Sitake, Damuni named Allstate AFCA Good Works Team nominees

NORTHBROOK, Ill. — BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake and senior safety Raider Damuni were today named nominees for the 2026 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team by the American Football Coaches Association and Allstate.

The Allstate AFCA Good Works Team recognizes college football student-athletes and coaches for their exemplary community service, academic dedication and impact on the field. The 2026 Allstate AFCA Good Works Team will be announced in September and include 11 FBS student-athletes and one honorary head coach. Later in the year, one student-athlete will be selected as the 2026 team captain and receive the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy.

SITAKE has guided the Cougars to back-to-back seasons contending for the College Football Playoff and earning bowl victories over ranked teams as a member of the Big 12 Conference. At 23-4 (.852) over the past two years, only Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State and Notre Dame have a better winning percentage than BYU in that timeframe.

In 2025, Sitake was named the Big 12 Coach of the Year while leading BYU to a 12-2 record and No. 11 final ranking in the AP Top 25. He was also selected as the recipient of the Maxwell Football Club Buddy Teevens Award, which was established by the Archie Manning family to honor coaches who have been innovators in growing and improving the game of college football.

Now entering his 11 season at BYU, Sitake guided the football program's transition into the Big 12 through principles of love, learning, humility, toughness, accountability and service in the community. In addition to the success on the field, he strengthened the program off the field through BYU’s Built4Life career development program, which was designed to empower BYU student-athletes academically, spiritually, and professionally through instructional services, academic advising, and life skills and leadership initiatives.   

After becoming BYU’s head coach in 2016, Sitake started the More2Life Foundation to help inspire and empower disadvantaged youth by encouraging them in life mentoring, education and athletic opportunities. Sitake also started a company and foundation with the ambitious mission of bringing employment opportunities around the world to third world countries. Sitake, Damuni and several others from the BYU football program traveled to Tonga this summer to open a new employment center that will also serve as an education center. Working in conjunction with BYU-Pathway Worldwide, which provides an accessible path to a college degree at an affordable price, the project provides a path to obtaining higher education and important employment opportunities. 
 
Sitake’s volunteer service goes well beyond the foundations and charitable organizations he has created. He is currently a volunteer working with youth ages 12-18 in his local congregation for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He also volunteers, helps promote, and donates to many community organizations, including, Kids on the Move (Autism support), National Kidney Foundation (dialysis and transplant patients), Utah County Boys & Girls Clubs (an organization Sitake belonged to as a youth) and the Live Your Dream Foundation (education scholarships for single mothers).

Sitake continues the community-minded legacy of his late mentor, BYU hall of fame coach LaVell Edwards, and his wife Patti.

DAMUNI, a 6-1, 210-pound senior from Provo, Utah, has played in 35 of 39 games for BYU over the past three years, only missing a few games due to injury. Over three seasons has collected 90 tackles (45-45) with three tackles for loss, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery, a sack and an interception

In addition to his success on the field, Damuni has a 3.61 GPA in the Marriott Business School — one of the top business schools in the country — majoring in Experience Design and Management (EXDM). Damuni has been recognized as Academic All-Big 12 (2025), CSC Academic All-District (2024) and been named to the Big 12 Commissioner’s Honor Roll twice (2024, 2025).
 
A two-year team captain on the field, Damuni is also an example of service in the community. He has been involved in a variety of service activities locally and internationally. He traveled with Sitake and others this summer to Nuku’alofa, Tonga, to set up the BYU-Pathway Worldwide program call center in Tonga that will help the locals obtain higher education, improve business English communications skills, with the goal of having better employment opportunities.

Earlier in the year he and teammate Ace Kafusi organized a service project to help communities along the North shore of Oahu, Hawaii, that were hit hard with major flooding. He also makes regular visits to patients at Utah Valley Hospital who are struggling with illness. Damuni also speaks regularly at local school and church events to inspire local youth to pursue education, and value learning and discipline. He also served a two-year volunteer mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in California/Okland San Francisco Mission (2021-23) and currently serves as young men’s advisor in his local church congregation. 

In addition, Damuni volunteers regularly to help serve hot meals and distributing food boxes to homeless and others in need of emergency shelter at the Food & Care Coalition of Provo. He has also partnered with the Utah Pork Producers Association and local meat processors to unload, pack, and distribute 35,000 pounds of donated protein to families statewide for the Utah Food Bank of Salt Lake City.  

Over the past three seasons two BYU student-athletes were named to the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team, including Tanner Wall (2025) and Tyler Batty (2023). Former BYU quarterback Riley Nelson was also a member of the Good Works Team in 2010.

For the third-straight year, Allstate is partnering with the Wuerffel Foundation to unify two of college football’s most meaningful community service honors — the Allstate Wuerffel Trophy and the Allstate AFCA Good Works Team. The Wuerffel Trophy is named after Heisman Trophy winner and College Football Hall of Fame inductee Danny Wuerffel, whose life mission is to inspire greater service in the world. The trophy is presented annually by the Wuerffel Foundation to the FBS player who best combines exemplary community service with leadership and performance on and off the field.