PROVO, Utah — For BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill, the offseason carried a lingering sense of frustration.
After 9 years as the pinnacle coach at FCS Weber State, Hill joined longtime good friend Kalani Sitake’s workers at BYU forward of the Cougars’ much-anticipated transfer to the Big 12. The season began promisingly, however after a 5-2 begin, the Cougars misplaced their final 5 video games to overlook a bowl recreation and completed one recreation out of final place within the convention.
“We all felt like we have been a greater crew final yr than perhaps the file confirmed,” Hill stated.
With 9 months between video games, it may possibly really feel like there may be an excessive amount of time to stew over what went improper, however because the offseason progressed Hill was inspired. He noticed gamers who have been a little bit extra disciplined, a little bit harder, a little bit higher with tasks.
Hill was working as many as 90 hours every week, and as coaching camp got here to a detailed on the finish of August, he believed the Cougars have been ready to take a major step ahead. And in the event that they did not, it would not be for lack of effort on his half.
At 49 years previous, Hill does not lack vitality. A former cornerback at Utah, he runs repeatedly, lifts weights with gamers, performs pickup basketball and — outdoors of a Mountain Dew behavior — has saved a typically nutritious diet. Last season, he skilled some uncommon lightheadedness whereas operating, however after getting checked within the spring, he was instructed there was nothing to fret about.
“They have been doing a bunch of coronary heart assessments simply to make it possible for the blood was pumping and the whole lot was going properly,” Hill stated. “And I did all these assessments, and the whole lot got here again higher than regular. I felt like I used to be in nice form for somebody my age.”
All of that may be a backdrop for what made Thursday, Aug. 29, so surprising.
The evening earlier than, he complained to his spouse, Sarah, that he was experiencing heartburn. When he described a localized ache in his chest, she was skeptical, however he figured it was one thing that might subside with an evening’s sleep.
It didn’t. After apply, he lifted weights with gamers. That did not assist. Then he sat in a sauna. That made it worse. He went by with plans to get a haircut on his method residence, and that is when he lastly let himself imagine one thing may be significantly improper.
“I simply began sweating so unhealthy that the poor lady that was slicing my hair grabbed a towel, and he or she was wiping me off,” Hill stated. “I felt so embarrassed. And then she took the cape off me and my pants have been simply drenched.
“I used to be having a coronary heart assault, and I did not comprehend it. Right within the barber chair, I’m having a coronary heart assault.”
BYU did flip issues round this season, successful its first 9 video games and incomes a spot within the Valero Alamo Bowl in opposition to Colorado (7:30 p.m. ET Saturday, ABC). And it did so with one in every of its most necessary assistants within the coaches’ field, monitored by his spouse.
SARAH HILL WAS residence when her husband known as to inform her he was in unhealthy form and on his method from the barbershop. She instructed him to remain put, and he or she would come get him, however he insisted he may make the quick drive.
They stayed on the road as Sarah tracked his progress with the Find My app.
“I saved making an attempt to persuade him to only pull over and I’d come get him — after which he wasn’t capable of discuss,” Sarah stated. “I stated, ‘OK, if you cannot discuss then I’m getting within the automobile and I’ll discover you proper now. I can see the place you are at. I’ll come to you.'”
At about this level, Jay was their neighborhood and made it safely to their home. He obtained out of his truck, made his strategy to their again porch and lay down.
“I knew at that time it was a coronary heart assault,” Sarah stated. “I knew that I had a brief period of time, however I additionally was very calm and really at peace that it wasn’t going to be what takes his life.”
Sarah acted swiftly and firmly, telling him he wanted to get again within the truck and he or she was taking him to the hospital, a few 7-minute drive. At first, Jay insisted he simply wanted to catch his breath, to which Sarah responded, “Get within the truck or I’m calling 911.”
At the hospital, issues have been a blur. With Sarah by his aspect, he was instantly whisked to a room for testing.
“[The physician’s assistant] pulled the paper out of the pc, and he or she simply circled and it wasn’t 10 seconds, 15 seconds earlier than the physician was in there saying, ‘You’re having a coronary heart assault, we obtained to go [to surgery],'” Jay stated.
Jay felt helplessness.
“I feel I used to be nonetheless fairly calm. And in that second, what do you do?” Jay stated. “You simply type of go together with what they’re telling you. I keep in mind one thing vividly going by my head, ‘No method. Not me. You’re too younger. I believed I used to be in form. This cannot be occurring to me.'”
During the profitable surgical procedure, which Sarah estimates took about an hour, the medical doctors discovered that his proper coronary artery was 100% blocked. They inserted a stent to open the artery and scheduled one other process for 2 days later — the morning of BYU’s season opener in opposition to FCS Southern Illinois — to insert one other stent into a distinct, partially blocked artery.
When Jay awoke, he felt significantly better, and the concept of sticking round till Saturday’s process was not interesting.
“They wished to observe him the entire time,” Sarah stated. “He’s like, ‘Nope, I obtained to get apply tomorrow. My son has a cross nation meet. Can you launch me to do that stuff after which I can come again and I’ll do the surgical procedure subsequent week?’ In his thoughts, he is similar to, ‘It’s the primary week of the season, I must get going.'”
SITAKE AND HILL have recognized one another because the late Nineteen Nineties. They performed in opposition to one another — Hill for Utah; Sitake for BYU — however a friendship was born when Kyle Whittingham made Hill and Sitake two of his first hires when he took over for Urban Meyer at Utah on the finish of the 2004 season.
Their paths diverged after Hill took the job at Weber State following the 2013 season, however whereas he turned the Wildcats right into a Big Sky and FCS energy — successful 4 convention titles and reaching the playoffs six occasions — their relationship stayed intact.
“It wasn’t like there was this large lapse, we have all the time been speaking,” Sitake stated. “We’ve by no means gone a protracted time frame with out speaking and we have all the time been in one another’s lives.”
So when Sitake was on the lookout for a brand new defensive coordinator and Hill was getting the urge to get again to the Power 5 degree on the finish of the 2022 season, the timing labored for them to reunite in Provo, the place they picked up the place they left off almost a decade in the past.
It just isn’t uncommon for Hill to name Sitake late at evening, so when his cellphone buzzed that Thursday, he answered, “What’s up, bro?”
Sarah was on the opposite finish, and delivered the information from the hospital. Sitake was shocked however rapidly supplied to assist in any method he may. Shortly after they obtained off the cellphone, texts from Jay began arriving. Then he known as. Fresh out of life-saving surgical procedure, he was involved about how BYU would name the defensive performs in two days.
“Bro, you need not name me. Just relaxation,” Sitake stated. “We can speak about this later.”
Go Cougs! pic.twitter.com/Hn9hoR8IUr
— Jay Hill (@CoachJayHill) August 31, 2024
When BYU met as a crew the subsequent afternoon, Jay remained on the hospital. Sitake instructed the gamers what had occurred, then Jay joined the assembly by way of FaceTime.
“We have been all fairly shocked as a result of Coach Hill is an excellent energetic, wholesome man,” security Tanner Wall stated. “But he made it very clear from that second that he did not need us to be distracted or fear about him, however to fret about going and successful our recreation.”
At the hospital, Jay was negotiating. He was instructed he would really feel even higher the subsequent day after he underwent his second angioplasty process, after which it was really helpful he ought to go residence and relaxation.
But what if he went to the sport and sat within the coaches’ field and watched?
“What the physician stated was, ‘I’d not suggest it. Ultimately, you get to make the choice, however I would not suggest it,'” Jay stated. “And I simply instructed him, I’m going to observe the sport in some way. So whether or not I’m on the stadium or on the home, I’m going to observe the sport. So I’d as properly be on the stadium the place I really feel like I no less than have a little bit little bit of management.”
After his second surgical procedure in lower than 48 hours, Jay made his strategy to LaVell Edwards Stadium about an hour earlier than kickoff. As he was escorted all the way down to the sphere, he wasn’t feeling properly, and it was there when he was embraced by his gamers that the psychological stress of all of it caught up with him.
“I do not ever get emotional, however I obtained so emotional occurring the sphere,” he stated. “This is the place I wish to be — down on the sphere — and I can not.”
Jay normally calls performs from the sphere, however he was relegated to the coaches’ field, the place Sarah joined him. During the sport, Sitake and linebackers coach Justin Enna shared playcalling duties on protection. Jay wore a headset and had the play sheet in entrance of him, however he largely sat again and let his colleagues take the reins.
He was underneath strict medical doctors’ orders to not get too excited throughout the recreation, however his pure instincts made {that a} powerful task. When indicators of emotion began to indicate, there was Sarah — with a delicate squeeze of his leg or a realizing look — to reel him again in.
It helped that BYU gained comfortably 41-13 and that the protection made the sport pleasurable for Jay.
“It was enjoyable for me to take a seat within the field and simply watch all of the laborious work from fall camp,” Jay stated. “The gamers executed, they rallied behind what had simply occurred with the guts assault — for me it was a fairly surreal second simply to take a seat up there and type of simply see it from afar.”
HILL DECIDED HIS brush with demise would not require any type of prolonged absence from the crew.
The teaching workers had Sunday off, however he was again within the workplace at 8 a.m. Monday, able to work a full day forward of that Friday’s recreation at SMU.
But he additionally realized there wanted to be some concessions. During apply, he sat on a balcony overlooking the sphere and coached with a headset. He lower Mountain Dew and was extra cautious about his weight-reduction plan. Sarah joined him for normal walks that changed his common runs and weightlifting.
Hill was suggested that the majority sufferers in his state of affairs have been purported to take it straightforward for 4 to 6 weeks, and {that a} full restoration was six months out.
“In his thoughts as a coach, what does that imply, taking it straightforward?” Sarah stated. “If they work 90 hours every week generally, does that imply now you are simply working 60?”
Jay’s path to restoration ran parallel with an encouraging begin to the season for BYU. An excellent defensive efficiency led the Cougars to an 18-15 win in opposition to SMU — it will be the Mustangs’ solely loss within the common season — they usually made fast work of Wyoming to maneuver to 3-0.
After the win in Laramie, Sitake walked right into a celebratory locker room. It was a scene he normally would have been thrilled to see.
“There’s this huge monster pit of dancing occurring and there may be Jay Hill in the midst of it,” Sitake stated. “So, I am going and pull him out and am like, ‘What are you doing? You’re not purported to be doing that.’
“He simply lives life, man. But we’ve needed to watch him a little bit bit, as a result of he is all the time apprehensive about others and centered on serving to them get the vitality they want.”
On one event, a number of workers members observed that Hill’s complexion wasn’t proper, so cornerbacks coach Jernaro Gilford known as Sarah. Hill went residence early.
“He will get into it and loses himself within the work and the service and what he is making an attempt to perform,” Sitake stated. “And that is what makes him particular. But it is also why we’ve to type of be careful for him. It’s OK. We could be our brother’s keeper for a little bit bit.”
Sarah was there for Jay at each step. For the primary a number of video games of the season, she remained with him within the coaches’ field throughout video games. They would measure his blood strain earlier than the sport and monitor it as wanted.
The fourth recreation of the season was at residence in opposition to No. 13 Kansas State. On the sphere earlier than the sport, Jay felt his coronary heart begin to race. That was his cue to move as much as the field, the place he measured his blood strain with alarming outcomes. It was on par with the studying on the day of his coronary heart assault.
“It was like 200 over 130 or one thing like that, silly excessive,” Jay stated. “And that scared me a little bit bit. That was a second the place I’m like, ‘If we do not determine easy methods to monitor this, I do not know if I can coach.”
(At this degree, it’s endorsed to seek the advice of a health care provider instantly, in accordance with the American Heart Association.)
Sarah did her greatest to maintain him calm, and the numbers improved a bit as the sport started. But after the Cougars scored 31 straight factors throughout a chaotic run between the second and third quarters, he was again within the hazard zone.
“Then after the sport, we win, and I feel that is when it type of begins to drop and relax lots,” Jay stated.
It wasn’t the primary time Sarah and Jay, who’ve 4 youngsters — Ashtyn, Alayna, Allie and Jacob — went by a medical scare collectively. This time, Sarah’s position as his de facto caretaker represented a job reversal of their relationship.
In 2016, she was identified with Stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma. It required a yr and a half of intense remedy that included radiation, a bone marrow transplant and a number of other rounds of chemotherapy. Going by that, she stated, allowed her to take care of a way of calm when serving to her husband by his time of want.
“I used to be within the hospital for a month, and getting that perspective swap of me coming in, watching him in a hospital mattress and him sitting within the hospital mattress was really a extremely stunning expertise,” Sarah stated. “We have been capable of expertise the opposite particular person’s aspect, and also you simply develop in love and compassion for one another, having skilled the alternative.
“So, we’ve joked that it is a competitors of who can’t die the most effective.”
Sarah’s unique prognosis, like Jay’s, got here throughout fall camp. Throughout the season, he would accompany her to chemotherapy therapies each different Wednesday and do his greatest to be there for her whereas managing the calls for of being a head coach.
Jay stated they each felt the help of a complete school soccer program.
“I noticed a really particular factor in each situations the place the crew type of rallied behind us,” he stated. “The crew rallied for certain behind her and her most cancers state of affairs. I’ll guess you 90 % of the gamers shaved their heads that yr. It was a fairly particular second of simply how gamers can supply help and present somebody that they cherished her.”
AS HILL’S RECOVERY progressed by the season, BYU saved successful.
After starting the yr picked to complete thirteenth within the 16-team Big 12, the Cougars gained their first 9 video games to rise to No. 6 within the College Football Playoff rankings. But simply because the prospect of receiving a first-round bye began to appear potential, BYU misplaced back-to-back shut video games to Kansas and Arizona State in November.
The Cougars completed in a four-way tie with Colorado, Iowa State and ASU, with tiebreakers sending ISU and ASU by to the Big 12 title recreation.
After lacking on an opportunity to play for the convention title, BYU and Colorado — which didn’t play throughout the common season — have been chosen to play within the Alamo Bowl.
“It’s been nice having him right here, nevertheless it’s been actually cool to see him get well and assist us have the kind of yr we have had,” Sitake stated. “We anticipated that we have been going to have one thing particular this yr — even from the start — and he is a giant a part of that.”
After BYU ranked close to the underside of the nation in nearly each main defensive class in 2022, this yr it was among the many greatest. The Cougars completed the season ranked No. 1 within the Big 12 in scoring protection (20.1 factors per recreation), complete protection (317 yards per recreation) and compelled turnovers (27). Hill was nominated for the Broyles Award, given to the highest assistant in school soccer.
“I feel when you take a look at our protection over the previous two seasons, you may undoubtedly see the affect that he is made,” senior defensive finish Tyler Batty stated. “His affect is unmistakable for certain.”
It resonates far past the X’s and O’s.
“This dude had a coronary heart assault, and the identical day he was operated on, he’s at our recreation within the sales space,” Batty stated. “It simply goes to indicate that he’s a fantastic instance of grit and resilience. Guys like him and Kalani are guys you wish to run by a wall for.”
By the final quarter of the season, Hill felt like he was again to regular. He returned to the apply discipline halfway by the season and ramped up the depth of his exercises close to the top. Routine check-ins together with his physician have continued, and the indicators have been constructive.
For Hill, although, the foremost takeaway from the previous few months hasn’t come from his restoration.
“I feel we’re a little bit higher in all areas as a crew and it is made a huge effect on simply the success general,” he stated. “And then to see that repay in wins has been fairly particular.”
Spoken like a real coach.
