Whittingham still Andersen's bud, but he has no interest in Saturday's matchup

Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said he'll have his eyes on tonight's big matchup between No. 2 Oregon and No. 6 Stanford, but as for that other big matchup, the one that pits Wisconsin against BYU on Saturday, he has no interest whatsoever.

"I have my hands full with Arizona State," he said.

Whittingham said he was unaware of all the radio and social media discussion of the friendship between BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall and Wisconsin coach Gary Andersen, Whittingham's former assistant.

Mendenhall said this week that he and Andersen have grown closer since Andersen left the Utes following the 2008 season to become the head coach at Utah State with Andersen becoming "more open and normal," about the friendship.

Apparently Whittingham's friendship with Andersen remains strong as well as he said the two talk frequently, including this week.

"We don't talk a lot of football believe it or not, we talk about other stuff," he said.

While Whittingham said he had no interest in the game, he added, "Gary is a close friend and I hope his program does well always."

Whittingham expressed a lot more interest in tonight's contest at Stanford, saying he would make a point to watch.

"I'm always interested in Pac-12 games especially since Oregon is an opponent in a couple weeks," he said. "Always looking for things you can do to get an edge so absolutely we'll be watching that game. It should be a great game between two good football teams."

- Lya Wodraska