, yesterday and tomorrow. BYU’s football team will be in Las Vegas tomorrow making way for a news conference of some sort in Provo tomorrow or the day after tomorrow without Bronco on the premises. Got it?
Neither do I.
The timetable gets even crazier. Last Thursday, Tom Holmoe and Brian Santiago bumped into Kyle Whittingham in the Salt Lake airport. The BYU duo was either going or coming from Corvallis where they made contact with and interviewed Sitake.
The story we now get from a Sitake source is that the job was offered to Sitake at more than the $1.6 million per annum that Niumatalolo makes at Navy and Sitake accepted and immediately put out feelers to his contacts for assistant coaches.
Done deal except that, again, according our Sitake source, a very, very prominent member of the BYU Board of Trustees, when told that Sitake would need a Board of Trustee interview, reportedly asked Holmoe why it wasn’t Niumatalolo that needed the interview.
Got it? Neither do I.
Holmoe reportedly, according to this Sitake source, told this General Authority that he had reached out to Niumatalolo several times and the Navy coach said he wasn’t interested. The GA then told Holmoe to hold it because he would call the Navy Coach.
Hence all the hullabaloo of this past weekend which involved a visit to Provo and Niumatalolo’s reaffirmation of his faith and renewed interest in the BYU job.
Meanwhile, none of this reportedly sat well with Sitake who thought the job was his after being offered it.
Now fast forward and Sitake is making a visit to Provo to supposedly be interviewed despite having several face to face interviews with Holmoe already in Corvallis. Maybe this interview is with the same Board of Trustee member who made the call to Niumatalolo.
Put your magnifying glass up to that hanging chad and tell me what you see.
Again, in the spirit of full disclosure and opposing viewpoints and hires, this Sitake source, which is one that I have experience with and is very credible, said that Sitake had already been in the process of assembling a staff.
This same source says that Sitake will or would have had a much better chance of putting together a staff for BYU than Niumatalolo because he actually has coaching contacts that have experience in the Pro Style passing game. Plus, he has better than decent defensive contacts with Kyle Whittingham and Gary Anderson.
According to this source, Niumatalolo’s contacts are option oriented.
Got it? Neither do I.
Names tossed around in this recent assistant conversation were former BYU players such as Justin Ena on defense who is currently a linebacker coach at Utah and Ed Lamb, currently the head coach at Southern Utah as an offensive coordinator.
Mark Atuaia is another name that popped up.
As one subscriber who emailed today said, “HB, be sure and let us know when you see the white smoke rising from Student Athletic Building.”
Got it? Me either. So far all I’ve seen is the smoke that seems to be coming from the dumpster fire that is this new coach hire is fast becoming.
One more smoke screen. I had lunch on Saturday with two UVU rugby players who were willing to bet me $1000 each, which is money I know they don’t have, that Sitake would be the new coach at BYU and he had already been hired. With all the Niumatalolo nirvana going on, I told them they were crazy. When I asked them how they knew all of this, they responded that they had roommates from last year with whom they still hang out.
I said so what? They said these guys were extremely close members of the Sitake family. I still told them they were wrong, but I didn’t take the bets. Now, I glad I didn’t. The only sure thing now is that BYU will eventually name somebody as their new coach.
The other sure thing is that the BYU dumpster behind the SAB will start emitting white smoke sometime this week and you won’t be reading about this smokiness in the BYU Alumni magazine, the Church News or Cougar Sportsline. Well, two out of three ain’t bad.
Until Tom Holmoe actually puts a match to this little Cougar campfire and we actually see the white smoke, I’ll take responsibility to keep the smoke spiraling and the current dumpster fire stoked.
I still think the job is Niumatalolo’s if he wants it. I look for him to weigh his options and talk to Navy again before deciding. He is still the only smokestack that matters and he should send BYU his smoke signal sometime soon.
That makes Sitake’s smoke subservient until Niumatalolo decides what he wants to do. That won’t keep Sitake from putting together his kindling and fuel to be ready to light his fire if Niumatalolo doesn’t light his own.
Got it?
Cory Calvert certainly got it. That would be the axe wielded by Dave Rose when BYU announced that Calvert would be transferring at the end of this semester on Friday.
That means that Calvert could play for another team in late December, a la Jamal Aytes transferring from UNLV and Matt Carlino transferring from UCLA, only in reverse. The most likely spot, in my opinion, for Calvert to land, is at UVU.
The deal was pretty well sealed when BYU had a shortage of scholarships that are needed for next season. Zac Seljaas’ stellar performance in Boulder didn’t help the Calvert’s tenuous situation either.
Television Timetable
BYU vs. Western Michigan (M Basketball)
Friday, December 18 at Provo
Tipoff: 7:00 pm MST
TV: BYUtv
BYU vs Utah (Football) Las Vegas Bowl
Saturday, December 19 at Las Vegas
Kickoff: 1:30 pm MST
TV: ABC