Kalani's two-edged sword of the Polynesian Pipeline

I'm excited about Kalanai. And I'm excited about a number of the members of his staff. But of all of the things that have been said, I haven't seen anyone else bring up this topic.



My biggest worry for Kalani is also one of his biggest assets: the cultural expectations of the polynesian community.



Specfically, there's an expectation that when one person "makes it" they'll lift others up along with them. I was encouraged at his introductory presser that he acknolwedged that his polynesian heritage makes up an important part of who he is, but is not what defines him.



This concerns me in two ways in regards to his staff: 1) Will he hire someone in the community rather than the best person who can do the job? and 2) Will he be able to fire someone from within that community who is not doing their job well?



I had hesitated bringing it up, hoping that nothing would materialize to substantiate that concern, but after seeing the full roster of completed coaching staff, I am a bit concerned. Not only has only 1 of the 13 people on staff (Kaufusi) previously done their job at an FBS position, half of the 12 staff under Sitake are Polynesian. That kind of over-representation could well indicate preferential, non-meritorius treatment.



Now, I'm not saying that these guys won't be great hires. I don't know. I sure hope so.



But as a group, they're green and culturally tied to Kalani in tight and complex ways that extend beyond "business" to family. That's a dicey mix. Odds are that at least one will underperform--and that has nothing to do with being Polynesian, just statistical likelihod that with such a large group doing a new job at a new level for the first time, it's unlikely that all are going to be a success. If that happens, will Kalani be able to fire family?



Honestly, it'll be a tough balance. I don't envy him.



In the meantime, I wish every success for the new staff so that we never have to find out the answer!

Good post.



I love each member of this coaching staff individually. I'm confident for them to become good coaches. I'm also a little nervous that there will be some growing pains as they get there and not all of them might make it.

Good point. You are exactly right. Kalani will have to make tough decisions that impact perceptions of the Polynesian community. His hiring of several Polynesian staff members could lead to serious complexity if things don't go smoothly.



Perhaps equally difficult is dealing with the perceptions general community. On more than one occasion people have asserted that he was hired due to race. Now an assertation that BYU is hiring his staff due to race. Is there really an "over-representation" of Polynesian coaches on the staff? What percentage you think is appropriate? Do you really think that Kalani is making racist decisions, which BYU administrators are approving, that will jeopardize the program? Or is it more likely that he is hiring the best people for his strategy and program that are willing to come to BYU on the terms that BYU is willing to offer?

Kalani has the same problem that Bronco and Whit have had to deal with: lack of contact outside the

immediate coaching family and circle of friends. It would explain the ethnic makeup of the BYU staff.



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Commoner wrote:
Kalani has the same problem that Bronco and Whit have had to deal with: lack of contact outside the

immediate coaching family and circle of friends. It would explain the ethnic makeup of the BYU staff.



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You may be right, but I don't know if the circle of friends and coaching family is as limited as one may think. I know the all poly camp held every summer brings a lot of coaches from around the country to not only participate, but also evaluate the players, so this gives opportunities to also expand his contacts in the coaching world.



BTW commoner, welcome to cougarcorner, keep posting.

That's a normative question on how many there "should" be. I don't know how you'd answer that in a credible way.



Objectively, though, Polynesians make up 0.5% of the US population (Wikipedia) and about 4% of the NFL players (70 players in May 2015 according to Forbes and 1696 NFL players (32 teams x 53 players). So the share on the BYU football staff is statistically over represented by 10 to 100 times, or one to two orders of magnitude. That's pretty huge.



I explicitly didn't want to make this about race, and I haven't used any racial language besides identifying an ethnic group. Rather, this is about the complications around the expectations of a close-knit community.



You could make a similar argument about the share of BYU players on staff (more than 90%), but while there is a brotherhood among BYU players, there is not the same level of culturual expectation or "family" among BYU players as there is in the Polynesian community. And hiring BYU players to coach at BYU is a natural. Nobody would bat an eye at having a high share of Polynesians working for the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame, but it would be weird to find that 50% of the PFHOF staff were BYU grads.



Looking at these numbers, how would you answer your question of whether the staff is being hired by merit or by cultural connections?

Commoner wrote:
Kalani has the same problem that Bronco and Whit have had to deal with: lack of contact outside the

immediate coaching family and circle of friends. It would explain the ethnic makeup of the BYU staff.



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That's probably the best alternative explanation. I had considered writing on it, but didn't want to confuse the issue. If that explanation is true, then it means that Kalani's network is really thin--with the exceptions of Detmer (who Holmoe orchestrated with Steve Young to connect with Kalani) and Cahoon (who had already had the same position--joinging Kaufusi as the only two coaches to have done before what they're being asked to do now), all of the staff is from OSU or SUU

I had an interesting conversation with a friend of mine whom I trust, but take this as what it is, two guys talking.



He told me that Kalani didn't want any Bronco guys on his staff and the only reason Kaufusi made the cut is because they desperately want the remaining Kaufusi boys to play football at BYU. That in fact, Tidwell did want to continue coaching but was never considered for a spot on the coaching staff, but that he can likely find a spot somewhere in the administration.



In a lot of ways, I think it makes a lot of sense to make a complete break from the old staff, considering how polarized the fan base has become.

First, I don't believe there is an objectively correct proportion of Polynesian coaches, or any other ethnicity. I believe head coaches like being employed and do whatever they can to assemble a staff that will make that happen.



Based on nearly a decade of direct experience in hiring of faculty at BYU, I do know that many people vastly over-estimate the number of candidates that are qualified, eligible, and interested in working at BYU. Most searches in the college I am in really have 2-3 reasonable candidates at most. There is no reason to believe the coaching search is any different. As such, I believe that the previous comment by Commoner is correct. We just don't have tons of candidates to choose from for coaching staff. This has several layers- candidates need to be worthy/willing to work at BYU from a spiritual perspective, professionally qualified to work at BYU, interested in actually coming to BYU, and a fit for Kalani's approach to football.



This results in very few viable candidates. In the context of Bronco's coaching regime, which I personally believe was very successful, this resulted in several "reaches" that are similar to what is currently happening. They were rightfully questioned then, just as Kalani's hires are rightfully being questioned now. I disagree with the assertion that this, "could well indicate preferential, non-meritorius treatment." I really don’t think that Kalani, Holmoe, or the Board of Trustees would approve hires of that type.



I propose an alternative, that Kalani, Holmoe and BYU are doing the best they can in the context of a very limited pool. If Kalani feels it important to make a clean break from the previous coaching regime, that would further limit the potential hires. The small number of people left to choose from could easily result in a different ethnic composition from previous staff groups based on chance combined with the likely possibility that Bronco's network has a different ethnic composition than Kalani's.

Great discussion. That's totally plausible. Most people's networks tend to look a lot like they do.



There isn't a "correct" proportion, but it is clear that the current staff is a statistical outlier--by several standard deviations. Whether that's due to preferential treatment or to homogeneity of personal networks, we probably won't be able to tell for sure. In reality, it's may be a combination.



But regardless of how the staff got that way, Kalani will have a tough time if things don't go well because of the cultural expectations of the group--which I totally respect and appreciate. That just create challenges.

As a Samoan, I was a fan of Sitake until he hired mostly Tongans. :lol:

I think the strategy is to recruit the Polynesian kids by having an island staff. It just might work.

I think we are missing the point.



So, you are looking at statistics but you might be drawing from the wrong population. At BYU we are looking for predominantly mormon athletes that understand the mormon values of no sex and alcohol. In a perfect world all kids would understand this, but they don't. BYU also can't limit itself to just the mormon population, but it needs a solid base core of mormons so that they can take a chance on the outliers. So I propose that we shouldn't draw the number from general population, but from % of mormons themselves. The percentage of tongan, samoan, and otherwise polynesian members is much larger when drawn from LDS population.



Especially when you consider their priority number 1, which is to win the trenches.



If you want to "win the trenches" with primarily LDS players then you would be crazy not to have a dedicated percentage of your staff to people that feel most comfortable with your #1 recruit priority.



Kalani's hiring and firing ability is yet to be proven, but I like the idea that he didn't want any of Bronco's guys. This is his program, and I have a feeling that there would be a lot of friction between the two styles.

I don't think there's a greater share of Polynesians in the LDS church than in the NFL. Polynesians make up only 4% of the NFL player population; I'd be surprised if Polynesians made up 4% of the LDS church, even just in Utah--they make up only 0.7% of the total Utah population (US Census). And even if the share were of Polynesians were TWICE as large in the relevant population (high school football players who could make it at BYU in terms of football, academics, and honor code) than in the NFL--which I doubt--Polynesians would still be statistically overrpresented on the staff by 500%.



Look, I think there's a lot of good that can come out of the composition of this staff. But there will also be challenges. It will be a two-edged sword.