Kalani Sitake is about to make history at BYU.

For the first time in the university’s 150-year history — yes, we acknowledge football hasn’t been around the entire time — a current football coach will give a campus devotional during spring practice.

The only other sitting football coach to speak at a campus devotional was future College Football Hall of Famer LaVell Edwards, who did so in 1976. He gave his talk on June 15 that year, well after spring practice ended and long before fall practice began.

This occurred 24 years before BYU’s football stadium was named in honor of Edwards.

A clear connection can be made between Edwards and Sitake. This link is most apparent in the wisdom Edwards shared in 1976 — offering four universal, timeless lessons from his experience coaching football — and how Sitake leads the program today.

The 4 timeless lessons LaVell Edwards shared in 1976 Sitake, 49, played under Edwards. He has often stated that Edwards served as the model for the “love and learn” culture Sitake has fostered within the football program.

After BYU triumphed over Utah in November, Sitake expressed this about love in football:

“It’s what tough guys do,” Sitake said. “(Coach Edwards) taught me that lesson, and then all I did was try to love as many people as I could, and now they’re here with me and I call them my brothers. And so who knows what can happen and the relationships you can have by just being kind and being Christlike. … That’s the beauty of the gospel in football. There’s nothing like it, and that’s what tough guys do.”

Scott G Winterton, Deseret News In 1976, Edwards was 45 years old. He shared that he had long attempted to imagine what a spiritual person looked like and had concluded that “a spiritual person can indeed reside in each one of us without changing our basic personality. The Lord made us different for his purposes.”

The coach outlined four ways to become a spiritual person within one’s own personality: develop self-control, follow a clear set of goals, serve others, and be open to the Holy Ghost.

Football and self-control Edwards became legendary for numerous reasons. He still ranks ninth on the all-time list for Division I coaching victories with 257 (Sitake currently has 72). Those who knew him well often found him to be humorous, but his public persona included a stoic expression on the sidelines, partly reflecting a deliberate effort to maintain self-control.

He believed this control was a sign of character and had both practical and spiritual value.

“I believe, first of all, before that we can become a spiritual person, or before we can become anything, we must develop the ability to control ourselves,” he explained.

“Early in my coaching career, there were times when I didn’t exercise great self control, whether it be on the sidelines, whether it be in my relationships with those that were under my charge. At that time, I can think back on a few games that were lost, on a few players that quit the teams as a result of this, and as I think back on it now I have sorrow for missing the opportunity of creating a positive experience in the lives of some of these young people.”

He made a conscious decision, one that not only led to his Hall of Fame career but also to the shaping of countless men like Sitake.

“I came to grips with myself that if I were going to stay in this business, and that if I were going to be a success in this business, that I would need to develop the capacity or the ability to control myself in all situations and to try and be a positive influence in the lives of those that I had the opportunity of working with,” he said.

“We can discipline ourselves to whatever degree that’s important to us, and it is extremely important to each one of us,” he added.

The player who dedicated himself to clear goals that led to an NFL career Edwards recounted the story of Orrin Olsen, whose two older brothers had played in the NFL before he decided to play at BYU. Olsen had a successful start as a defensive player, earning honorable mention as a sophomore all-conference defensive end. However, Edwards told him that the team needed him to move to offense and play center the next season, as this would give him the best opportunity to play professionally.

He also informed Olsen that he would be removed from the game on fourth down since the team would require a deep snapper to send the ball 13 yards backward to the punter in 7/10ths of a second.

LaVell Edwards speaks to the BYU football team in 1974 after the Cougars defeated Arizona State for the first time in school history. Players pictured include Dave Lowry (44), Mark Giles (11), Dave Hubbard (70), Mark McCluskey (46), and Orrin Olsen

(55). | Mark Philbrick/BYU “One of t