When Kyle Whittingham considered the possibility of retiring after last season, the longtime Utah football coach decided that he “couldn’t step away on that note. It was too frustrating and too disappointing.”
If disappointment determined his decision once, could it be a factor again this year?
With five games left on the schedule and Utah’s chances of making the Big 12 title game are slim. Worse in the minds of some fans, Whittingham’s Utes have now lost three straight times to BYU.
Could that rivalry losing streak influence Whittingham’s retirement decision?
“No,” the coach said after Saturday’s game. “We won nine in a row before that, so we’re still on the very plus side of that ledger.”
Whittingham has an 11-6 record versus BYU since taking over the Utes’ head job in 2004.
This is, however, the first time the head coach has lost three consecutive contests to the Cougars in his 21-year career.
“It’s part of the deal,” Whittingham said. “You go from elation to devastation in a seven-day period of time.
“But that’s what you sign up for. I mean, that’s the nature of this business.”