BYU has turned the page to 2026, with the Cougars holding their first of 15 spring practices on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a nice day. I\u2019m glad we were outside and I\u2019m excited about the team. I thought we had a really good practice. It\u2019s a really good start to 2026,\u201d head coach Kalani Sitake told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201c… We\u2019re not in game shape yet, but we don\u2019t have to be now. We\u2019ll have to be in game shape by the time we get to fall camp, but they\u2019re definitely stronger and a lot of guys are bigger, and so we\u2019re going to keep working on that and trying to progress as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are the most notable highlights from Sitake\u2019s comments to the press.<\/p>\n
On how the team has dealt with the departure of Parker Kingston<\/p>\n
\u201cThe team\u2019s fine. The guys are great. We have a strong culture on the team, and so yeah, we\u2019re fine.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the goals for spring ball<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the goal is to make sure we\u2019re a better team by the time we finish the 15 practices … I think we\u2019ve got a good feel of things right now and got some great momentum. <\/p>\n
\u201cI think the key is to get everybody, especially the new (players) in a position where they can understand our scheme and then put them in a position to compete.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the wide receiver room<\/p>\n
\u201cThey look good. We\u2019ve got a bunch of talent. We retained some talent. I think we\u2019re going to be really good in that position at receiver and be good at tight end. I like the backs. The O-line looks good, and quarterbacks look really good, too.\u201d<\/p>\n
On new transfer tight ends Walker Lyons and Roger Saleapaga<\/p>\n
\u201cWe knew them before they came here. We knew them in high school. They\u2019re exactly what we thought. They\u2019re athletic, they\u2019re big, they\u2019re strong, they can run routes, they can catch and they can block. <\/p>\n
\u201cRight now we\u2019re not in in pads yet, but I\u2019m pretty sure with their athleticism, their talent, they\u2019re going to be fine blocking.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the three offensive linemen BYU added from the transfer portal<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to play the best five linemen, but if you look at last year, we had a good rotation in there, too. I trust Coach (TJ) Woods and (offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick) on getting the O-line ready. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese are guys that we knew from before, too, and so they\u2019re a great fit for our program and for our culture and for the university.\u201d<\/p>\n
On facing higher expectations this season<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been staying humble and hungry from the beginning. I think it\u2019s going to take an incredible amount of humility. We\u2019re not doing things the same that we\u2019ve done in the past. <\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year we change a few things to get our team ready, but the thing that\u2019s consistent is we have some great leadership on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
On LJ Martin\u2019s injury recovery<\/p>\n
\u201cHe looks awesome. He\u2019s right on target (to recover on time). <\/p>\n
\u201c… I like the way LJ\u2019s leading. I mean, he\u2019s so impressive with his leadership skills, just how he\u2019s been getting better every year. I\u2019m glad he came back because I think the team really needs him and I think it\u2019s an opportunity for him to become an even stronger leader than he was before.\u201d<\/p>\n
On maintaining relationships with players who were previously recruited by BYU<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope people feel that when we recruit them, we try to connect with them and their families, and if they choose to come here, great, and if they don\u2019t, then we\u2019re not like petty or angry at them. <\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, it\u2019s their decision. If we follow our Savior and just love people, it\u2019ll come back to help you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BYU has turned the page to 2026, with the Cougars holding their first of 15 spring practices on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":495327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[40544,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-495326","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-byu-cougars","9":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=495326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/495327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=495326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=495326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=495326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}