Hiring Friends and Family

[snoscythe]

Sitake has (rightfully so at times) taken a bit of flak for hiring his buddies. I think that was justified in the instances where guys were hired with little to no experience.

1) Empey was among his most qualified hires (former HC at Snow, 11 years of college coaching overall) but had been away from the game since 2004.
2) Ty Detmer had no collegiate experience (though I blame this overreach on Holmoe caving to boosters as much as Sitake).
3) Ben Cahoon had just one mediocre prior stint at BYU.
4) Reno had zero experience coaching.

Now Kalani (with Grimes) has replaced those guys with these resumes:

1) 23 years collegiate coaching experience, 8 years as a coordinator, 2 years as asst head coach
2) 18 years collegiate coaching experience, 8 years as a coordinator
3) 7 years collegiate coaching experience, 5 years as a coordinator
4) 6 years collegiate coaching experience.

That's a hell of a lot better than the experience we had in our offensive staff rooms before. I don't care if they are Kalani's buddies -- they are upgrades across the board from what we had before. Yeah, some thought Empey was worth keeping, but Grimes is already an upgrade even from Empey, so I'd rather go out and get another coach that's an upgrade coaching another group than have two very good OL coaches on the staff.

1) Grimes
2) Roderick
3) F. Sitake
4) Pugh

Are all good hires. Even the least experienced of the 4 hire has more experience than Cahoon, Detmer, and Reno had combined.

College football staffs are nepotistic--you hire qualified guys you know and trust. Kalani put too much emphasis on the know and trust parts the first time around, and too little on "qualified". I'm okay with all of these hires, I'm just waiting for some accountability on the defensive side of the ball now.

[ABYUFAN]

Sitake has (rightfully so at times) taken a bit of flak for hiring his buddies. I think that was justified in the instances where guys were hired with little to no experience.

1) Empey was among his most qualified hires (former HC at Snow, 11 years of college coaching overall) but had been away from the game since 2004.
2) Ty Detmer had no collegiate experience (though I blame this overreach on Holmoe caving to boosters as much as Sitake).
3) Ben Cahoon had just one mediocre prior stint at BYU.
4) Reno had zero experience coaching.

Now Kalani (with Grimes) has replaced those guys with these resumes:

1) 23 years collegiate coaching experience, 8 years as a coordinator, 2 years as asst head coach
2) 18 years collegiate coaching experience, 8 years as a coordinator
3) 7 years collegiate coaching experience, 5 years as a coordinator
4) 6 years collegiate coaching experience.

That's a hell of a lot better than the experience we had in our offensive staff rooms before. I don't care if they are Kalani's buddies -- they are upgrades across the board from what we had before. Yeah, some thought Empey was worth keeping, but Grimes is already an upgrade even from Empey, so I'd rather go out and get another coach that's an upgrade coaching another group than have two very good OL coaches on the staff.

1) Grimes
2) Roderick
3) F. Sitake
4) Pugh

Are all good hires. Even the least experienced of the 4 hire has more experience than Cahoon, Detmer, and Reno had combined.

College football staffs are nepotistic--you hire qualified guys you know and trust. Kalani put too much emphasis on the know and trust parts the first time around, and too little on "qualified". I'm okay with all of these hires, I'm just waiting for some accountability on the defensive side of the ball now.

I'm not convinced that Roderick was a good hire. Experience of sucking is experience - but not actually an improvement on the sucking that was already in place. But I'll hope for the best

[EM_Puma]

I'm just waiting for some accountability on the defensive side of the ball now.

Purely as an armchair fan, I give the defense a pass this last season. I believe they did well enough considering how often the offense put them on the field all season. I don't believe anyone ever saw a BYU team that could not offensively cross the 50 yard line in a whole 60 minutes of playing time.

[snoscythe]

I'm not convinced that Roderick was a good hire. Experience of sucking is experience - but not actually an improvement on the sucking that was already in place. But I'll hope for the best

I would agree with you if Roderick was hired as the OC, but he wasn't. That's Grimes.

As a WR coach at the U, Roderick had 4 receivers wind up being drafted in the NFL.

Roderick as a WR coach over Cahoon? Mega-upgrade.

[ABYUFAN]

I'm not convinced that Roderick was a good hire. Experience of sucking is experience - but not actually an improvement on the sucking that was already in place. But I'll hope for the best

I would agree with you if Roderick was hired as the OC, but he wasn't. That's Grimes.

As a WR coach at the U, Roderick had 4 receivers wind up being drafted in the NFL.

Roderick as a WR coach over Cahoon? Mega-upgrade.

I thought that I read him listed as "Passing game coordinator". If that just means "WR coach" then I'll worry much much less

[hawkwing]

The problem with the hires is one of perception. By hiring his friends and family any slip up or bad years will have everyone instantly saying it's a nepotism issue.

[SpiffCoug]

I'll also give Kalani props for firing his cousin, Mahe. That had to have been a difficult decision and conversation. Hopefully this portends good things for Kalani going forward.

I want him to succeed because I want BYU to succeed.

[frdbtr]

I'm not convinced that Roderick was a good hire. Experience of sucking is experience - but not actually an improvement on the sucking that was already in place. But I'll hope for the best

I would agree with you if Roderick was hired as the OC, but he wasn't. That's Grimes.

As a WR coach at the U, Roderick had 4 receivers wind up being drafted in the NFL.

Roderick as a WR coach over Cahoon? Mega-upgrade.

This.

[frdbtr]

I'll also give Kalani props for firing his cousin, Mahe. That had to have been a difficult decision and conversation. Hopefully this portends good things for Kalani going forward.

I want him to succeed because I want BYU to succeed.

Kalani had some hard decisions this off season. Like above, I give him props because the conversations with family and friends where you have to tell them they are out of a job cannot be easy. I am also hoping he succeeds at BYU because I want BYU to succeed. I just hope that he also changes the culture and cleans up the lackadaisical attitudes that seemed to prevail last year.

[Gunk]

If things aren't righted next season, Sitake is gone.