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Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham, center, comes onto the field with his team before an NCAA college football game against Houston Saturday, Oct. 26, 2024, in Houston.

Michael Wyke, AP Photo

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BYU head football coach Kalani Sitake and Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham walk toward the start of the Coaches Legacy Tournament benefitting the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho at Hidden Valley Country Club in Draper on Monday, June 3, 2024.

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham speaks during the Big 12 NCAA college football media days in Las Vegas, Tuesday, July 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucas Peltier)

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Utah head football coach Kyle Whittingham watches his shot during the Coaches Legacy Tournament benefitting the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho at Hidden Valley Country Club in Draper on Monday, June 3, 2024/

Jared Lloyd, Daily Herald

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Truth is, Kyle Whittingham very nearly became BYU’s head football coach following the 2004 season.

Gary Crowton was gone after three straight losing records and there were rumors Whittingham (a former Cougar linebacker) decided to take the job, but as a long-time assistant coach at the University of Utah, opted instead for loyalty and stayed in Salt Lake City, where he’s become a Ute legend.

It wasn’t the first time Whittingham had been considered for a role with BYU football.

In his recently published book, “Out of the Blue: An Insider’s Look at the Rise of BYU Athletics,” former Cougar Athletics Director Val Hale revealed that Whittingham was considered for a spot on the BYU coaching staff after LaVell Edwards retired in 2000.

The two main head coaching candidates were Chicago Bears offensive coordinator Gary Crowton and Philadelphia Eagles head coach Andy Reid. Hale said that neither Crowton nor Reid were that concerned about salary, understanding the unique opportunity it would be to coach in Provo.

Reid ended up staying loyal to the Eagles and BYU hired Crowton.

“It’s interesting the things that could have happened,” Hale said. “I was reading a letter I wrote to my son on his mission back then and I made the comment that Gary Crowton was looking for a defensive coordinator. He was interested in Bronco Mendenhall (who he had worked with at Louisiana Tech) and Kyle Whittingham. I’d forgotten about that. I don’t know how far along that went, but I thought about how different history would have been if instead of Bronco, BYU would have gotten Kyle instead. That would have changed the history of college football in Utah in a big way. I think (then Utah coach) Urban Meyer did not want to lose Kyle. ”

Both schools may have taken very different trajectories had Whittingham taken the BYU job, either as the defensive coordinator under Crowton or as the head coach replacing Crowton four years later. BYU might have suddenly become a defensive-minded school, not known for its offense. Would Kalani Sitake, who became a Utah assistant in 2005, eventually become the head coach for the Utes?

Speculating can be fun, but the reality is that Whittingham has had great success since taking over the Utes in 2005. His record is 166-83 (.667) and he won AFCA Coach of the Year in 2008 when Utah posted a undefeated season and beat Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. The Utes have twice earned Rose Bowl berths (2021, 2022).

It’s not known when Whittingham, who is 64 years old, will retire from coaching, though Utah has already named his successor in  defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley. What is clear is that Whittingham is growing disillusioned with the direction of college football. Recent comments about the difficulty of creating a consistent culture while dealing with conference realignment, NIL and the transfer portal could indicate he’s ready to leave the profession sooner than later.

With his success, Whittingham — just like his college coach, LaVell Edwards — has earned the right to call his own shot on that one.

As the BYU-Utah rivalry is renewed on Saturday, things are not going well up on the Hill for Whittingham and the Utes. Picked as the preseason favorite in its first Big 12 campaign, Utah (4-4) has instead lost four straight games, mainly due to an anemic offense.

“I would agree that we’re not as physical this year as we typically have been,” Whittingham said. “We gauge that by how you run the ball and how you defend the run and we haven’t been as good at that this year. It’s tough to pinpoint one exact reason for that, but we haven’t been our usual selves in that regard.”

Meanwhile, the Cougars are a Top 10 team at 8-0 under Sitake, a former Cougar fullback and Utah assistant coach whose view of the rivalry is, well, a little bit different.

“If it weren’t for Utah, I wouldn’t be here, you know?” he said. “If it weren’t for BYU, he (Whittingham) wouldn’t be in Utah. We need each other, that’s always been the case. I just hope everybody remembers what it was like when we didn’t have this game on the schedule and how difficult it was. Just didn’t feel right, you know?”

BYU and Utah have played just once in the past five seasons, a 27-19 Cougar victory in Provo in 2021. For the time being, the Cougars and Utes are both in the Big 12.

“This is a chance for us to do it even better and have a lot more respect and appreciation for each other,” Sitake said “Because we are connected, whether you want to admit it or not. We are connected. I have a unique perspective because I’ve been on both sides.”

The two programs have historically approached rivalry week in very different ways. When Ron McBride and Edwards led their respective teams, there was a mutual respect between the two coaches. When Meyer took over Utah’s program in 2003, disdain and disrespect became the order of the day in Salt Lake City. Meyer famously wouldn’t say “BYU,” instead opting for “the team down south.” He also had staff put Cougar logos in the urinals in the Utah locker room.

Whittingham hasn’t been as harsh as Meyer in his comments about BYU but still plays the game. At Pac-12 media day in 2021, Fox Sports reporter RJ Young asked Whittingham to say three nice things about Utah’s rival. Whittingham responded with, “Uh, who’s our rival? We got rivals in conference, we got rivals out of conference.” When the reporter said Whittingham knew exactly what rivalry he was referring to, the Utah coach said, “Oh, the in-state game. OK, gotcha.”

Josh Furlong, who covers the Utes for KSL Sports, said this week on ESPN 960, “Kyle’s always said, ‘We don’t lose that team,’ and he truly believes it. He still refuses to say ‘BYU.’ He still calls it an in-state rivalry. That loss they had a few years ago absolutely stings them.”

There is actually great respect between Whittingham and Sitake, who was his defensive coordinator from 2009 to 2014. It just doesn’t extend to the “team down south.”

The 2021 BYU victory at LaVell Edwards Stadium just a day after announcing they had accepted an invitation to join the Big 12 was one of the best weekends in Cougar history. While many Ute fans scoffed at what they dubbed, “The Truck Stop Conference,” Utah watched as the Pac-12 disintegrated around them and eventually fled themselves to the Big 12 in 2024.

So here we are.

Saturday’s meeting in Salt Lake City — the 101st BYU-Utah football game — is between two teams going in opposite directions, but those directions can change in a hurry. Even though Utah won nine in a row in the series (2010 to 2019), seven of those games were decided by seven points or less.

No one in Provo, at least publicly, thinks Saturday will be easy.

“It’s amazing,” BYU senior defensive tackle John Nelson said. “We had to kind of deal with their stuff and watch them have a lot of success. Now we get to play them again and it’s really great to have this opportunity.”

The Utes go into the game seeking to turn their season around.

“It would be a big help. Obviously, we’re in desperate need of a win,” Whittingham said this week. “There’s no doubt about that.”