Sitake no longer reports to Santiago

Sitake no longer answers to his own athletic director

Nine days before the opener, BYU rewired its own org chart. Kalani Sitake will no longer report to athletic director Brian Santiago; he now answers directly to a university vice president, while Santiago keeps oversight of BYU's other athletic programs. Brett McMurphy broke the move and did not bother hiding what he thought of it: "Looks like Sitake won that one."

Deseret News identified the new boss as advancement vice president Keith Vorkink, and outlets covering the athletic department, including lawlessrepublic, framed the change as the payoff of a real rift between Sitake and Santiago over resource allocation. It also lands three weeks after Pete Thamel reported Santiago was hiring longtime Kentucky deputy AD Marc Hill onto BYU's executive team — Santiago was building out his own front office at the same moment football was being carved out from under him.

None of it changes what happens on the field September 5, but it changes who takes the credit or the blame for it. Sitake enters his 11th season answering to someone above the athletic director's chain rather than through it, at the exact moment the program is getting the kind of preseason attention it has not had in decades.

Last season ended on a bowl win that was closer than it should have been

BYU closed out last season by beating Georgia Tech 25-21 at home on December 27, a finish that needed to hold off a Yellow Jackets team that made it uncomfortable into the fourth quarter. It capped a stretch that swung wildly in the final month.

In November, BYU throttled TCU 44-13, then went on the road and beat Cincinnati 26-14, then came home and put up 41 on UCF in a 41-21 win. Then Texas Tech happened — a 7-34 loss on the road that looked nothing like the three weeks around it — before the Georgia Tech bowl win salvaged the finish. That is the form book a fan carries into 2026: mostly dominant, one flat no-show, and a coach who got the last word.

There is no run to point to now — the record is 0-0 and stays that way until Saturday — but last season's finish is the only tape anyone has on this team, good or bad.

The No. 14 ranking is real, and fall camp did nothing to talk anybody out of it

BYU opens the season ranked 14th, its highest preseason ranking since 1985 — a year CFBKings points out ended in 11 wins and a trip to the Citrus Bowl. It is a number with real history behind it, not just hype, and McMurphy's own list of the most underrated teams of the CFP era put BYU alongside Indiana, Northwestern, Iowa and Boise State.

Camp backed it up rather than punctured it. Bear Bachmeier showed up 15 pounds lighter and, per Deseret News, is now processing the offense faster than his coordinator has seen from him — "he's always been a good decision-maker, but now he's making faster decisions than ever." Sitake called it the deepest roster of his 11 seasons in Provo, the kind of depth that lets a Power Four program absorb a loss it did not want.

It got tested almost immediately. Pete Nakos of On3 reported that Weylin Lapuaho, a three-year starting guard and All-Big 12 selection, is expected to enter the transfer portal — a real subtraction off the offensive line, and a reminder that even a top-15 preseason team loses players in August. How BYU answers that loss up front will say more about the ranking than the poll itself does.

Utah Tech is the tune-up before Arizona shows up a week later

BYU opens on September 5 vs. Utah Tech at LaVell Edwards Stadium, against a team that finished last season losing 10-33 to Eastern Kentucky. The line opened at -47.5 with the total set at 54.5, a heavy-favorite number that reads more like a formality than a forecast.

Arizona follows a week later on September 12, and that one carries more weight than a scoreline preview usually would — the Wildcats finished last season with a 19-24 loss at SMU and no number is posted yet; DraftKings will be the first book to price it. Between the reporting-line shakeup and a ranking nobody expected, this opener is really about finding out whether either storyline survives first contact.