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Las Vegas • Utah senior defensive tackle Viliseni Fauonuku grabbed headlines this week after first grabbing the microphone from the host of Wednesday night's welcome reception dinner and telling BYU — as in, the whole team — it's "dirty."
Moments earlier, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham had told a reporter he hoped to avoid exactly that type of moment on Fremont Street.
But Friday, Whittingham responded calmly to a question about the incident.
"I talked to Seni," he said. "Seni's heart is in the right place. It wasn't a good choice. I don't think anybody will dispute that. But he's a great kid."
Whittingham said Fauonuku has been "nothing but a model kid" since he joined Utah's program. He was the first person in his family to graduate from high school, according to his bio, but his involvement in a delinquent robbery had been chronicled by Sports Illustrated.
Since, he's become "a great leader," Whittingham said. "He's not a captain, but he's one of those guys that leads behind the scenes. He's a guy that has a lot of influence on our football team, and a lot of people look up to him on our team."
"It was unnecessary, but it's over," Whittingham said. "We'll move forward."
High stakes, high drama
Utah has beaten BYU four straight times, but three of those wins came by one score.
Whittingham has beaten Bronco Mendenhall's Cougars in six out of nine tries since both took their jobs in 2005, but as many of those games went to overtime (two) as were decided by more than a touchdown.
Whittingham said Friday that he expects another tight finish between two "very evenly matched" 9-3 teams in Las Vegas.
"Typically this game comes down to the last series, or even the last play," he said.
Senior wideout Kenneth Scott, after first celebrating the fact that he is younger as a sixth-year senior than BYU's Mitch Mathews, who graduated high school in 2009 and sat opposite Scott on the podium Friday, said he hopes to "create some more memories that we can talk about 30 years later from now, if we're not, you know, dead."
Kylo Whittingham?
Utah senior linebacker Jared Norris — who earlier this season told reporters proudly that he'd never heard of Captain Kirk — is a big "Star Wars" fan, he confirmed Friday. He liked bounty hunter Boba Fett, especially.
Six-foot-eight BYU senior defensive end Bronson Kaufusi preferred Yoda, ironically, because of his small stature.
And Whittingham said he's seen them all. Utah's team would watch Episode VII on Friday night, he said.
But Scott declared himself "more of a BET type of person," and Mendenhall rendered an even worse review: "Uh, no."
Twitter: @matthew_piper