During the past few years as BYU head football coach, Bronco Mendenhall has shown the willingness to do things differently if it's for the good of the team.

If you're spectacular with the putter, Mendenhall might need you.

For the third straight year, Mendenhall and his team lost by six strokes to Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham and his team in the 20th annual "Rivalry for Charity" National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho Golf Classic at the Salt Lake Country Club.

The BYU coach and Cougar fans alike hope the defeat is a good sign, since the winner in the charity dual has seen his team fall in the November football game in each of the past three years.

"It's balanced out with what has happened in the fall so far," Mendenhall said. "Hopefully that continues. If it doesn't, I may have to re-think my strategy."

Since his team lost, Mendenhall and four BYU cheerleaders sang an abbreviated -- and admittedly off-key -- version of the Ute fight song, "Utah Man."

"On a scale of 1-to-10, that may have been a zero," said Deen Vetterli, CEO of the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho. "But the coaches we have are amazing. Other states ask me how we can do this because their coaches refuse, and I tell them it's because the coaches are such great people."

To avoid being forced to repeat the performance, Mendenhall may be looking for a putting expert to join his team next year.

"Putting is the key thing in a scramble format," Mendenhall said. "I may need to recruit a putter."

Both Whittingham and Mendenhall are the first to admit that golf isn't their forte, but the Utah head coach again put together the best squad.

"I had a good team again," he said. "I recruited well."

Whittingham said that Mendenhall's singing performance wasn't terrific but admitted that performing isn't easy.

"It was probably better than I did on the Cougar fight song three years ago," he said. "But it was still pretty bad."

Both coaches agree that the cause of promoting awareness and raising funds for the Kidney Foundation make it well-worth any embarrassment.

"The awareness that this draws is worth it," Mendenhall said. "In the big picture, this is for a good cause."

Vetterli estimated that the foundation raised $70,000 this year and has raised around $1.5 million over the 20-year history of the event.

"The main thing is that these funds go directly to help kidney patients," she explained. "Over 700 new patients began kidney dialysis treatment in Utah and Idaho in 2006. We have a program that help patients get an education to be self-sufficient and another program we just started called the Dialysis Transportation Fund to help patients from remote areas get treatment."

"I think this is great," Whittingham said. "It's a chance to do something for the community and the foundation."

• Jared Lloyd can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it