A year ago, BYU football coach Bronco Mendenhall called his relationship with Utah coach Kyle Whittingham cordial and professional in a Salt Lake Tribune article outlining the feelings between the two coaches, who both started their head coaching careers in 2005. Utah’s move to the Pac-12 and BYU’s dalliance with independence has done nothing to change that, Mendenhall said Monday in his weekly news conference as the Cougars and Utes prepared to battle Saturday (7:15 p.m., ESPN2) at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“ ‘Professional’ is the best way to describe it. It really doesn’t go beyond that. I think we both tried early on but then realized I wasn’t LaVell [Edwards, a former BYU coach], and he wasn’t [former Utah coach] Ron McBride,” Mendenhall said.