As the rivalry intensified, whispers in Utah's athletic department began turning into full-fledged rumors. Some noticed that Whittingham’s recruiting choices were becoming oddly conservative. Top-tier prospects who once flocked to Utah were now slipping away, many of them ending up at BYU instead. While the media chalked it up to the shifting landscape of college football, those within the program started to suspect something deeper at play. Whittingham’s play-calling, once aggressive and inventive, seemed to grow increasingly lackluster in critical games, especially when it came to matchups with BYU. To the fans, it was chalked up as an off year. But behind the scenes, something much more nefarious was unfolding—a calculated effort to sabotage the very program he’d built to help the school he’d secretly always loved.

By 2023, the cracks were impossible to ignore. Utah’s defense, once the pride of the Pac-12, started to falter inexplicably, giving up big plays that were uncharacteristic of Whittingham’s typically disciplined squads. Rumors began circulating that Kyle had been in close, late-night contact with BYU’s coaching staff, sharing insights and strategies disguised as friendly banter. When questioned about Utah’s sudden slump, he deflected blame, speaking cryptically about "cycles of success" and “rebuilding phases,” but insiders knew better. Recruiting targets started flipping to BYU in droves, and many of them reported that it was Whittingham’s odd, lukewarm pitches that made them reconsider Utah. The writing was on the wall: he was quietly tanking Utah’s momentum while paving the way for BYU’s rise.

In a shocking twist, at the end of the 2024 season, Whittingham announced his sudden retirement. Utah fans were blindsided, but what came next was the real bombshell: Whittingham had accepted a role as a special advisor at BYU. It was the final move in a long game he had been playing for years—weakening Utah from within while bolstering BYU’s program from the shadows. His loyalty, which seemed ironclad to the Utah faithful, had been a façade masking his true intentions all along. As he stood at the podium in Provo, donning a blue tie for the first time in decades, he addressed the crowd with a knowing smile, saying, "This is where I’ve always belonged." The Utah fans watched in stunned silence, realizing that their greatest coach had, in the end, betrayed them for the school he had always loved most.