Betting Odds Tab BYU’s Kalani Sitake as a Hot Seat Candidate
The new college football season is ripe with projections.
Top 25 polls and conference champion guesses, who’s most likely to make the playoffs, who will be bowl eligible and what player will run for the Heisman Trophy.
Those are the fun “popular” things to guess, and while those are good for some water cooler banter, it can be fun to get into the nitty gritty.
The ugly stuff, the dark side of college football if you will.
No im not talking about tampering charges, rather, what coaches may be running on borrowed time.
If a team struggles, the coach is the first to take blame, deserving or not.
Per 247 Sports, “between 500 to 600 coaches change jobs every year in the FBS.”
Some seek greener pastures, some retire, some are promoted and some, well they get canned.
Coach firings are nothing new in any level of sport from the Pro’s to your tee ball team as a kid, sometimes a coach just has to go.
In 2023, Jimbo Fisher was let go from Texas A & M.
Michigan State let Mel Tucker walk.
Nortwestern suspended and then booted Pat Fitzgerald.
Houston, Indiana, Mississippi State and Syracuse all made changes at the top by cutting ties and those are just some power 4 school examples.
It is not a matter of if, but when, a coach is to be fired in the year of 2024.
BetOnline has laid out what their oddsmakers think is the first shoe to drop in the newest iteration of the coaching carousel.
As fans root through Florida’s Billy Napier and the Gators immensely difficult schedule or question Mario Cristobal and his clock management out in Miami, fans can spot BYU head coach Kalani Sitake sitting just outside the top 5.
Sitake is one of five Big 12 coaches to make the list next to Dave Aranda of Baylor, Neal Brown in West Virginia, Cincinatti’s Scott Satterfield and a surprise appearance of Colorado’s Deion Sanders.
Cited at 10/1 odds, that would give Sitake about a ten percent chance of being let go per their odds as BYU battles through year #2 in the Big 12.
That’s not a high likelihood, but certainly not out of the question either and the number could rise or fall as the season moves on.
The Cougars have little expectations this year, which may be helpful or harmful come years end after going 5-7 last season with no bowl game to show.
Fans would imagine improvement is at the very least, expected.
The Big 12 has gotten stronger with additions like Utah and Arizona and BYU is being predicted by many as a team that likely wont hang around at the top.
After all the Cougars were projected to finish 13th of 16 teams in this years Big 12 preseason media poll.
As for Sitake himself, he has gone 61-41 during his 8 years in Provo and has a streak of 5 straight years (2018-2022) with a winning record and bowl appearance.
In those bowl games Sitake has a record of 4-2 and has finished two seasons in the AP Top 25 poll at #11 in 2020 and #19 in 2021.
The highest the Cougars have been under his tenure was the 8th spot in 2020.
Sitake’s worst record a head coach came in his 2nd season, going 4-9 in 2017.
As indicated by the AP Poll information above, his best season came in 2020 with an 11-1 record and an encore season in 2021 going 10-3.
Those are the only double digit win totals of his current career as a coach.
Sitake’s numbers are good, his influence high, but joining a new power four conference can change things.
No one wants to be known as the bottom dweller, the doormat, and at least according to BetOnline, they feel as if everyone is keeping a close eye on what BYU does to ensure that isn't the case.
BYU first takes the field Saturday, August 31st against FCS opponent, Southern Illinois, for what they hope to be a tune up game.
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