BYU football featured in April 2025 edition of 'World Report'
The spotlight continues to shine on the BYU football program after its historic 2024 campaign.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints released the April 2025 World Report on April 2, a recap of newsworthy events surrounding the Church in the last six months. This coincides with the arrival of each general conference as well. This time around, BYU football's outreach off the field took center stage.
This is the first time in recent memory that the Cougars have been featured in the World Report.
While the Cougars saw plenty of success en route to their 11-2 finish and victory in the Alamo Bowl, what made this team exemplary is best seen by the question Kalani Sitake poses at the beginning of the feature: "What does Heavenly Father want us to do with this platform, and how can we actually serve and help, and how can we connect with everyone?"
That question is more than a mere hypothetical for Sitake and his staff. The Church's story focused on when the team met several hundred BYU-Pathway students across Africa over Zoom at the start of the season.
Sitake recently joined LaVell Edwards as the only BYU football coaches to speak in a BYU devotional, taking the opportunity to testify of Jesus Christ and the plan God has for each of His children.
"Let's respond to the promptings of the Spirit and be the miracle someone else needs," he said.
The World Report highlighted one opportunity created by the Zoom call: a BYU-Pathway student from Uganda offered the opening prayer for the Cougars' matchup against Kansas State — a game that was filled with miracles for BYU on its way to a 38-9 victory.
"There's a lot of people on the other side of the world that need our fellowship, and what I realize is that we need theirs too," said Sitake.
In an age where college sports seem to be becoming more and more about self-interest, BYU and the Church that sponsors it are making it more and more about each other.