Kalani Sitake Media Availability - Houston

The following quotes are selected from BYU's Monday media availability prior to BYU's game at Houston on Friday, Oct. 16 at TDECU Stadium in Houston, Texas on ESPN. 

Head coach Kalani Sitake
Full interview here
After last week’s performance, we learned quite a bit as a team of things we can work on that are very fixable. We’ve had good opportunities to work a little bit after the UTSA game to get a jump start on preparing for this week’s game. It’s a short week so we’re looking forward to getting back at it. You can see from Houston’s roster that there is a lot of experience returning and a lot of depth. What sticks out is their athleticism and speed; they have a lot of play makers. They also have a quarterback that seems really comfortable in their scheme this year. Dana Holgersen has done a great job in putting together a really solid team that has a lot of explosiveness in all three phases. It’s going to test us and we’re looking forward to the matchup. Our guys are going to have to get ready to work and get ready for a big-time game this Friday.

On the challenge of being targeted by opponents due to national ranking
We saw it with the UTSA game. They had a mission in mind and wanted to see how they matched up. We’ve been in that position as well when we’ve faced teams that were ranked and we’ve been the underdog. For this position, it’s a matter of that we can’t stop hunting. We still have a lot of things to prove and things we can do better.

On what makes wide receiver Gunner Romney a standout player
The guy works hard. When he first got here, he didn’t do much talking, but came in as a true freshman and probably worked too hard. It probably helps having a brother on the team that can throw him the ball whenever he wants. When you look at his family and their background, it’s a family of hard workers. That work ethic carries onto the field. It’s not very often that, as a coach, you have to tell a player to slow down a little bit. He’s a great leader and example. A huge credit to our receiving corp. for being ready this year – it has allowed Gunner to lead the way with his example. We lost three seniors last year and they were able to pick it up and roll with it because of guys like Gunner and Dax Milne.

On the road game matchup and playing in front of fans for the first time
I don’t think you could tell a difference between home and away games the first four games because there were no fans at all four of them. I don’t know how many fans will be at this game but that will be something different we haven’t seen all season. The guys are excited and I believe there will be an opportunity for family members to attend. That’s way better than what we’ve had the first four games. It adds to the excitement and the opportunity for these guys to really shine and play at their best.

On what helped Zach Wilson progress from last year to this season
There are a lot of different variables behind it and I know a lot of attention goes to a couple of things. One variable is the work ethic of Zach and his family. You also have to look at the mentoring and teaching he is getting from Aaron Roderick and Jeff Grimes. You have to look at the opportunity for him to be a veteran and be more comfortable. It’s also a combination that he has a lot of wonderful teammates that have played a lot of football. He’s got a solid O-line group in front of him to protect him. He’s got receivers that can catch the ball and running backs that can run the ball to keep the offense balanced to keep teams guessing. All those variables, and probably a lot more that I didn’t mention, are contributors to his success. But, number one is himself, his work ethic and representing his family.

On the player leadership within the team
There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes with the players. The key is for them to collaborate with the coaches and each other. As coaches, we’re going to show the things we think we can improve on as a team and the players can do the same. I like the player’s being involved. Always having the coaches giving the praise and criticism isn’t the right way to do it. I think you can share that with the whole team.

BYU wide receiver Gunner Romney
Full interview here
On how his body is feeling
I feel good. It’s football so you will always have a couple bumps and bruises. You are super sore after the game. But no major injuries, just feeling a little sore and ready to get work all of that off this week.

On his leadership role
I have never been a super vocal guy. I am not really the type of person to yell and get people fired up that way. I think in other ways just kind of taking people aside individually and saying hey we need to see this out of you or just bringing the energy in practice and making sure everybody feels that intensity and urgency. It can just be in small conversations and stuff like that when you just need to take that role and express what needs to get done.

On responding from the last game
I think we are seeing it in a positive light. I think this week we feel like we have a chip on our shoulder again. It wasn’t necessarily a wakeup call because we did get the win and we are moving forward but I think everybody is ready to go because we have a short turnaround this week, so it feels like we have that urgency.

On the offense’s success
I think everything is clicking right now. Our offense is super experienced so most of the guys that are playing and contributing have a couple years under their belt. I think that experience and helping the younger guys fit into the system and knowing what is expected has really helped us all mesh together and play really well. The play calling has been really good, and everybody has stepped up and is filling their role really well on the offense. I think overall our line is playing amazing, our running backs are running super hard, our quarterback is getting the ball where it needs to be and our receivers are making plays. Everything is coming together really well right now.

On playing Houston
It’s going to be really fun. It’s a Friday night game so we are going to have the whole country watching. It’s our first game with fans so it’s going to be different because it’s been kind of weird these last couple games. Everybody is really excited, and we are fired up because we have been hearing everything about our strength of schedule. But we are excited to go out. Houston is a good team, so we are ready for the challenge and to amp it up this week.

BYU offensive line Brady Christensen
Full interview here
On staying focused for Friday’s game
It’s definitely a huge game for us. We always say each game is the biggest game, but this is the biggest game of our season so far. We know that so we have a lot of urgency. We have one day less to prepare so we are very urgent. We even started to prepare yesterday by watching film on them. We are excited and need to be ready to go and be excited for the challenge.

On helping the offense get back into it
I think a big thing with our team this year is we know that we will face adversity. Each game we will have adversity so the main way to overcome that is just with extreme effort and loving each other up. I always just try to tell our guys to forget about the last play and just play our hardest the next series. It’s just loving each other up and that’s how we deal with adversity when it strikes.

On the offensive success
I think the experience is obviously huge, we have a lot of experienced guys. The comfortability of being in this offense since we have had this offense for a few years now. We all feel very comfortable and know what everybody’s doing instead of just knowing what your job is. We all have a better understanding of the offense and you need that to be able to run a fluid, explosive offense.

BYU defensive back Troy Warner
Full interview here
On being a leader when things aren’t going well
I think it is important as a leader to keep the guys levelheaded, even when the emotions are high.  It’s important that we keep guys in it and our heads in and help them not to dwell on it. They need to think about what they can do in the next series to do better. We dealt with adversity in that game, but I am glad we grinded out the win.

On playing Houston
I think Houston presents such a great opportunity for us to show everybody that we are capable of accomplishing great things this year. Even though we had a little hiccup this past game, we are able to clean those things up and execute those things at a high level. Houston is a great team and we are excited for the opportunity.

On what this whole season has been like
It’s been a roller coaster of emotions. There was a point in time where we thought, we wouldn't get to play this year and that worried us. We just continued to have faith and kept our head down and grinded. We knew at some point the work would pay off. I think that’s the reason why we have found so much success this year because of the work we did in the offseason regardless of what we were hearing. We were disappointed that we didn’t get to have the schedule that was planned for us, but we looked at the new schedule as every game was an opportunity to show the country that we are a really dominant team and are really good. I feel like we’ve done a good job of that so far. It’s about being consistent and maintaining that pride.