BYU football coach Kalani Sitake recently sat down with Pete Nakos from On3 and blew everyone away by revealing just how close he came to taking the Penn State head coaching job back in December 2025. After Penn State fired James Franklin, they targeted Sitake as their top choice, sending the rumor mill into overdrive. Sitake explained that the negotiations escalated at lightning speed, catching him completely off guard.
Think of it like this: imagine you’re sitting at your kitchen table with your family, and someone walks in with an envelope containing more money than most people see in a lifetime. That’s exactly where Kalani Sitake found himself. Penn State didn’t just call; they came hard and fast. James Franklin had just been fired almost a couple of months earlier, on October 12, 2025, and the search had grown desperate. Sitake wasn’t just another name on a list; he was the top target.
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“It got real quickly after people started to find out about it. The decision-making process had to happen almost overnight,” Sitake said to Pete Nakos of On3. “Looking at what Penn State was doing and what they were trying to offer, I had to decide what I wanted, what I considered compensation for me, and what I was chasing.”
Penn State reportedly offered him an incredible deal worth more than $10 million per season. Sitake admitted that seeing numbers like that can make anyone stop and think seriously about their future. At the same time, the offer forced him to look deeper into what truly mattered most in his life and career.
Penn State reportedly offered him an incredible deal worth more than $10 million per season. Sitake admitted that seeing numbers like that can make anyone stop and think seriously about their future. At the same time, the offer forced him to look deeper into what truly mattered most in his life and career.
He had to ask himself what “compensation” really meant to him. In the end, he realized that chasing the biggest possible paycheck was not the main thing he wanted.
Even if you put financial aspects aside for a while here, the idea of moving across the country to coach in the Big Ten Conference also felt overwhelming at times. Sitake openly admitted that he does not know much about the East Coast compared to the western part of the country, where he has spent most of his life and coaching career.
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He has spent his entire career building deep, powerful recruiting ties out west, especially within the Polynesian community and the footprint of his alma mater. Even though he would eventually get his hands into it, it wasn’t a risk worth taking, to be fair, at the end of the day.
Ultimately, his love for the BYU community and the fans won him over. He felt that in the crazy corporate world of college football, people forget about loyalty and the things that matter most.
BYU athletic director Tom Holmoe also made sure Sitake felt incredibly valued by stepping up with a massive financial counter-commitment. BYU locked him down with an extension paying between $9 million and $9.5 million annually. At the same time, they also promised an unprecedented $10 million to $15 million in NIL funding and revenue-sharing to ensure the Cougars can compete with the biggest programs in the country.
Because Sitake decided to stay put, Penn State athletic director Pat Kraft had to pivot toward Matt Campbell of Iowa State.
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What did Kalani say about Matt Campbell’s signing?
Penn State eventually agreed to an eight-year, $70.5 million contract with Campbell to become the next leader of the Nittany Lions football program and guide them to the national title each season.
Ever the class head coach, Sitake gave the hire his full nod of approval during the interview, genuinely stating that Penn State got the absolute right guy for the job.
“Honestly, there’s nothing against Penn State. They’re a fine institution. They got the right guy in Matt Campbell,” Sitake said.
Now that everything from that busy December coaching cycle has settled down, both schools have their coaches locked in for the future. Most importantly, Sitake gets to keep building his legacy at the place that truly feels like home to him.
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