Plus: Kyle Whittingham reacts to realignment, Utah-Florida opener coming into focus.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham speaks during Pac-12 Conference football media day Friday in Los Angeles.These are weird times in college athletics as UCLA and USC, the Pac-12′s two flagship athletic departments, are leaving the West’s preeminent conference for the Big Ten in 2024.
“It’s different, it’s a different feel to it because you’re so used to the Pac being featured with them, especially USC,” Rising said Friday morning during Pac-12 media day at The Novo Theater. “That’s the first team that really comes to mind. It’s interesting, but it’s still football at the end of the day, so you just have to go out there and play. It doesn’t matter what conference anyone is in. If they’re lined up across from you, you’re going to play football and that’s just the way it is.
As Whittingham was quick to point out, though, going from the Pac-12 to the Mountain West is not the same thing as going from the Pac-12 to the Big Ten. Whittingham on Friday labeled himself “surprised, but not surprised” when he learned UCLA and USC would be leaving the Pac-12, adding that “nothing can really surprise you, I don’t believe, in college football right now.”
“Every game obviously is important, but when you have a chance to go down to SEC country, play a storied program like Florida with their history, a tradition, in a place like The Swamp, that’s a challenge for our guys,” Whittingham said. “It’s important for the Pac-12 to make noise on the national scene whenever we get opportunities like that. There’s several other teams in the league that are going to have similar opportunities. We have to make the most of it.
Agreed to in Sept. 2019 as a home-and-home series, with the back end being played in 2023 at Rice-Eccles Stadium, the game has become more than just an opener, but rather something of a referendum on where Utah’s season could go.
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