This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The humility was refreshing.
That's my biggest takeaway from Tuesday's first public introduction of three BYU football assistant coaches, Ed Lamb, Ilaisa Tuiaki and Ty Detmer.
There was no talk of national championships within reach, no boasting that the Cougars would snare every instate recruit moving forward, and, especially, no downgrading of the job that former coach Bronco Mendenhall did in his 11 years at BYU.
Lamb, the former Southern Utah head coach and by far the most accomplished (in college coaching) of the three, was especially humble. Here's a guy who just led the Thunderbirds to the Big Sky title, and he spoke as if Sitake and BYU did him a huge favor in bringing him aboard.
It should have been the opposite, in my opinion.
Lamb was asked about the "vibe" in the coaching room so far, and I thought his answer was telling:
"I think it is fantastic," he said. "We are working really well together. There's a lot of humility. Coach Sitake talked to the team today about being humble, and being meek, and how that doesn't have anything to do with our talent, our toughness. We understand it is our responsibility to lead the way, as a staff, regarding humility and the way we approach things.
It is pretty amazing, for me. My time at BYU was just after Ty Detmer's, and now all of a sudden I am sitting in a meeting, or having lunch with a Heisman Trophy winner. And if you know Ty, you would never guess that he had that kind of NFL success, or collegiate success. He's just a very down to earth guy and so is Ilaisa, and Kalani has been over a number of years that I've known him."
I've been told more than once that Kyle Whittingham's biggest beef with Mendenhall, and the reason Whittingham had no interest in developing a friendship with Bronco, was his perception of Mendenhall's arrogance. LaVell Edwards once told me that BYU is indeed a special place, but the people there are not. They are just normal, everyday, hard-working people striving to do what's right, Edwards said.
In some people's eyes, Mendenhall's focus on the people as special, rather than the institution itself, caused some of the antagonism toward him, his players and assistant coaches.
It is early, obviously, but it looks as if this new staff will take a humbler approach.
Here's Lamb's description of the Tuesday morning meeting when Sitake spoke to the players for the first time:
'I think there was a high level of confidence," Lamb said. "Kalani did an amazing job, No. 1, he put the players at ease. No. 2, he credited coach Mendenhall and the previous staff for the job that they did. And three, he credited the players for being one of the premier programs in the country. I think that understanding from the players, that there is not a new coaching staff coming in here to turn around a winning program [was significant]. We are looking to take what we know, and credit the previous staff, and take what we know and try to do the best that we can in our time."
Lamb joked that he was finally feeling comfortable in the BYU football offices because his key card worked for the first time on Tuesday.
"So that was a big breakthrough for me," he joked.
He said Tuesday's meeting was the best moment, so far.
'I have had very little one on one interaction with the players so far. So [nothing] has stood out, other than the team meeting today was a special moment. Kalani allowed his personality to come out. I think there was a tremendous amount of nervousness in the room before he entered the room, and then when he entered the room, you saw dozens of players grab for their hats, and kind of sit up a little straighter, and he immediately put them at ease, and went about being himself, and that's the confidence that he will continue to do."
Here's more from Lamb's 11-minute chat with reporters on Tuesday:
On the process that ended up with him being at BYU:
"I guess it would be a long process, starting back with being a teammate of Kalani's. We were close friends there, and had each other's backs, on the field and off the field.
Really, I would say, we have been interviewing each other, to put it in a business sense, over the last 15 or so years. We have kept track of each other, where he has been, and where I have been.
And it is kinda neat to see guys grow. I think often times, guys that we played with, if we don't see them much we keep them in the same box that we knew them 20 years ago as young guys.
He has grown tremendously, and I am so proud of him and what he has accomplished. It is an honor for me to be a part of his staff."
On where they are in process of hiring assistants:
"It is a daily, ongoing process. And I am not privy to every one of those conversations. We meet briefly as a staff and talk really, at this point, about the general shape of the staff, and how it ought to look. And there are specific names that I am probably not at liberty to share. But it is coming together really well."
On whether there is a deadline to have staff named:
"No, I don't have a deadline. I don't think I have the authority to have a deadline. But I haven't heard of any deadlines."
On his role as assistant head coach:
'It is broad. And it is flexible by design, including the position that I will coach right now. It looks like I will be the tight ends coach and probably more solid than that is to coach the special teams. But in the immediate future, as we put together the rest of the staff, I may move to defense. That is not off the table. That's where most of my coaching experience is and I am comfortable there as well as offense.
And then as we work through how this program is going to be managed and led, if I can help Kalani in any way, and we are not talking about right now, we have the flexibility to design a system to do that."
On Kalani's sales pitch to him to get him to BYU:
"That wasn't even part of the process. I think it was always clear that if either one of us had the opportunity to be the head coach here, that the other one would want to join. I think those conversations go on over the years about who we would like to have on our staff. I always felt like if he got a head coaching job, that I would love to be a part of his staff.
I also felt that at Southern Utah we had accomplished a lot as a program and as a team, and I felt like I had some great assistants that were ready to take the program to new heights. A new challenge for me, and new opportunities for guys who have helped me grow at SUU."
On how his head coaching experience can help:
"I would just make a correction. Ty has head coaching experience at the high school level, and it is something that we have thought about a lot. There are more similarities than differences in that way. Really, I think the way I can help Kalani the most right now is by just encouraging him to stay on the track that he is on. He's got a great sense for leading people and I want to be somebody who helps him by instilling confidence in the message that he's already got. If there are times when I feel like I can speak up and help him, I will do that.
Also, I need to make sure and focus on not being the head coach. I've been there, and I have had an opinion on everything, I still have those opinions, but it is not always appropriate to open my mouth about them."
On whether it was a goal of his to get back to BYU:
"Yeah, definitely a dream come true. Maybe that's stated too often. You hear those words all the time, but it is. I dreamed about an opportunity to come back here. This place, these people, were so instrumental in my life, and continue to be. And to have the opportunity to come back now, the goal is to make good on it.
The opportunity is there to pass along to these players that are here now. It is very special to me, personally."
On point of emphasis since he's joined staff:
"It is about recruiting, and we use recruiting in the sense of those players who will join us, but also we are recruiting the current roster. That's something that is really important to us. So we have spent a lot of time trying to get used to who each player is on the roster, and what they represent and what their strengths are, and what their challenges are, and how we can help them.
Once we have the sense of that, that shapes the way we need to put together a staff in order to go about the business of making the current roster the best it can be and also the new players that will join and round out the roster."
On being a former player and easier to relate to players:
"I hope that will be the case. And we each have similarities, and many of us have played and spent time here at BYU as coaches and players. But we all have our own unique and individual personalities, as do the players.
I can remember as a player that some players will gravitate toward some coaches when they have issues or things going on in their lives. Hopefully we will be able to share with these players who we are, and be open to them, not just guys who are in our position group, or defensively or offensively, but throughout the whole roster."
On what he learned from Jim Harbaugh (he coached under Harbaugh at the University of San Diego):
"Well, I am not really, I don't stay in that regular of contact with Jim. In fact, I haven't talked to him since I took this job. The lessons I learned from him are lessons I've used since the day I started working with him until now. I think about a lot of the head coaches I have had a chance to be around. Jim's personality is so powerful, and he is so competitive, that many of the things I instituted at Southern Utah were a reflection of my time with Jim."
On whether Jamaal Williams was in meeting today and whether they expect him to be on team next year:
"Well, I do. I didn't take roll personally. I was actually sitting behind most of the players. I couldn't speak whether individual guys were there or not. But yeah, I did speak with Jamaal a few days ago, he was really excited about being here."