Reports: BYU coach Kalani Sitake spurning Penn State and will stay with Cougars

Penn State’s coaching search continues.

According to multiple reports, BYU coach Kalani Sitake will stay with the Cougars. Penn State had reportedly been pursuing Sitake in recent days as the Nittany Lions are still looking for a head coach.

No. 11 BYU is 11-1 this season and will play Texas Tech on Saturday for the Big 12 title and a spot in the College Football Playoff. The No. 5 Red Raiders are the only team to beat the Cougars this season.

Sitake has been at BYU since 2016 and the school is 83-46 in his tenure. BYU has had just two losing seasons during his time in charge and has won at least 10 games in four of the past six seasons.

A season ago, BYU went 11-2 and beat Colorado in the Alamo Bowl. The Cougars tied for first in the Big 12 but missed out on a spot in the conference title game due to tiebreakers.

Since going 2-7 in conference play during its first season in the Big 12 in 2023, BYU has gone 15-3.

A former BYU fullback, Sitake, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, came back to his alma mater after two seasons as Oregon State’s defensive coordinator in 2014 and 2015. Before he was at Oregon State, Sitake was an assistant coach at Utah for a decade. When BYU hired him, he became the first Tongan to be a head coach at the top level of college football.

According to On3, Sitake is set to make over $9 million a season at BYU with a new contract extension. Though the coaching market has been reset in recent weeks, just 13 college coaches made over $9 million in 2024, according to USA Today's database.

Where does Penn State go now?

Sitake’s commitment to stay at BYU is massive for the program as the Cougars have emerged as a power in the Big 12. It’s also a blow to Penn State, as the Nittany Lions are the last major power conference program searching for a head coach.

As six teams across the SEC moved quickly to secure their new head coaches in recent days, Penn State’s search has continued. The Nittany Lions fired James Franklin after a three-game losing streak dropped the team to 3-3. Franklin is now the head coach at Virginia Tech.

Interim coach Terry Smith led Penn State to three straight wins to get the team to 6-6 and a bowl game. Is he a real candidate to succeed Franklin? Coaches like Nebraska’s Matt Rhule, Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea have signed contract extensions with their schools. Rhule’s contract extension came during the middle of the season after he was immediately named as a candidate at Penn State following Franklin’s firing.