BYU’s Kalani Sitake Sternly Clarifies Cougars’ Position On Potential Washington Game

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – BYU head coach Kalani Sitake joined the ESPN College Football Playoff Rankings show and clarified the reports about the potential game with Washington.

Reports swirled earlier this week stating that BYU wanted to see where they were ranked in the first CFP Top 25 rankings or they didn’t want to play Washington in Seattle.

Sitake put all of those reports to rest on Tuesday on ESPN.

“It just didn’t work out for whatever reason,” said Sitake. “But there’s this narrative out that we were hiding, or ducking or waiting and that’s just not true. It’s a false narrative. I want to make sure everybody understands, we’re not afraid of anybody. We will respect everyone that we play. But there’s no fear in this. But it’s not anything unique to us. That’s what makes college football great. Nobody’s afraid of anybody. We’re not afraid of Washington, they’re not afraid of us. That’s why we dedicated our lives to this game. To be honest with you, we have two weeks left, that are open December 5 and December 19, that we’re willing to play football. If there’s anybody that are actually having availability to play those games, we would love to do it.”

Take a look at the full #CFBPlayoff Top 25 rankings for games played through November 21.

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Why Washington Game Didn’t Happen

ESPN host Rece Davis asked Sitake why the game with Washington didn’t happen.

“Well, it wasn’t because we were scared, that’s for sure. You know, it was because things didn’t work out. We practiced yesterday, we were ready for this game. Nobody was more frustrated and disappointed than our players and our coaches,” stated Sitake. “We were looking forward to this game. It just didn’t work out for whatever reason. I don’t want to get into the specifics of it. I respect Washington, I respect the Pac-12 conference, they have to make decisions that’s best for them. We have to make decisions that are best for us. We’ve been committed to playing football. From the very beginning. We’ve asked our original schedule, we’re excited to play football with the depth and the type of team that we have. ”

CFP Committee’s Perspective On BYU

During the ESPN CFP show, Gary Barta, who is the CFP Selection Committee Chariman was asked why BYU was ranked so low at No. 14.

“Well, the committee is very impressed with BYU,” Barta told Rece Davis. “Zach Wilson is definitely a Heisman candidate, playing at a high level. They’ve beaten three or four teams above .500. But as you look at their schedule, and that’s certainly where the committee went and looked at their best win is against Boise State. Boise was short handed in that game. So the committee’s very impressed with BYU, but certainly schedule compared to the teams around them came into play.”