On3’s Brett McMurphy picks BYU’s Kalani Sitake as the top coach in the Big 12

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake has been identified as the best coach in the Big 12 by On3 analyst Brett McMurphy, according to a recent leaguewide ranking published through Yahoo Sports.

McMurphy’s list, as described in the report, places Sitake at No. 1 after ranking all 16 Big 12 head coaches. The underlying theme is continuity, including Sitake’s decade-long run leading the Cougars in Provo and the program’s ability to stay competitive through a major identity shift.

The report frames Sitake’s tenure as a bridge from BYU’s prior independence era into the realities of Big 12 football, calling attention to how quickly the program has adapted to its new conference setting. That matters in college football because the Big 12 is often evaluated not only on weekly results but also on recruiting reach, style-of-play fit, and the ability to win consistently with roster volatility.

In that context, the Sitake selection functions less like a single-season judgment and more like a statement about program management over time. McMurphy’s ranking approach, at least as presented in the Yahoo Sports write-up, uses comparative coaching effectiveness across the league rather than isolating a single moment.

For BYU, the recognition lands during the offseason when programs use coaching stability as a recruiting and development tool. A top coaching evaluation from a national outlet can reinforce how the staff plans to build the next wave of talent, particularly for players who want to understand how quickly a program turns evaluations into on-field production.

The broader Big 12 angle is that coaching performance in the conference is measured against tight margins and distinct personnel challenges. With McMurphy’s ranking covering all 16 coaches, the Sitake pick also implicitly elevates the question of which programs have best translated recruiting into consistency and which coaching staffs have been most resilient against the conference’s year-to-year churn.

What to watch next is whether BYU can convert the kind of “long-view” praise described in the ranking into durable, repeatable results once full pads, live contact, and in-season rotations return. In a conference where every staff gets judged in real time, external assessments are often most meaningful when they are followed by on-field follow-through.