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SALT LAKE CITY — As Kalani Sitake prepares for battle against his friend and mentor in Kyle Whittingham, a connection the two share will be absent from Saturday’s game for the first time in decades.
For more than 50 years, former BYU coach LaVell Edwards either participated in or watched in the stands as his Cougars took on its hated rival Utah. But on Saturday, as the Cougars and Utes prepare for their 98th meeting in a stadium that bears his name, Edwards will be absent for the first time since at least 1962 when he started his collegiate coaching career as an assistant at BYU.
Edwards, who died on Dec. 29, 2016, shaped the lives of many in and out of football. Regardless of rivalry affiliation, the famed BYU coach’s impact on the game was felt by many — more than can quite possibly be quantified. But for Whittingham, Edwards was more than just a coach, but a mentor and friend.
Whittingham was 13 years old when his father, Fred, took a coaching job under Edwards in 1973 following a 9-year career in the NFL and a one-year head coaching job at a high school in California. It was Fred Whittingham’s first opportunity to coach at the collegiate level and one that “really launched my father’s coaching career,” Kyle Whittingham said.
Whittingham said it was “my intention all along” to play for the Cougars, should he get an offer out of high school. He said that’s where “the relationship first began when I first got to Provo” and “knew I wanted to go play there.” Whittingham was offered a scholarship nearly five years later but said coach Edwards never tried to impact his decision.
Throughout his playing days as a linebacker for the Cougars and into his adult years where he was eventually added as a graduate assistant to the BYU coaching staff, Whittingham said coach Edwards had a “huge impact” on his life. Whittingham would eventually get a coaching job at the University of Utah, where he has been coaching for more than 23 years — 13 of those years as the team’s head coach.
Shortly after Fred Whittingham died from surgical complications from back surgery on Oct. 27, 2003, Kyle Whittingham said it was Edwards that stepped in as a father figure and gave encouragement and advice.
“My father had passed away, so he wasn’t around anymore and coach Edwards was there for support,” Whittingham said. “It seems like every time I needed it most, when I was struggling the most, he would give me a phone call or send me a note to rejuvenate me.”
In December 2004, Kyle Whittingham was courted by both BYU and Utah to be their head coach. It was a difficult situation for Whittingham who was forced to choose between his alma mater or a university he’d already spent 10 years of his life coaching. Although he went back-and-forth on the decision for days, it was Edwards that helped give him the insight needed to make the decision to coach at Utah.
“He had some great advice for me at that time,” Whittingham said, declining to detail the advice given. “It was very, very helpful to me.”
Whittingham said Edwards always stood by his decision to coach at Utah even when others felt he was turning his back on the university that started his football career.
“That was something I really appreciated because a lot of people did,” Whittingham said. “With him, never a comment or remark at all that could be construed as needling or teasing. It was always just supportive.”
Whittingham said he has tried to model his coaching style in large part to that of his former friend and mentor: an “even-keeled” man that “did such a great job of maintaining balance in the program.” Even in his approach to the heated rivalry matchup between the two programs, Whittingham said he tries to approach it as just another game, similar to that of coach Edwards.
“I can’t remember as a player him ever making a big deal of it,” Whittingham said of the rivalry. “We certainly didn’t do anything unique during the week as far as practice schedules and so forth. It was very business as usual and that’s the approach I’ve tried to take here. We don’t change anything as far as our preparation, and I learned that lesson from coach Edwards.”
While many await the excitement of the rivalry game, Whittingham said the game will be “a little different” without coach Edwards.
“When he talked, people listened,” Whittingham said. “When he had something to say everybody took note and listened. And I miss him. I know they obviously miss him down there. It will be our first game without coach around; it will be a little different.”
Contributing: Cleon Wall
