{"id":222613,"date":"2025-10-13T23:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/222613\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T23:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T23:09:08","slug":"kyle-whittingham-declines-to-talk-about-this-years-byu-team-deseret-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/222613\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Whittingham declines to talk about this year\u2019s BYU team \u2013 Deseret News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham usually answers some questions about the Utes\u2019 upcoming opponents in his weekly Monday morning press conference.<\/p>\n

He didn\u2019t this week.<\/p>\n

Whittingham touched on the upcoming rivalry game between No. 23 Utah and No. 15 BYU in his opening statement by noting the statistical similarities between the two teams, but that was about the extent of his comments on the 2025 Cougars.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Special Collector’s Issue: “1984: The Year BYU was Second to None”<\/p>\n

Get an inclusive look inside BYU Football’s 1984 National Championship season.<\/p>\n

\u201cBetween the two teams, there\u2019s a lot of similarities statistically,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201cBoth rushing for roughly the same amount, throwing for roughly the same amount, scoring roughly the same amount. Defensively, there\u2019s a lot of similarities as well, both in the upper third of the conference in most of the key stats and so should make for a great matchup.\u201d <\/p>\n

Utah is rushing the ball at a 248.2 yard-per-game clip, No. 8 in the country, while BYU is averaging 238 yards per game, tied for No. 11 in the nation. The Utes are gaining 211.5 yards per game through the air (tied for No. 87 in the country), while the Cougars are averaging 210.2 passing yards per game (No. 90). Utah ranks No. 16 in the nation with 39.5 points per game, while the Cougars rank No. 21 with 37.5 points per game.<\/p>\n

Like Whittingham said, it\u2019s the same story defensively. <\/p>\n

Both teams are ranked in the top 20 in yards allowed per game (BYU 263.5, Utah 293.5), and the two rivals are right next to each other in points allowed per game (Utah No. 11 with 13.83 points and BYU No. 12 with 14.67).<\/p>\n

The two teams separated by less than 50 miles are also top 20 in passing yards allowed (Utah giving up 153.7 per game, BYU giving up 159.3). The only category that BYU has a real edge in is rushing defense \u2014 BYU ranks No. 23, allowing 104.2 per game, while Utah has given up 139.8, tied for No. 61 in the country. <\/p>\n

Saturday\u2019s game in Provo is just the fourth time overall, and first time since 2009, that the two rivals have faced off while both ranked in the AP Top 25. With both teams excelling in most phases of the game, Saturday\u2019s contest is expected to be close \u2014 ESPN\u2019s matchup predictor gives the Cougars a 51% chance of winning, while Utah is favored by 3.5 points in Vegas.<\/p>\n

That comment from Whittingham about the statistical similarities between the two teams is about the only one that you\u2019ll get from him on this BYU team, though he did praise the numerous former Utah coaching staff members now at BYU.<\/p>\n

Head coach Kalani Sitake, offensive coordinator Aaron Roderick, defensive coordinator Jay Hill, defensive tackles coach Sione Po\u2019uha and senior analyst Gary Andersen all coached under Whittingham.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of coaches down there that were here. Grateful for what they gave us while they were here. They were all outstanding for us and did an excellent job. And Kalani is a good friend of mine, that\u2019s no secret. And he\u2019s become an outstanding head coach,\u201d Whittingham said. <\/p>\n

The longtime Utah coach and former BYU player declined to answer a question about Bear Bachmeier, the Cougars\u2019 true freshman quarterback<\/a>, at Monday\u2019s press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019m just going to focus on us this week, our guys, our coaches, so I\u2019m not going to give much thought on the opponent this week. And so really you have to ask them what they think of Bear,\u201d Whittingham said.<\/p>\n

Though he\u2019s not speaking publicly about the 2025 iteration of the Cougars this week, Whittingham did give his thoughts on the rivalry as a whole now that the two schools are back in the same conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s always been intense for sure, and conference implications certainly add to it,\u201d Whittingham said.<\/p>\n

Both teams enter the game with Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff hopes still alive, making this year\u2019s rivalry game one of the more important ones in the series\u2019 long history. Unlike when the two schools were in the Mountain West, however, the Big 12 has not slotted the rivalry game in the traditional spot on the last week of the season.<\/p>\n

Last season\u2019s game was played Nov. 9 \u2014 Utah played three more games after the rivalry contest \u2014 and this season\u2019s game comes even earlier.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think in the past when we were in the Mountain West and the game being held in the last slot of the season, last game of the season, that added to it as well. As of right now, it\u2019s not the case. What are we dead center, just about, in the season?\u201d Whittingham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so I think it\u2019s almost the same as it was when the Mountain West, when we were in there, but just not quite because the buildup throughout the entire year to having the last game is a little bit different than playing right in the middle, in my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the implementation of the transfer portal \u2014 about 50% of Utah\u2019s roster is new, between incoming freshmen and transfers \u2014 there\u2019s not as many players on this year\u2019s team that have experienced the Utah-BYU rivalry as in decades prior, when players stayed for three or four years. <\/p>\n

Utah\u2019s most prominent player, quarterback Devon Dampier<\/a>, is from Arizona and started his career at New Mexico. Obviously, he has no history with the rivalry game, but his coaches and players have educated him on what it means to the program, the fanbase and the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the significance of this game. We\u2019ll be dialed into it for sure,\u201d Dampier said.<\/p>\n

Whittingham said the players that have previously played in the rivalry game \u201cdo a good job of educating the guys on what the rivalry\u2019s all about.\u201d<\/p>\n

Utes on the air<\/p>\n

No. 23 Utah (5-1, 2-1) at No. 15 BYU (6-0, 3-0)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 6 p.m. MDTLaVell Edwards StadiumTV:\u00a0FoxRadio:\u00a0700 AM\/92.1 FM<\/p>\n

Utah will also have a short segment in today\u2019s team meeting letting the newcomers know what the rivalry is all about.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also take a small segment in the team meeting on Monday, which will happen today, educating the new guys on little bit of the history. It\u2019s not a long extensive thing, but just the history of the rivalry and more just the tradition and what\u2019s happened in the past and just how on a national scene, it is one of the better rivalries in the country in my opinion,\u201d Whittingham said. <\/p>\n

Another chapter in the storied rivalry will be written this Saturday in one of the higher-stakes battles in Utah-BYU history, with the Utes trying to stay alive in the Big 12 title race and beat the Cougars for the first time in three tries.<\/p>\n

\"\"BYU football head coach Kalani Sitake and Utah football head coach Kyle Whittingham talk before a game between the Utah Utes and the BYU Cougars held at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 9, 2024. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Utah coach Kyle Whittingham usually answers some questions about the Utes\u2019 upcoming opponents in his weekly Monday morning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":222614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[399,398,396,397,3125,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-222613","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football","11":"tag-ncaafootball","12":"tag-news-feed-local","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}