The following quotes are selected from head coach Kalani Sitake's Monday media availability prior to BYU's game against Baylor on Oct. 16.
Head coach Kalani Sitake (Video)
On last week’s game
I’m excited about the new week. I’m looking forward to the matchup against Baylor. We have a lot of connections with their staff. We’re excited to see Jeff Grimes and Eric Mateos. They are guys that we care about and love. I want to see them have success. I’ve been involved with their head coach, Dave Aranda, and we share ideas and philosophies and I’m excited to see him as head coach.
We’re coming off a loss and there are things that we are looking to improve and get better. If we don’t learn from it, it’s going to be even worse. I love our players and the energy and the effort that they show. Last week was disappointing, but we will learn from it.
On what the team needs to improve
Everywhere needs improvement. Not to take anything away from Boise State, but we didn’t help ourselves either. The most miserable ones are the turnovers. That’s something that I need to correct as head coach. I thought we did a good job, but we had some issues with technique and we will get those fixed. We need to get our guys back on track. It’s humbling and it’s a good opportunity to focus even more. The key is learning from the mistakes and making sure that that stuff doesn’t happen again.
On facing Grimes & Mateos
The most important thing is to focus on the mistakes that we made as a team. As positions, groups and individual players. That’s our first focus. We need to scout our opponents and I’ve been impressed on what I’ve seen from Grimes. We’ve been very fortunate to have him here for three years and have Mateos here for a few years, too. They’ve had an impact on their team and program, just like they did here. They know our personnel, they know our team. That’s college football. That happens. I’m really more focused on us as a team and our issues first. That doesn’t mean anything if we don’t fix our problems from last Saturday.
On the game against Baylor feeling like a Big 12 game
Their offense has a lot of success. Their defense makes things difficult for a team to have success offensively. They’re efficient. They have a good group of running backs. Their offensive line is going to do their part. We’re going on the road and we’re going to be in Waco. I think our guys are going to embrace it and have fun. It’s a different region of the country, different type of weather. We’re excited to play football in Texas. I’m looking forward to our partnership in the Big 12 and I’m glad we get to have an earlier version of it this week.
On Kalani’s level of satisfaction with the program currently
I’m really pleased with the talent that we have on the team and the development of our players. We’ve been tested on our depth because of injuries. It happens. This season it’s more than we are comfortable with and we knew that was a possibility. From that point of view, I’m happy with the way our guys are preparing and performing. Coming off a loss is always difficult. You don’t want winning a game to affect how you prepare for the next game. When we lose games, we don’t want that feeling of feeling sorry for ourselves to continue. We just need to get to work. I’m really proud of the way the guys come to work every day. There are a lot of places that we can learn. I’m really anxious and excited about how they are going to approach this week.
On ball security
That’s something that we preach over and over again. I don’t think we can emphasize it more than what we already do. You can't go more than five minutes without hearing about it during practice. It's part of our identity and we really focus on it. Mistakes happen. With the fumbles, I still believe in those guys, but those hurt us. I don't think we need to do anything special this week. You will never hear me say there’s too much ball security.
Wide receiver Gunner Romney (video)
On personal accountability
In a team game, everyone’s responsible for their own job. If one of our boys makes a mistake, then it’s our job to step up and help cover that mistake. We win as a team and we lose as a team, so we’re not pointing any fingers at anybody. We can all do a better job at our own individual positions.
On not being able to get points against Boise
Credit to their defense; they have one of the best red zone defenses in the country, but at the end of the day it’s not what they can do, it’s what we didn’t do.
On BYU’s progress through the season
I think this team’s in a good spot. We’ve been playing really good football, and I think if we use this game as a wake up call, bring everything back into perspective and start doing what we know we can do, we can finish out a great season.
On not letting their loss turn the season
The season’s not over. We still have seven games to play. It’s in the past, let’s learn from it. Let’s look forward.
Offensive lineman James Empey (video)
On enjoying the process
We’re all about love and learning here. What better time to learn than after a loss? You only get so many chances to play football. You work all year round for just a few weeks during the fall, and you just can’t let any of them slip by. You gotta enjoy the moment, enjoy everything you can and work your butt off to get better each week.
On playing Baylor this weekend
I’ve been impressed with them on film, especially from a defensive standpoint. I’m excited for the challenge. I think everybody’s excited to get back to work this week and figure out how to get better and how to go after these guys.
On the team’s performance halfway through the season
We’ve done a lot of good things, and we’ve got a long way to go. We need to put a whole game together. We need to find ways to overcome adversity and continue to play as a team.
Defensive lineman Tyler Batty (video)
On what the defense could do better
I think the biggest thing is just playing stout, playing our brand of football, being physical, being tough and just sticking to that. As long as we do that, we’ll be OK looking forward.
On the team’s progress midseason
We’re continually improving, that’s something that’s never going to change. I’m sitting here in the middle of the season with only one loss, I think we know what we have to do. Our work’s cut out for us.
On moving on from their loss
Win or lose, we’re always trying to improve. I don’t see it being a major hiccup for us. We’re going to take what we can learn from Boise State and move on to Baylor. We’ll implement everything we can to make sure that we’re 150% ready to go and make sure we’ve cleaned up the mistakes from the past week.