Outpoll | Whittingham declines to talk about this year’s BYU team, but does talk about the rivalry as a whole

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Whittingham declines to talk about this year’s BYU team, but does talk about the rivalry as a whole

Whittingham declines to talk about this year’s BYU team, but does talk about the rivalry as a whole

3 hours ago7 min read999 comments

In the charged atmosphere of a rivalry that divides a state and captiVates a nation, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham executed a strategic sidestep that spoke volumes, offering a masterclass in psychological gamesmanship ahead of Saturday’s seismic clash with No. 15 BYU.Typically, a coach’s weekly press conference is a forensic breakdown of the upcoming opponent, a ritual of tactical acknowledgment. Not this time.Whittingham, a former BYU linebacker who has become the granite-faced embodiment of Utah football, opened with a brief, almost clinical observation on the statistical mirroring between his No. 23 Utes and the Cougars before effectively slamming the door on any further inquiry.‘Between the two teams, there’s a lot of similarities statistically,’ he noted, a comment as dry as the Utah desert, pointing to nearly identical outputs in rushing, passing, and scoring. Indeed, the numbers are eerily close, a duel of near-perfect equals: Utah gallops for 248.2 yards per game on the ground (8th nationally), while BYU pounds for 238 (T-11th); through the air, it’s a similarly middling 211. 5 for the Utes versus 210.2 for the Cougars. Defensively, the plot thickens, with both units residing in the top 20 for total yards allowed and sitting snugly at 11th and 12th nationally in points surrendered.The only discernible edge belongs to BYU’s rush defense, ranked 23rd, a sliver of advantage in a contest where margins are measured in heartbeats. This Provo showdown marks only the fourth time these rivals have met while both ranked in the AP Top 25, the first since 2009, elevating it from a regional feud to a national spectacle with Big 12 championship and College Football Playoff implications hanging in the balance.Yet, when pressed on BYU’s true freshman quarterback sensation, Bear Bachmeier, Whittingham retreated into a fortress of self-focus. ‘You know, I’m just going to focus on us this week, our guys, our coaches, so I’m not going to give much thought on the opponent this week,’ he stated, a deliberate silence that echoes louder than any boast.This is the cold calculus of modern rivalry, where information is ammunition and public praise is a commodity not to be spent lightly. Whittingham did, however, pull back the curtain on the rivalry’s soul, acknowledging the intensified stakes now that both schools are reunited in the Big 12.‘I think it’s always been intense for sure, and conference implications certainly add to it,’ he said, though he lamented the scheduling shift from its traditional season-ending slot in the Mountain West era to its current mid-season placement. ‘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,’ he mused, a nod to the unique pressure-cooker environment that a finale provides.The transitory nature of college football, supercharged by the transfer portal, adds another layer of intrigue. With roughly half of Utah’s roster new to the program, including prominent Arizona transplant quarterback Devon Dampier, the institutional memory of this bitter feud is no longer a given.It must be taught. Whittingham revealed a deliberate process of indoctrination, where veterans ‘do a good job of educating the guys on what the rivalry’s all about,’ supplemented by a dedicated segment in the Monday team meeting to impart the history and tradition.‘It’s not a long extensive thing, but just the history of the rivalry and more just the tradition and what’s happened in the past and just how on a national scene, it is one of the better rivalries in the country in my opinion,’ he explained. Dampier, a newcomer with no prior skin in the game, has clearly absorbed the lesson, stating, ‘I understand the significance of this game.We’ll be dialed into it for sure. ’ This educational imperative highlights how rivalries are sustained not just by geography and history, but by active curation in an era of rampant player movement.As the teams prepare to write another chapter, the analytics point to a nail-biter—ESPN’s predictor gives BYU a razor-thin 51% chance, while Vegas favors Utah by a field goal. Whittingham’s strategic silence, therefore, is not evasion but a calculated part of the playbook, a move worthy of a chess grandmaster in a game that is, on paper, a dead heat. In the end, the story of this Holy War installment will be written not in press conferences but on the field, where statistics meet spirit, and where a coach’s quiet confidence will be tested against the roaring reality of one of college football’s most passionate divides.

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