...he was the one that wanted out of it."

It was very likely he got tired of the post BYU Bowl swoon that the Yutz always seemed to have after the rivalry game was moved to early in the season. The yutz would go flat after the BYU Bowl and play emotionless football for the next month or so until they recovered and got back on track. This would tank their conference season and cause them to have a losing record.

I guess maybe he felt the need to beat BYU was just so ingrained in the Yutz players (a tactic that had served him well during their time together in the MWC) that it was now coming back to haunt him in the Pac12 and he couldn't seem to un-train the team. It is hard to change the culture of a football program and maybe Kyle felt a break would help him do that.