Tackling some of the most frequently asked offseason questions

The offseason is here. BYU went 12-2. Jay Hill is in Michigan. Kyle Whittingham says 'Go Blue' and holds an upside down U up for a hand sign. Kalani Sitake did not go to Penn State, but he almost did. Robert Anae and Nick Howell are Bronco Mendenhall's coordinators at an FBS school in Utah.

Things are WILD!

There have been a lot of questions, comments, and overall narratives that I've seen over the last few weeks. Today, I'm taking a minute to give my best answers to each of them. Let's call this a BYU Offseason FAQ with your boy. Here we go....

If all of these new funds were committed to Kalani Sitake, why are we hearing so much buzz about internal coaches being promoted to new roles vacated by former coaches?

Call it a narrative, call it a question, call this whatever you want, it is something that you have undoubtedly heard over the last few weeks. If we're being honest with each other, it's probably something you have said to yourself too. I know it is something that I have said to myself.

As of this writing, BYU still hasn't announced any permanent changes to the coaching staff since the departure of Jay Hill and Jernaro Gilford. There have been a lot of rumors swirling around Provo. Rumors of Kelly Poppinga taking over as defensive coordinator have gained a lot of steam. Rumors of analysts like Chad Kauaha'a'aha and Gavin Fowler being promoted to position coaches have started to swirl as well. Rumors of Demario Warren returning to the state of Utah from Boise State have also started to gain momentum.

I don't know what will or will not happen for sure, but let's assume those internal candidate promotion rumors are true for a minute. Aren't those hires pretty... Independent-ey? A Boise coach and an SUU guy? This feel like 2016 BYU. What happened to all of the money from Kalani's Penn State flirting?

Well, let's talk through it. Because on the surface, the answer is simply 'yes.'

First, we have to understand where BYU was before the Kalani/Penn State stuff. Nobody knows for sure because of BYU's private status, but industry sources have told us that BYU was behind the majority of the Big 12 in terms of coach salary. I'm sure there were some coaches, like Kalani himself and like Jay Hill, who were considerably higher than average, but I have been told that the average coach at BYU was underpaid. That means Kalani's Penn State affair went to getting the bulk of BYU's staff up to average. It does not mean that BYU is suddenly flush with cash and ready to start plucking coaches from the whose who of college football.

Second, boring isn't necessarily bad.

Promoting internally and snagging a former coach from the state of Utah is kind of boring, there is no denying that. But, if we're honest with ourselves, wasn't Jay Hill's staff kind of the same thing?

Jay Hill was a successful FCS head coach at an in-state school. Justin Ena was dismissed as Utah State's defensive coordinator a few years ago and lingering around FCS and Mountain West schools when Hill hired him. Kelly Poppinga was a coaching re-tread who had been at Boise State. Sione Po'uha wasn't coaching at all after stepping down at Utah. Jernaro Gilford stayed at BYU.

It was an exciting staff because it wasn't the failure staff that BYU had before, but it wasn't flashy either. As we all know, we grew to love this staff. They were excellent.

I think that's what we've got here. If BYU does go this internal route, it's a boring coaching carousel for the Cougars. But that doesn't mean bad. There have been bad coaching hires across the country this carousel - look around. This wouldn't be bad.

How much of a role does roster continuity play in these coaching decisions?

A lot.

BYU is a developmental program. That doesn't mean they are full of a bunch of project players and they can't recruit at a high level, but it does mean that BYU has to rely on high school recruiting as their foundation and develop players into better players. If you are a developmental program and your roster gets decimated because you bring in a new coaching staff, that sets things haywire for a couple of years. Continuity is king at BYU.

Look at what is happening in the transfer portal this year. Reports say that Brendan Sorsby is making anywhere from $5-7M from Texas Tech. BRENDAN SORSBY! Chris Vannini talked about it just today.

If you're not a subscriber of The Athletic, let me share with you some of the details: The high end of every position group except for linebackers and interior offensive linemen is $1M.

Building your program via the transfer portal can absolutely be done. Texas Tech is proving that, if done properly, it is the quickest way to re-tool your roster in a hurry.

It is also EXPENSIVE! Additional resources or not, BYU is not a program that can dump $40-50M into a roster every single season. So, the Cougars have to rely on continuity and development. They always will.

Are all of BYU's additional NIL resources just white noise then? If BYU can't compete in the portal, what was all of the Penn State stuff about?

Let's look at our friends to the north as an example. Utah, all things considered, as done a pretty good job of keep their roster intact. Again, as of this writing, Devon Dampier hasn't left and neither has Byrd Ficklin. They've held onto Salesi Moa and Kelvin Obot. They re-signed Nate Ritchie and have kept JJ Buchanan from leaving. That's a good thing! They've done well!

But, even with all of that progress, they've lost Smith Snowden, Dallas Vakalahi, Tao Johnson, John Henry Daley, Raycine Guillory, and a handful of others. Those are players who were going to play big roles for Utah. The Utes have done well keeping their roster together despite all of the coaching changes.

BYU also had major coaching changes. Jay Hill, according to many, has been THE REASON (more later) that BYU has had success in the last two years. He left. And BYU has lost nine players who haven't played meaningful football in their BYU careers.

That doesn't just happen by accident. BYU had to use their increased NIL pool to retain their existing roster. Faletau Satuala didn't come back to BYU simply because he liked the backdrop at LaVell Edwards Stadium. Players like Parker Kingston would have cost seven figures in the transfer portal. Therrian Alexander, Siale Esera, Raider Damuni.. none of those players play at BYU for free. None of this is to mention the presumed returns of Bear Bachmeier and LJ Martin.

BYU had to increase their NIL budget to keep their current stars in Provo.

Will BYU do anything in the transfer portal or will we claim they are broke?

Yes, of course BYU will still be active. But they don't have to be active like other schools have to be active. BYU needs 10-12. players, not 30. They have the ability to be a little more methodical and a little more calculated.

I expect players like Walker Lyons and Liona Lefau to come to BYU. I expect Cade Uluave to consider BYU. Smith Snowden will visit BYU. All of those guys are four-star transfers, and none of them will come for free.

Paki Finau, Nuku Mafi, Sam Turner, JR Sia, Sione Leulela, Dallas Vakalahi, and Zak Yamauchi don't come for free either.

BYU will be plenty active in the portal, but it will look a lot different from the players who command the early headlines in the portal. That's not a bad thing, either. There is some risk to that strategy, to be sure, but it's not inherently a bad thing.

When will the action start for BYU? And when will coaches be announced? When will BYU do SOMETHING?

This week. I expect some movement this week. It won't be a cascade of commitments and announcements, but I think it will be this week. We'll start hearing coaching announcements as early as tomorrow and we'll hear of transfer visits and commitments throughout the next couple of weeks.

It's never as fast as any of us want it to be, but that doesn't mean that nothing is happening.

Was Jay Hill the reason for success?

He was a huge part of the reason. He was a fantastic defensive coordinator for BYU, and I don't want to take anything away from him. He was great. BYU will miss him. I wish he would have stayed at BYU for a million years. He is really, really good.

But I'm going to turn to Adam Bywater to answer this question. He is currently at the Navy All-American Game. He checked in and did an interview with our guys at 247Sports. When asked about Kalani flirting with BYU, this is what Bywater had to say:

"It's a weight lifted off your shoulders when Kalani made that announcement that he's staying. Kalani is the reason why everyone (the players) is going. He's the culture guy. He's the glue guy. Everyone loves him. We all want to be coached by him."

No reason for me to add anything to that. Bywater said it all. Kalani is the reason why everyone is going. The assistants have to step up and do a good job - that is, literally, their job. But Kalani is getting the resources put together, the players are coming to Provo to play for him, and he's setting the culture. Kalani has cleared the paths so that his coordinators simply have to deliver good coaching.

Jay Hill did that. Aaron Roderick does that. That doesn't mean that Kalani matters less, it means those coordinators are doing exactly what Kalani hired them to do. Kalani is doing the rest.