BYU football: Sitake continues to mold program his way

BYU Cougars - Arizona Wildcats 03.09.2016

I thought it might be something new instigated by coach Kalani Sitake, but apparently not. If you know how, or why, this tradition of not wearing helmets to the coin toss began, I"d like to hear more about it. Send me an email drew@sltrib.com.

I wrote for Tuesday"s newspaper a story about how it appears that BYU is making a conscious effort to portray a more sportsmanlike, clean-playing football team than in the past. BYU players and coaches said Monday that they aren"t doing it on purpose, but it is probably a function of Sitake"s personalty coming out in the actions of his players.

Whatever the reason, it is refreshing.

I wasn"t able to include all the comments in one article, so here are a few more as they relate to the new behavior, and the push to represent the school better than they have in the past:

Sitake on how trash talk on the field can lead to poor behavior:

"Our guys don"t engage in a lot of trash talk. I think a lot of it is friendly banter. We don"t want to make anything personal. So, that"s just what we believe. We believe in great sportsmanship, and respecting the game, and what it is all about. This is a team game, and so the focus is all on the team and what we do as a group. I have been really proud of how they handle themselves. I can"t say anything about stuff in the past, except I am grateful for the things that have been established here, and the foundation that Bronco Mendenhall set here. We are going to keep building on that and that is what we believe as a program, and what I believe as a head coach."

Sitake on BYU presenting flowers to the families of fallen MSU players and whose idea it was, and why:

"There are a bunch of guys on our staff that are always thinking about things we can do as a team. We try to represent more than just football, as a program. We have a lot of guys involved and looking into things we can do to make the world a better place with the role that we have as a competitor on the football field. We had a bunch of guys in the administration and our coaching staff that brought it up. I think Chad Lewis was one and we had a lot of guys discussing what we could do to honor them, and they actually gave us a choice to come out for the national anthem, and also the moment of silence, and we gladly accepted. We thought it would be good for us to support them, and their loss, and give our condolences.

We were able to compete and have a great game, but there is more to life than just football. And sometimes, we lose sight of that. This was one moment where our players can understand that and be part of the whole process of honoring others and showing people that we care."

Source: http://www.sltrib.com/blogs/byusports/4456898-155/story.html