Most of the small handful of candidates suggested by those wanting a new head coach are pretty unrealistic (e.g., Andy Reid), but in general I can understand the rationale behind wanting them as head coach.

On the other hand, although Kalani Sitake keeps getting mentioned, I haven't seem much posted as to why he is being viewed by some as a top candidate. Yes, he's a good guy, and I've always liked him, and he has certainly shown more class that his boss, but I would like to hear an actual explanation of specifically why he would be "the guy." ("Because he's not Bronco" and other such intellectually slothful, over-used, and thoroughly unamusing comments don't count. If you're going to give a facetious response, at least have the decency to make it somewhat witty.)

Other than the many unknowns, my main concern is Utah's total defense ranking since Sitake became defensive coordinator, which I think would be a bit of a red flag.
In 2008 (the year before Sitake became defensive coordinator), Utah's total defense was ranked 11th in the nation, which was very good. Below are his defense's rankings since he became the DC.

2009 19th
2010 26th
2011 38th
2012 36th
2013 43rd (as of September 22)

I don't think I'm the only one who sees a pattern here, and I'm pretty sure that Utah's defensive statistics are not going to be better after the stretch of games against UCLA, Stanford, Arizona, USC, Arizona State, and Oregon. There's a chance that the free-fall of defensive stats will stop against Washington State and Colorado, but that won't make up for the rest of the conference schedule. Utah's total defense ranking will likely be at or below what it is right now, which is pretty bad considering that one of the opponents was an FCS team that has been projected to finish 10th in their conference, another was a BYU offense that has not been consistently good in a while, and a third was a Utah State offense that is currently ranked 7 places below BYU (in total offense). Defense isn't the only relevant aspect, of course, but it's what he has been in charge of for over 4 years, and it has continued to get worse.

So, my question is: What are Sitake's qualities/attributes that outweigh his actual record, or that are indicators that he would be more successful than Coach Mendenhall? (I mean overall, even if it meant that BYU's defense wasn't as good as it is under Bronco.)

Just to be clear: I'm not attempting to bash Sitake in any manner whatsoever. I'm just wondering if there's something that I'm not seeing about him, or that I'm not putting enough weight on in my evaluation.