Kyle Whittingham may never catch LaVell Edwards when it comes to victories, championships or his golf handicap, but as far as who belongs on the two-man Mount Rushmore of the BYU-Utah rivalry, they stand together.
Edwards coached in 39 rivalry games, both as an assistant and head coach. As the head man, his teams went 19-2 against the Utes between 1972-1992 and 22-7 overall. For his career, Edwards won 257 games and the 1984 national championship. He was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2004 the same year Whittingham was named head coach at Utah .
Whittingham has worked 26 BYU-Utah games, including the last 15 as head coach. His teams are 9-1 in the last 10 meetings against the Cougars. Still going strong at 64, the former BYU grad assistant is already Utah's winningest coach in program history (162). He led the Utes to a pair of Rose Bowls and has a team narrowly picked as the media favorite to win the Big 12 in Utah's inaugural season.
Prior to Edwards, Utah was 41-8-4 against BYU. The rivalry was always meaningful, but not overly competitive. Edwards flipped the script starting in 1972. He stood tall in Provo while the Utes went through Bill Meek, Tom Lovat, Wayne Howard, Chuck Stobart and Jim Fassel before they found a guy who could compete against him in Ron McBride.
McBride gave him some trouble, but Edwards' 22 wins against the Utes remains unprecedented in BYU history. Even as he featured one star quarterback after another, including Heisman Trophy winner Ty Detmer , Edwards was the face of the rivalry. He was the guy Utah just couldn't beat and the fact that he was nice about it made him hard to hate and easy to respect right up until his death in 2016.
Whittingham was an All-WAC linebacker for Edwards and played a key role in BYU's 46-45 thrilling victory against SMU in the 1980 Holiday Bowl. He worked for Edwards as a grad assistant for two seasons (1985-86), but ever since being hired as Utah's defensive coordinator in 1994, he has been a 30-year thorn in the side of his alma mater.
Ike Armstrong beat BYU 18 times between 1925 and 1949, but over the last 74 years, no Utah coach has conquered the Cougars more than Whittingham (11-4). As he held his ground in the north, BYU went through head coaches Gary Crowton and Bronco Mendenhall before they too found a guy who could compete against him in the south — his former defensive coordinator and BYU running back Kalani Sitake in 2016.
Both sides have had plenty of star players who have fanned the flames of contention, including Utah quarterback Cam Rising during Monday's Big 12 football media days in Las Vegas. But when it comes to the face of the rivalry, Whittingham stands alone. He is the guy the Cougars have struggled to beat and without the luxury of Edwards' disarming personality, the results seem to sting even deeper.
LaVell Edwards celebrates a win in the 1980 Holiday Bowl vs. Southern Methodist. Kyle Whittingham can be seen in the foreground. | Mark Philbrick, BYU
Outcomes and expectations are big differences between the Edwards and Whittingham eras in rivalry games. During BYU's 22 wins under Edwards, when championships came as regularly as Christmas, the Cougars margin of victory against Utah was 21.3 points. During Whittingham's 11 wins against BYU, the Utes advantage was 12.1 with seven of their last nine victories by an average of four points.
Close games breed greater intensity and under Whittingham's watch, there have been plenty of them. There has also been the evolution of social media, which has allowed fans to disparage each other without accountability and spread ill will as fast as a wildfire on a hot July afternoon.
Edwards was fortunate to miss out on social media and his bevy of blowouts may explain why, in hindsight, he is generally appreciated by both sides of the rivalry — generally. And, it may also shed light on why Whittingham, even as a BYU alum himself, is received differently.
It may take Whittingham's retirement for the larger Cougar community to more warmly appreciate what one of their graduates has done for his family, for the game of football and for the state of Utah. But that day is not today. Whittingham is still heading up the opposition and BYU will take him on again Nov. 9 in Salt Lake City, where the Cougars haven't won since John Beck found Jonny Harline wide open in the end zone in 2006.
Additional incentives for the showdown include the two teams are back in the same conference for the first time since 2010 and in the last meeting in 2021, BYU dominated the line of scrimmage with 231 rushing yards and knocked the No. 21 Utes out of the top 25 with a 26-17 victory in Provo. Each team will have a bye week prior to the game to provide two weeks of build-up.
The November reunion will also be played at Rice-Eccles Stadium, where Edwards won his final game in 2000. Needing a magical finish, BYU quarterback Brandon Doman outwitted Whittingham's defense for a last-minute touchdown to send Edwards out in style and solidify his place on the Mount Rushmore of the BYU-Utah rivalry.
To Whittingham's credit, he has since earned a spot right next to him.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts "Y's Guys" at ysguys.com and is the author of the children's book "C is for Cougar," available at deseretbook.com .
