SJSU Head Coach Brennan: Kalani is a tremendous human being

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and family (George Frey, Getty Images)

BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake has been coaching college football for over 15 years. As is common in the profession, Sitake has moved around quite a bit. Five times to be exact. While coaching at a handful of schools, he has developed a coaching network. One member of that network is San Jose State Spartans head coach Brent Brennan.

"Coach Brennan is a good friend of mine," Sitake told the media on Monday.

Brennan echoed the same sentiments in his press conference Monday. He said, "I'm excited to get to play against him 'cause he's a good friend."

Those weren't the only kind words Brennan had to say about Sitake and his family.

"Kalani is a tremendous human being and an outstanding football coach," were the first words out of Brennan's mouth when asked about his relationship with Sitake. Brennan later added, "He's just a great person. A great family; they are incredible people."

The two head coaches worked together in 2015 at Oregon State in Corvallis, Oregon, and their families were neighbors along with BYU defensive coordinator Ilaisa Tuiaki. 

"He actually lived right down the street," Brennan recalled. "He had three kids. Ilaisa Tuiaki, their [BYU's] defensive coordinator, lived four other houses away. We all lived in the same neighborhood.  Our kids and their kids were just like a tornado running through the town of Corvallis. They'd show up at our house at 11 o'clock at night. We'd hang out and eat ice cream and cookies."

Brennan also talked about being on the recruiting trail when Sitake was first contacted about the BYU head coaching job.

"I was actually with him when this job stuff started for him," Brennan reminisced. "We were recruiting in Los Angeles and Texas together. It was really funny. You had to be sworn to secrecy because we were driving in the car, just the two of us. All of a sudden the BYU job started to happen. I was really excited for him to get that opportunity to lead that program. It's a special place to him. Obviously, having played there and his history in the state of Utah. It's pretty cool to see him back leading the way for them."  


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