Courtesy BYU Photo

BYU head coach Kalani Sitake realized years ago that the best teams have excellent player leaders who hold other athletes accountable and push everyone to be their best.

He emphasized the importance of having his Cougars take on those roles and not rely on the coaching staff for all development and discipline.

Now BYU athletes have come to expect that of each other every season, making it even more of an organic process.

“I honestly give a lot of credit to the guys who were leaders who left,” Sitake said after practice on Monday. “Tyler Batty and Connor Pay, those guys had done an amazing job passing the baton. Connor did a great job of getting all the guys on the offensive line ready. You can look at everyone that actually started games for us and played, those guys have all been our leaders.”

According to Sitake, the new arrivals who join the team for spring quickly get a sense of the expectations and how things are done at BYU.

Jaren Wikley, BYU Photo

“The freshmen who are coming in and the newcomers are actually adapting really, really well to it,” Sitake said. “They’re a great fit for our program anyways but that’s when you know culturally something really good is happening.”

Thinking back, the Cougar head coach said there have been a lot of times where player leaders have emerged in various position. Now, though, he sees it everywhere in the program.

“It feels like it’s more team-wide now,” Sitake said. “It’s never perfect, but I give a lot of credit to the seniors who have moved on because those guys have done a great job at demanding a lot.

“It’s not just them being the leaders. They’ve actually taught the other guys to be leaders and have actually taken a step back so it’s not been about them. They’ve given their teammates an opportunity to lead even in the season. that’s carried over to this, to this offseason and into spring ball.”

With BYU wanting every player to hold each other accountable and push to be their best, it becomes an interesting challenge for the captains and veterans to be leaders on a team full of leaders.

Courtesy BYU Photo

“It’s definitely an added responsibility,” Cougar senior safter Tanner Wall said earlier in spring camp. “We know that with that comes additional eyes and pressure. People expect more of us. Our teammates expect more of us in the weight room and on the field with the way that we perform.”

Wall explained that there is also an internal drive that all that feeds into. “We expect more of ourselves,” Wall said. “We expect ourselves to perform at a high level. We want to be the guys who lead now within our position groups and in the weight room, and we want to be the guys making plays on the field. We have this higher expectation for ourselves to be the best, and that tends to just elevate the rest of the group.”

That push is why Wall thinks Sitake and the rest of the BYU staff have placed such an emphasis on player leadership.

“I think it’s a great dynamic with Coach expecting us all to be leaders,” Wall said. “If you’re a freshman or if you’re a fifth-year senior, it doesn’t really matter.”

Cougar junior offensive lineman Bruce Mitchell said he views it as a directive about personal excellence.

“When you’re a leader, you’re your best self, right?” Mitchell said. “You’re doing everything you’re supposed to be doing. You’re holding your teammates accountable. Obviously, you’ve got people that step up even a farther notch than that, but I think he (Sitake) wants us to all to be leaders because that’s our best self. That’s making the best team, that’s keeping everybody accountable, making sure everybody’s getting better so we can achieve the goals we want to come this fall.”

Mitchell said that while Sitake may encourage his players to act that way, the most effective messaging from the head coach is not through his word.

“Kalani (Sitake) is our best leader,” Mitchell said. “He leads by example for this team.”