Who was that mellow fellow talking to Wesley Ruff on "The Red Zone" on Sunday night?

Why, it looked a lot like University of Utah basketball coach Jim Boylen. Surely it wasn't him. Boylen is that guy we see ranting and raving, waving his arms and stomping on the court at Ute basketball games — the guy who has made himself the subject of scorn from Albuquerque to Laramie.

The guy who might actually be the most-hated basketball coach in the Mountain West Conference. And it's not easy to be the most-hated anything in the MWC if you're not from BYU.

But that was Boylen sitting there chatting amiably with Ruff on Sunday night on KTVX-Ch. 4. While he has had a rather, um, contentious relationship with the media at times, here he was positively teddy bearish.

Maybe Boylen's history with the media is why Ruff seems to laugh nervously so often during the Sunday-night show. Hey, he had to sit down with the coach over the weekend with the Utes on a four-game losing streak.

Ruff admits he "was worried coming into that show" but, "He was fine. He was no different from when they're coming off wins."

"The Red Zone" is unremarkable as far as coaches' shows go. By design, coaches' shows are more public relations than reporting. They are a feel-good show for the fans, not the place for hard-hitting journalism. If you want for a venue for a coach to be grilled about anything, his own TV show is not the place to look.

That's not specific to the U. It's true of BYU coaches' shows, too, and it's true of all coaches' shows.

Rather than tough questions for the coach, you're far more likely to end up with exchanges like this one, from a recent "Red Zone":

"What a great game huh?" Ruff said.

"It was a great game," Boylen agreed.

"Fun," Ruff said.

"Fun," Boylen agreed.

Not that there's necessarily anything wrong with doing a feel-good show for the fans.

"It's just part of the job," Ruff said. "It's an assignment, and I'm just trying to do the best job I can."

This assignment can, however, put Ruff in the uncomfortable position of being a veritable public-relations adjunct of the University of Utah. Which is at odds with his regular job — reporting the sports news on KTVX-Ch 4.

"It's tricky," he said. "[The coaches] look at it like a recruiting tool."

As long as things are going well, it might be OK. There's little indication most viewers think much, if at all, about the conflict.

But imagine how uncomfortable — even unworkable — this could get if, theoretically, you have to report that the coach is under fire and in danger of losing his job. Then sit down and chat him up.

"I haven't thought of it that way," Ruff said. "We're all just a day away from losing our jobs. It's tough."

KSL used to have the same problem when sports anchor Tom Kirkland was Ch. 5's guy on "The Dave Rose Show." It makes more sense to have Greg Wrubell — the radio voice of the Cougars — asking the questions.

For one thing, Wrubell knows more about the BYU basketball team. For another, nobody really expects hard-hitting journalism out of the guy who's the radio voice of the Cougars. Or the Utes. Or the Aggies. Or the Jazz.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just a fact of sports. And TV.

SCOTT D. PIERCE covers television for The Tribune. His column on sports on TV appears Wednesday. Contact him at spierce@sltrib.com.