BYU Media Availability - East Carolina

PROVO, Utah – BYU head coach Kalani Sitake and select players addressed the media on Monday in prep for Friday night's game against East Carolina. 

Watch and read interviews from Sitake, punter Ryan Rehkow, safety Talan Alfrey and wide receiver Puka Nacua. 

Head coach Kalani Sitake (Video)
“New week. We’re coming into the last third of the season. I’m excited about the matchup and playing at home. It’s a short week with the game on Friday, so we have to spend some time on corrections but also get moving on preparations for our opponent with East Carolina coming into town. They’re a really good, well-coached team with a lot of good athletes. They can do a lot of things on offense. Defensively, they’re tough up front. All three of their phases do a great job. At the beginning of the year, they had a chance to beat NC State and probably should’ve with a field goal. This game comes at a good time for us right now. They have our attention. We don’t have time to feel sorry for ourselves. We have to get rolling and working hard. We have to show that we can get back to our identity.”

On generating disruption on defense
“We have to get stops. The problems we’ve had are breakdowns in execution. That falls on the coaches demanding it and getting the right guys to do it. We simplified the scheme a little bit so we could see where we needed to add certain players but also where we needed to make corrections. We need to get more out of our guys and have the certain standard we want them to deliver. On the defensive line, disruption we need to get up front and get to the quarterback in the pass game and get tackles-for-loss in the run game. That will make it easier for our linebackers and next level guys to see the same gap the running back sees and fill it.”

On the team playing with a target on their back
“We used to be the hunter and now we’re becoming the hunted. We watched East Carolina play against UCF with the mindset that UCF was going to the Big 12, and East Carolina did a good job beating them. The film is right there for us to see. East Carolina has every bit of our guys’ attention. We can talk about it all we want but the proof is what we see on film. The guys know this is a really good team coming into town. We’re going to get back to what we’re good at, our identity and make sure we play our brand of football. We have to show that on the field, not just by our name. We need to return to who we are.”

On the defensive staff
“As a defensive staff, we work together in game-planning. That’s the entire staff, including our analysts and graduate assistants. We have a number of guys in that room that have been defensive coordinators before. It’s wise for me to listen to what they say. They come up with a menu, with the plays and I decide on the personnel. We need to execute better. It’s not about the plays or the calls, it’s about executing better. Ilaisa Tuiaki is working full-time with the defensive line.

On East Carolina’s offense
“Their pass game has some air raid background, but they also have a big, physical offensive line and can run the ball. We’ll have to handle the balance they bring. They have a really experienced quarterback. He has a strong arm and is really big, he can run the ball too. This is another opportunity for us to take on a big quarterback who can run. It’s an opportunity for our defense to show a lot better than they have in the last couple of weeks.”

Punter Ryan Rehkow (Video)
“By my own expectations, definitely not good enough. I feel like there have been a lot of opportunities where I could have helped the team more than I than I did. So, to this point it’s a little bit of a sour taste in the mouth, but we can only look forward, learn from our mistakes, learn from the deficiencies that we've had so far. I think I'm my own worst critic. There are a lot of times where it was okay by other people's standards, but we strive to be the best and up to this point in the season we just haven't got there yet, so we’re hungry and excited for opportunities that come in the next few weeks.”

On how the specialists mentality going into the final four games
“As a group, there's no one else I'd rather be going through this with; we're brothers to the end. We're spending every day with each other, constantly trying to give feedback and we definitely should be doing better than we are. We've all underperformed related to our potential.”

“Every week we're making concentrated efforts to ask ourselves, ‘how are we going to get better? What are we going to improve? Obviously, it's disappointing when it doesn't translate to the field, but we're ready to get after it the best we can.

On overcoming adversity as a team
“We've made the choice to fight and not give up. Now, what are we going to go and do to improve ourselves, to rise above that adversity when it hits.”

On finding positives/rallying points as a team
“We're always looking to take the positives from everything and unfortunately, the last two weeks, there's been less positives to draw upon. We just need to approach every single week with the same focus. We always say that the next game is the most important, but especially with these next couple of games coming up. Each one we have to take serious, we have to make sure we're on our toes and ready for everything.”

On the tone setters for the team
“We do have great leaders on this team, and some are more vocal than others. You look at the locker room after last game, Kalani had his speech addressing the nature of the game and then he turned the time over to Puka [Nacua]. Honestly, that was what the team needed to hear. Puka hit everything on the nose of what we are going to do moving forward, reminding us who and what we represent. Puka is definitely one of those leaders who is able to recognize the adversity and say ‘hey, let's get after it.’”

Safety Talan Alfrey (Video)
“I think we each individually need to look inside and figure out what we can improve. I don't think there's just one problem or one solution. There are lots of things we need to fix and it's going to be a lot of reevaluation and introspection for each player to try figure out what we can do to be better.”

On playing for BYU who has national notoriety
“BYU is a national program, we have a reputation out there, a nationwide fan base and so the coaches help us remember that it's an honor to play for BYU, express gratitude for to all the people that helped us get here. Each player has their own journey of how they got here, and we're just grateful to be able to put on the BYU jersey with our names on the back and the Y on the front.”

On evaluation of the defense through eight games
“We definitely haven't lived up to our expectations and our expectations are high. We haven't lived up to what we believe we can do, and the goal is to reach those expectations and exceed them from here on out.”

On vocal leaders on the defense
“There are some vocal leaders on the defense and a lot of leaders that lead by example. Some of the vocal ones are Caleb Hayes and Tyler Batty. They take the initiative to be vocal and help us get better.”

On making plays as a defensive backs
“As DBs, we always talk about how tips and overthrows need to be ours. That [interception] was an overthrow that came right to me and landed right in my lap. I'm glad that I was able to finish the takeaway. Every position group feels the need to step up and as a DBs we have that same desire.”

On desiring improvement vs. accepting imperfection
“One thing that we can do is focus on the next play. Just flush it, next play, then we'll address it later. In the in-game moments we need to have that mindset and then we can come back after the game, watch the film, evaluate the play and dive into more detail about how we can fix it.”

Wide receiver Puka Nacua (Video)
On message to the fans
“It’s hard to explain all the way through because the fans don’t have the opportunity to be in the locker room, be with the guys on this team. We had a lifting session with the entire team this morning, and it brought a smile to my face. We obviously never want to lose on Saturday’s, but to come back on Monday and see all the guys is a good pain. There is a different kind of bounce and energy which is what you want coming off a loss.”

On being a leader on this team
“I have been blessed with the opportunity to be a captain on this team, and that is something not everybody has the opportunity to be, but I am honored to be in that position with my 125 brothers out there. I need to continue to do a better job of making sure our energy levels and consistency levels are there.”

On how he is feeling physically
“I feel pretty good right now. We had a nice recovery day yesterday, but we're back at it today. I love this game of football, and there are bumps and bruises that come along with it, but I think my teammates and my brothers have prepared me for the hits I take out on the field.”

On BYU competing with fire
“I had the opportunity to talk with the guys after the game on Saturday, and I reminded them how many people there are who want to wear that jersey with the Y on the front of it, and have the chance to play football in front of a huge fanbase. Saturday’s are what we live for, it doesn't matter who we play. We play all year for the 12 Saturday’s we get on the schedule. Our guys are ready to fight.”