What Kyle Whittingham said about Utah’s rivalry loss to BYU

While he wasn’t as heated as athletic director Mark Harlan, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham was understandably unhappy about how his team’s clash with BYU concluded Saturday night.

“Things out there were ridiculous. Things out there were ridiculous,” Whittingham told reporters following the Utes’ 22-21 loss to the No. 9-ranked Cougars. “That’s how I’ll leave it.”

The main source of Whittingham’s frustration came from a late defensive holding call on Zemaiah Vaughn, negating a fourth down sack of Jake Retzlaff that would have effectively buried BYU in the contest’s final minutes.

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Instead, the Cougars received a fresh set of downs, allowing Retzlaff to march down the field and set up a game-winning 44-yard field goal from Will Ferrin.

“The game was all but over, it was over, but then it wasn’t,” Whittingham said of the holding call.

Upon the game clock hitting zero, ESPN’s cameras showed Whittingham confronting and appearing to yell at an official to voice his displeasure over the night’s ending.

“They are what they are. They are what they are,” Whittingham said of the officiating decisions. “It’s a ridiculous situation, but I’m not going to get into it.”

As he left his abbreviated postgame press conference, Whittingham angrily pushed over a chair on his way out.

Utah, which led 21-10 at halftime, failed to score a point in the second half en route to its fifth straight loss, falling to 4-5 on the season and 1-5 in Big 12 play.

“Tough way to lose a ball game. Unfortunate way to lose a ball game,” Whittingham said. “Proud of our guys, proud of our players. They battled. They should hold their heads high. It’s not on them. It’s not on them. They played hard, they did everything they could from start to finish and I’m proud of them. It’s unfortunate that it turned out the way it did.

“... (The defense) couldn’t get that last stop when we needed it, unfortunately. It’s kind of been the story for the last several games. We just can’t get that one last stop.”