Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo flew out to Provo, Utah, on Monday to visit with BYU officials and interview about the head coaching vacancy left by Bronco Mendenhall who left for Virginia. On Wednesday he has decided to stay at the Naval Academy as their head football coach, first reported by Gene Wang of the Washington Post. Now BYU must look elsewhere for its next head coach.
Navy AD Chet Gladchuk: "I'm glad to have this behind us. It's been stressful for everyone."
— Bill Wagner (@BWagner_CapGaz) December 17, 2015
More Gladchuk: "I believe this is a great place to be and I think Kenny is the perfect fit as our football coach."
— Bill Wagner (@BWagner_CapGaz) December 17, 2015
More Gladchuk: "There was never any reason in my mind for Kenny to leave, but he had to go through this exercise to be sure."
— Bill Wagner (@BWagner_CapGaz) December 17, 2015
Dick Harmon of the Deseret News reported that Oregon State defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake was going through the same process that Niumatalolo went through earlier this week.
KN got his official BYU meet/greet/Worthen/GA deal Monday, now it's Kalani Sitaki's turn to go through same routine. #processnotdecision
— Dick Harmon (@Harmonwrites) December 16, 2015
There are currently only three head coaches that are active LDS, and one just left for Virginia, Niumatalolo and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham, and landing Whittingham seems like a long shot to become BYU’s next head coach.
The next main target for BYU is Sitake and it seems that he was their choice behind Niumatalolo as he has interviewed for the job. The other candidate after Sitake could be Stanford defensive coordinator Lancer Anderson, who has said he has had some contact with BYU but nothing serious.
