End of spring camp means short break for BYU football, plenty to work on
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- BYU head coach Kalani Sitake talks to his team during spring camp in Provo on Friday, March 28, 2025.
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- BYU sophomore tight end Noah Moeaki (82) runs the ball up the field during spring camp in Provo on Friday, March 28, 2025.
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- BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill directs the defense during spring camp in Provo on Friday, March 28, 2025.
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- BYU players run a drill during spring camp in Provo on Friday, March 28, 2025.
While some college football teams are in the middle of spring camp, BYU just wrapped up its practice time and now turns its focus to the next steps in the process of getting ready for the upcoming 2025 season.
“We are looking forward to the grind of it all in the summer,” Cougar head coach Kalani Sitake said in a teleconference on Friday.
But first the players and coaches will get a small break from football to focus on a few other things.
“Obviously, the guys will have some time off,” Sitake said. “They’ll be able to focus on finals and things like that, get some time off that’s required and recover. Then we’ll get back to work when we get here in May. We’re going to get transitioning to summer conditioning.”
He acknowledged that with classes finishing and other things happening in spring, things can get busy. But he emphasized that continuing to improve physically will be something the players need to do.
“We’re way further ahead now than we were last year with the weight room and our test scores and everything that we’re seeing from the strength gains in the body, the muscle mass compared to the fat,” Sitake said. “I think the guys are at a much better place now. Even having the off time that’s required, we still have a recommendation for our lifts. They aren’t going to just kick their feet up. They still have work to do. It’s just we’re not going to be able to do it as a team. They can take ownership of it themselves.”
BYU offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick said the message to the players as they head into the next phase of the offseason is that they can’t let up.
“We’ve had a good spring, but we haven’t done anything yet this season,” Roderick said. “Last year was a nice season, but we’re not going to sneak up on anybody this year. There’s nobody in our program who is going to feel like we’ve arrived or anything like that. We’re going to keep working really hard throughout this spring and summer.”
Cougar defensive coordinator Jay Hill said that the coaches will take a couple of days to “catch their breath.”
“We get so busy through recruiting and bowl season and all that other stuff, and then right into spring practices that it’s good to have some time with the family,” Hill said. “After that we’ll do our exit interviews with our current players at BYU and then go on the road for spring recruiting. That’s where we will be for the next five or six weeks before we come back for youth camps in the summer.”
Part of the recruiting process includes evaluating the transfer portal. Some BYU players might choose to leave but for the most part both Roderick and Hill don’t believe the Cougars will be relying on transfers to change the dynamic of the program.
“If we got a shot at the right guy who we think could make a difference, we could potentially add someone,” Hill said. “But I don’t love living in the portal unless I know everything about someone. It was easy with those couple Weber State guys because I knew everything about those guys. They all panned out and have been great players. But I don’t love going outside on guys that I don’t know everything about.”
Roderick said: “We really like our team right now, so we’re not desperate to go find somebody. There’s no position of need where we’re just like we have to have somebody right now, but we’ll never turn away a player that we think can make a difference. We’re open to adding players who make us better, but if we don’t add anybody I think we’ll be just fine too.”
