Kalani Sitake Lays Out What To Expect For BYU’s Spring Game
Mar 30, 2023, 1:35 PM
BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake discussed what fans can expect at the 2023 Spring Game. (Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
(Jaren Wilkey/BYU Photo)
PROVO, Utah – BYU football will host a spring game on Friday at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Well, it might be served to call it a spring practice, but fans can attend a spring event for the first time since 2019.
The spring practice kicks off at 3 p.m. on Friday, March 31st, and will be televised on BYUtv.
BYU head coach Kalani Sitake joined Hans & Scotty G on the KSL Sports Zone on Thursday, hours after Hans Olsen was officially announced as the new BYU football radio analyst. Along with chatting with his former teammate about the new radio gig, the eighth-year head coach discussed what fans could expect on Friday.
First open spring practice to fans since 2019
“The hard part is that it’s going to be on TV. It’s gonna be televised to everybody. It’s open to everyone to see, so there’s a sense of not letting people know what we’re gonna do completely on defense and even on offense. So I think we have to kind of dumb it down or water it down and water it down a little bit. But I think that’s OK.
“The main part of tomorrow is for our fans to connect, see us go through some live work and some practice stuff tomorrow. But also to have them see a lot of the newcomers and see a lot of the guys that are returning and how much they’ve progressed or how much they’ve gotten better since the bowl game. That’s the point of it.”
On Tuesday, BYU had a scrimmage that was 95 plays, replacing the scrimmage that was intended for last Saturday. The change was due to the snowy weather that continues to hit Utah. In that scrimmage on Tuesday, all of the quarterbacks except Pitt transfer Kedon Slovis were live, meaning defenders could hit the QB. Then yesterday at practice, the players only wore helmets with no pads. During the window of practice that the media could observe, the defense outplayed the offense.
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After Friday’s spring practice at the stadium, fans can watch former BYU greats such as Ty Detmer and John Beck in action again during the Alumni Game at 5 p.m. Last year’s Alumni Game concluded on a game-winning hail mary touchdown from Max Hall to Bryan Kehl.
“Then, for us, we get to enjoy time with a bunch of old timers running around throwing the ball, catching, and trying to entertain us. Hopefully, it’ll be as entertaining as last year,” said Sitake. “But the point is, we all connect and get together. I don’t know what the weather is going to look like. It may be cold, but it doesn’t really matter what the weather is gonna look like. It may be cold, but it doesn’t really matter. The people connecting is going to be the main factor for what we’re trying to accomplish tomorrow.”
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for sports.ksl.com and host of the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (Saturday from 12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU moving to the Big 12 Conference on Twitter: @Mitch_Harper.
