Kyle Whittingham, Utah’s winningest head football coach, has stepped down after 21 seasons at the helm of the program.
Whittingham, 66, oversaw some of the greatest moments in Utah football history, guiding the Utes to three conference championships — an undefeated 2008 season in the Mountain West Conference capped off by a win over Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl, and back-to-back Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022.
“The time is right to step down from my position as the head football coach at the University of Utah,” Whittingham said in a press release.
“It’s been an honor and a privilege to lead the program for the past 21 years and I’m very grateful for the relationships forged with all the players and assistant coaches that have worked so hard and proudly worn the drum and feather during our time here.
The opportunity to guide so many talented young men as they pursued their goals—both on and off the field, has truly been a blessing. Thank you to the University, the Salt Lake community, all of Ute Nation and most of all my wife and family for your unwavering support that has helped make Utah Football what it is today.”
In his 21 seasons at Utah, Whittingham’s program became a model of consistency, posting winning records in 18 years, including eight seasons with 10 or more wins, even as the college football world rapidly changed during his tenure.
“The legacy that Kyle Whittingham leaves distinguishes him as one of the most impactful figures in the history of Utah Athletics,” said Utah athletic director Mark Harlan in a press release.
“As the head coach or as an assistant, Coach Whitt played a pivotal role in the most historic and successful seasons in program history, and established championship expectations. Perhaps more importantly, he established a legacy of tremendous character, integrity and class. Kyle Whittingham will forever be appreciated and cherished for his leadership and achievement with Utah Football.”
Whittingham remained steadfastly loyal, never taking a head coaching job outside of Salt Lake City even as calls from other programs came throughout his time at Utah, including from Tennessee in 2010. At the time of his retirement, Whittingham was the second-longest tenured active coach in the FBS.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham shakes hands with Kansas State Wildcats head coach Chris Klieman after Utah defeated Kansas State 51-47 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. | Isaac Hale, Deseret News
“I love the state of Utah. Essentially raised here in the state of Utah. It is home for me,” Whittingham said in 2024. “I am not a ‘grass is always greener, looking over the fence, type of guy.’ And I believe in where your feet are, that’s where you do the best job you can do, where you are at.”
He and his staff at Utah became known for their ability to identify under-the-radar talents — especially on the defensive side of the ball — and develop them into NFL draft picks. During his tenure as an assistant coach and head coach at Utah, Whittingham sent 128 players to the league (68 draft picks), including defensive back Eric Weddle, defensive tackle Star Lotulelei, offensive tackle Garett Bolles and cornerback Jaylon Johnson.
Utah’s calling card under Whittingham was defense and toughness, something that was ingrained in his DNA as the son of Fred Whittingham, who was a defensive coordinator at both BYU and Utah and later for the NFL’s Oakland Raiders.
Whittingham guided Utah through two conference transitions, which included building the program from a successful Mountain West program that broke into the Bowl Championship Series on two occasions to a regular Pac-12 contender that made the conference championship game four times and won it twice.
As he’s fielded various questions about his retirement in recent years, Whittingham has long said that it’s a day-by-by process, and as long as he gets up in the morning and is excited about the job, he would continue to do it.
But Whittingham isn’t getting younger, and spending time with his grandchildren is a priority as he enters his later years.
After 21 seasons running Utah’s program, Whittingham decided it was time to hang up the whistle.
Recruit Bode Sparrow, center, talks with Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham, left, and defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as Utah and Cincinnati prepare to play at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 1, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Utah’s succession plan had been laid out, with Utah athletic director Mark Harlan re-adding the “head-coach-in-waiting” title for defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley in a 2023 contract extension. Utah made it publicly official in 2024.
Like Whittingham, Scalley has remained loyal to Utah, even as other schools — Texas, Oregon, Florida and USC, per ESPN’s Pete Thamel— tried to lure him away over the years. After Whittingham gave him his break in the business by hiring his former safety as an administrative assistant in 2006, Scalley rose through the ranks at Utah, eventually becoming the Utes’ defensive coordinator in 2016 and coaching some of the best defenses in school history.
Nearly two decades after he first started coaching at Utah, Scalley is now in line for his dream job and should become the 24th head coach of his alma mater. The hope from the athletic department is that Whittingham’s protege can continue the culture — and success — in a new era of Utah football.
“First of all, Morgan Scalley is an exceptional football coach,” Whittingham said in 2024. “He’s a proven commodity. He’s a Utah guy, played high school ball in the state of Utah, played at Utah, jumped right into coaching at the University of Utah when he was done playing. He’s invested in this program as much as anybody ever has been.”
Whittingham will still be around — he will serve as a “special assistant to the athletics director” for two years at a salary of $3.45 million per year — and he will always have a strong relationship with Scalley and be someone he can lean on and go to for advice when needed.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham looks on during game against the Kansas State Wildcats held at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 22, 2025. | Rio Giancarlo, Deseret News
But when Utah’s team takes the field at Rice-Eccles Stadium to start the 2026 season against Idaho State, there will be a new head coach leading them onto the field.
The Morgan Scalley era should arrive soon at Utah, and he’ll have big shoes to fill.
Lessons from ‘Mad Dog’
The son of a football lifer, Whittingham followed in his father’s footsteps and implemented everything his father, Fred “Mad Dog” Whittingham, taught him in his own career.
“Everything that embodies me as a coach is directly from him,” Kyle told the Deseret News’ Doug Robinson in 2009.
The one word that many that knew Fred used to describe him? Tough.
Decades later, Kyle himself — and the Utah program — would come to embody that word.
Fred and Kyle were closely intertwined throughout the years, starting in 1978. Fred was the linebackers coach during Kyle’s first year playing the position at BYU, then was promoted to defense coordinator for the final three years of his son’s career.
Kyle Whittingham, right, joins his father, Fred, center, and brother Cary after a game. Kyle played four seasons for BYU before his brief professional career. | Mark Philbrick/BYU
Fred would call the defense, and Kyle — essentially the “quarterback” on that side of the ball — would be responsible for getting his teammates in position and executing. With the Whittingham tandem on the sidelines and on the field, BYU enjoyed success, posting back-to-back Holiday Bowl victories in 1980 and 1981 and finishing both seasons ranked in the top 15 in the Associated Press poll.
After an excellent senior season that saw him win the WAC’s Defensive Player of the Year award and Defensive MVP of the Holiday Bowl, Whittingham played professional football for a few years, first in the United States Football League and then the Canadian Football League.
His ultimate calling would come in the coaching world, and Kyle knew that he wanted to do what his dad did. In 1985, he started his own coaching journey by returning to Provo and joining BYU’s staff as a graduate assistant — the first step in a career that would end up on the Mount Rushmore of football in the state of Utah.
Arriving in Salt Lake City
Before arriving at the University of Utah, Whittingham had to go through some learning experiences and growing pains as a coach. He blossomed in Pocatello, Idaho, where he coached at Idaho State for six years, first as the special teams and linebackers coach, then as the school’s defensive coordinator in 1992 and 1993.
Then, he got his first big break in his coaching career as Ron McBride hired him to coach the defensive line in 1994, providing him the chance to work alongside Fred, who was the defensive coordinator at Utah.
University of Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham has a laugh with former University of Utah coach Ron McBride as the University of Utah host Weber State at Rice Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. McBride gave Whittingham his first big break, hiring him to be his defensive line coach in 1994. | Mike Terry , Deseret News
Whittingham moved to Salt Lake City and never left.
A year later, Fred left the University of Utah to coach the linebackers, then call the defense, for the Oakland Raiders. Kyle took over as Utah’s defensive coordinator, a position he would hold until 2005.
Whittingham implemented a lot of his dad’s defensive philosophy as Utah’s defensive coordinator, and the Utes didn’t miss a beat with the younger Whittingham in the position.
In a decade of Whittingham calling Utah’s defense, the Utes finished in the top 30 nationally in fewest points allowed per game six times.
Utah’s football program started its ascension in the mid-1990s under McBride and was boosted by a solid defense, coached by Whittingham, year in and year out.
McBride turned around a program that was somewhat of an afterthought in the 1980s, especially compared against their rival to the south, which won a national championship in 1984. “Mac” established a Polynesian recruiting pipeline, helped reestablish a defensive identity at Utah (helped by Fred and Kyle Whittingham), coached the Utes to their first 10-win season in program history in 1994 — the Utes finished the year ranked No. 10 in the final AP poll — and made the Utah-BYU rivalry competitive again.
But after losing seasons in two of his three final years, McBride was fired after the 2002 season.
The Urban Meyer years
Utah athletic director Chris Hill brought in up-and-coming star Urban Meyer, who had coached Bowling Green to 8-3 and 9-3 seasons during 2001 and 2002. As is customary when a new head coach is hired, Meyer was ready to clean house and install his own staff, including bringing in a new defensive coordinator.
But Meyer wanted to hear Whittingham out first, so Meyer, his wife Shelley, Whittingham, and Whittingham’s wife, Jamie, all went out to dinner.
That dinner altered the course of Utah football history forever, as Meyer decided to retain Whittingham as the team’s defensive coordinator.
University of Utah football coaches Urban Meyer and Kyle Whittingham talk with the media Dec. 31, 2004, in Scottsdale, Arizona, ahead of Fiesta Bowl game against Pitt. | Jeffrey D. Allred
“Kyle is as good of a football coach as I’ve ever been around and I could tell that right away at dinner. I get paid to coach the offense and special teams, I’m going to hire the best defensive coach I can get my hands on, and that was Kyle Whittingham,” Meyer said on a 2020 Fox podcast.
“I felt very fortunate afterwards to be retained,” Whittingham said. “I mean, that’s not the typical course of action. Coach Meyer had a very good defensive coordinator at Bowling Green and could very easily have brought him with him.
“Being able to stay on at the university I’d been at for 10 years prior was great for me and great for my family and I felt very fortunate to be able to do that.”
Of course, Whittingham had also interviewed for the head coaching job at the time, but it eventually went to Meyer. At the time, Whittingham was obviously disappointed, but it ended up being for the best — both for Whittingham personally and for the school as a whole.
The combination of Meyer’s spread offense, quarterbacked by Alex Smith, and Whittingham’s stout defense lifted Utah to heights that the program had never reached before. In 2003, Utah went 10-2, winning its first outright conference title since 1957, and with a stable of returning contributors from that team, the nation started to take notice of the little Mountain West program in Salt Lake City.
Utah started 2004 with its first-ever preseason AP poll ranking — No. 20 — and steadily rose in the polls from there as the Utes went a perfect 11-0 in the regular season to become the first school from a non-BCS automatic-qualifying conference to earn its way into a Bowl Championship Game series.
The Utes defeated the Pittsburgh Panthers 35-7 in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl to polish off a dream season. Meyer’s offense scored 45.3 points per game (third in the country), while Whittingham’s defense held opponents to 19.5 points per game (23rd in the country).
Morgan Scalley and his team hoist part of the Fiesta Trophy after winning the Fiesta Bowl in Tempe, Arizona, Jan. 1, 2005. | Jeffrey D. Allred
An agonizing decision
As expected, Meyer drew attention from schools around the nation, and left Utah following the 2004 season to coach the Florida Gators. At the same time, Gary Crowton, who took over for LaVell Edwards at BYU in 2000, resigned after four seasons.
Both schools offered Whittingham the head coaching position, and for days, the decision consumed him.
He had a choice to make — return to his alma mater, or continue at the school that had employed him for a decade.
“It was agonizing,” Whittingham said in 2009.
On Dec. 7, 2004, Whittingham called Hill and informed him he would accept Utah’s offer. On Jan 1, 2005, after the Fiesta Bowl rout, Meyer handed Whittingham the whistle in the locker room, ushering in a new era for the program.
In many ways, taking over as head coach after the most successful season in program history is a daunting task. Utah lost 15 starters following the undefeated campaign, which meant that the 2005 season, Whittingham’s first at the helm, was a return to Earth after the stratospheric 2004 season.
How did Whittingham differ from his predecessor? First, he was more understated than Meyer, and put a larger emphasis on defense than his former boss, an offensive guru, did.
That 2005 season, which featured a 7-5 record in a rebuilding year, would lay the groundwork for how Whittingham would manage things on the Hill, and started setting the stage for a very special season.
A perfect season — again
In his first year as head coach, Whittingham hired Gary Andersen to be his defensive coordinator and Andy Ludwig as his offensive coordinator, and every year, Utah started getting a little bit better. The Utes went 8-5 in 2006, then 9-4 in 2007, and by the time 2008 rolled around, everything clicked.
In the most impressive season in Utah history, Whittingham’s team went 13-0, polishing off the second undefeated season in five years. In his fourth season leading the team, Whittingham catapulted Utah back to its high-water mark as a program — and even a little bit higher.
Utah started the season in Ann Arbor and ended it in New Orleans, never losing a game.
Unlike the 2004 team, which steamrolled pretty much everyone it played, there were a few close calls along the way, including thrilling victories over Oregon State and TCU.
Every time Utah looked like it was going to lose a game, quarterback Brian Johnson would lead a game-winning drive to keep the season alive. More than anything, the 2008 team was incredibly clutch, resilient and tough.
For the first time in Whittingham’s head-coaching career, he had both an elite offense (Utah scored 36.9 points per game) and a defense (Utah allowed 17.2 points per game).
The Utes defeated No. 14 BYU 48-24 — the defense intercepted Max Hall five times — to punch their ticket back to the BCS, where Nick Saban and Alabama awaited.
University of Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, right, and Alabama coach Nick Saban pose with the Sugar Bowl Trophy in a press conference prior to the Sugar Bowl Jan. 1, 2009, in New Orleans. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
It was the ultimate David vs. Goliath story — the little Mountain West school vs. big, bad Alabama, who just missed out on the national championship by losing its only game of the season to the Meyer-led Florida Gators in the SEC championship game.
Unlike the 2005 Fiesta Bowl, when Utah was clearly better than Pittsburgh, the Utes were heavy underdogs against Alabama.
The game plan by Whittingham, Ludwig and Andersen worked to perfection, as Utah raced out to a 21-0 lead over the Crimson Tide. On their first possession, the Utes went up-tempo and no-huddle, stunning Alabama as Johnson drove down the field in five plays, executing Ludwig’s spread attack.
By the end of the first quarter, it was 21-0. Utah intercepted John Parker Wilson two times, Sean Smith strip sacked Wilson, and the defense held Alabama’s vaunted rushing attack to just 31 yards in a 31-17 win.
The Utes — the only undefeated team in college football that season — finished the season No. 2 in the final AP Poll and Whittingham was named the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year.
Fourteen years after joining Utah’s staff, Whittingham had put his stamp on the program in a big way.
Soon, a new challenge would come his way.
Leap to the Pac-12
Thanks in part to that Sugar Bowl win and a couple 10-win seasons afterward that elevated the national perception of Utah football, when the Pac-10 Conference decided to expand in 2010, Utah was on its radar.
When the Pac-12 didn’t get its wish of a 16-team conference that included Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Colorado, commissioner Larry Scott shifted his plans to give Colorado, which had accepted an invitation to the Pac-12, a travel partner.
Utah made perfect sense.
The effects, both for the university and the football program, were substantial. The $1.2 million per year in television rights money from the Mountain West Conference transformed to $21 million per year from the Pac-12, which was a record-breaking TV rights deal at the time.
“Pac-12 was instrumental in building the program, not just beneficial,” Whittingham said in 2023. “Having that Pac-12 moniker on your shirt and that conference affiliation ramped up everything in this program — facilities, recruiting, budget, salaries, everything. Making the move to Power Five was a game-changer for the program, for the university, for the community, in my opinion.”
The move completely changed the trajectory of Utah football, but before the Utes ever played in Pasadena on New Year’s Day, Whittingham had to go through some tough years in the transition from the Mountain West to a Power Five league.
Utah had good athletes and overachieved in the MWC, no doubt, but to sustain the week-in-week-out grind of the Pac-12, it needed to overhaul its roster.
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham sits on a bench as the University of Utah prepares to play USC at the Los Angeles Coliseum in its first-ever Pac-12 game Saturday, Sept. 10, 2011, in Los Angeles. | Tom Smart, Deseret News
Instead of facing Wyoming and New Mexico, teams like USC and Oregon were rolling into Rice-Eccles Stadium. And while the Utes surprised in their first year in the conference — they were a kick away from going to the championship game due to USC being ineligible for postseason play — the realities of life in a Power Five conference became apparent.
Utah finished with a 5-7 record in 2012 and 2013, but its recruiting classes were getting better and it was getting the caliber of athletes it needed.
“There was some tough sledding early, there was a transitional period in some respects, not in every respect,” Whittingham said in 2023. “We came into the league fully equipped in the line of scrimmage to compete, but not in the perimeter. Took a few recruiting classes to get the roster where we needed it to.”
Utah started turning in winning seasons, but struggled getting over the hump to the Pac-12 championship game, often losing crucial games in November. Some wondered if Whittingham was the right man to continue leading Utah in the Pac-12, or if another coach would be the difference-maker in getting the program to the next level.
“There was some tough sledding early, there was a transitional period in some respects, not in every respect. We came into the league fully equipped in the line of scrimmage to compete, but not in the perimeter. Took a few recruiting classes to get the roster where we needed it to.”
— Kyle Whittingham on move to Pac-12
Hill stuck with Whittingham. The coach kept recruiting — Utah’s class ranks kept getting higher and higher — and kept grinding year in and year out. In 2018, the Utes finally vanquished the November woes, beating Oregon and Colorado to punch their ticket to the Pac-12 championship game.
Though the Utes lost 10-3 to Washington without starting quarterback Tyler Huntley and running back Zack Moss, who were out with injuries, the tide had started turning. With a veteran team and one of the very best defenses in the Whittingham era, Utah made it back to the conference title game in 2019.
Ranked No. 5 entering the contest, the Utes were seemingly one win away from a College Football Playoff berth, but Oregon dominated Utah in the trenches and won 37-15, denying Whittingham the prize he had been chasing after since 2011.
Persevering through tragedy
Whittingham’s phone rang on Christmas Day 2020 with news no coach ever wants to hear. Ty Jordan, Utah’s ascendant freshman running back, had died from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound after returning to his home state of Texas for the holidays.
Nine months later, at a house party following Utah’s win over Washington State, Ute cornerback Aaron Lowe — who wore No. 22 during the 2021 season to honor his friend and teammate Jordan — was murdered.
The two deaths were an unimaginably tragic loss for the program.
“There’s not one season, one spring that I don’t see and spend time with his mother, that I don’t call her,” cornerbacks coach Sharrieff Shah said of Lowe. “When you are able to recruit a kid, go into their home, sit with them, make promises to their parents and tell them that I’m going to take care of your kid, and in the same moment, you’re the one calling mom saying that your baby has passed away. He will mean so much to me for the rest of my life.”
The families of Aaron Lowe and Ty Jordan stand with the retired jerseys during the retirement ceremony after the first quarter of the Utah-UCLA game at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Saturday, Oct. 30, 2021. | Adam Fondren for the Deseret News
In the days, weeks and months that followed, Whittingham guided the program through dealing with the two tragedies and became a rock for his players and coaching staff. The university established the 22 Forever Memorial Scholarship, and Kyle and Jamie made the first donation. Whittingham and Utah’s coaches continue to be in contact with the families of Jordan and Lowe.
Utah also retired the No. 22 jersey, wore hand-painted helmets depicting the two players and created the “Moment of Loudness” tradition, which celebrates Jordan’s and Lowe’s lives and the lives of all Utah fans that have died.
“Those two young men were terrific people, really good football players, great personalities,” Whittingham said. “… Every time I think about it, it’s very difficult and the most difficult thing I’ve ever gone through in my career as far as dealing with players and those relationships, and that was just absolutely tragic. Absolutely tragic.”
Reaching the mountaintop
After two unfruitful trips to the Pac-12 championship and a 3-2, pandemic-shortened rebuilding season, 2021 didn’t start off well for the Utes.
They lost two of their first three games, but in the midst of a 33-31 triple-overtime loss to San Diego State, made a move that would change the course of their next two seasons.
Whittingham chose Baylor transfer QB Charlie Brewer as Utah’s starter in 2021, but after two consecutive poor performances, Brewer was benched for Cam Rising.
Despite the loss, Rising immediately cemented himself as Utah’s quarterback, and combined with Andy Ludwig, who returned in the 2019 season, elevated Utah’s offense to a new level.
The Utes scored 36.1 points per game, and had a typical Whittingham defense, which allowed 22.6 points per game, as they won eight of their next nine regular-season contests, including a 38-7 win over Oregon in one of the marquee wins of the Whittingham era.
The two teams met up again in the Pac-12 championship with a similar result. Utah raced out to a 14-0 lead and never let up, beating the Ducks 38-10 to capture the program’s first Pac-12 title.
Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham hoists the Pac-12 trophy after the Utes beat the Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 championship game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on Friday, Dec. 3, 2021. | Spenser Heaps, Deseret News
“Certainly, it’s a great feeling and it’s something we’ve been working toward for a long time,” Whittingham said at the time. “We’ve been working away at it ever since we joined the league. This is the culmination of a lot of years of hard work and effort. … It’s a history-making football team at Utah.”
Though Utah would lose in a classic 48-45 Rose Bowl shootout against Ohio State that featured running back Micah Bernard playing cornerback and Bryson Barnes playing in the fourth quarter after Rising suffered a concussion, it was the culmination of what Utah had been striving for for a decade.
A year later, the Utes were back in Pasadena. Despite dropping three Pac-12 games, including a November contest in Oregon, the Utes won a four-step tiebreaker and found their way back into the title game, this time against USC.
Utah had beat USC that season at Rice-Eccles Stadium in a 43-42 classic, but not many people predicted Whittingham’s team to beat the No. 4 Trojans and Heisman winner Caleb Williams again.
That’s just the way Whittingham wanted it. He relished the underdog role and was great at motivating his players. Many of his team’s best performances came when they were counted out.
It was another Pac-12 title game blowout, with Utah beating USC 47-24 to win back-to-back championships.
A month later, they were back in the Rose Bowl, but couldn’t deliver that elusive win to Whittingham. Rising suffered a gruesome knee injury in the third quarter, and there was no Barnes magic this time as Penn State pulled away from Utah, winning 35-21.
Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham walks onto the field prior to the Rose Bowl in Pasadena on Saturday, Jan. 1, 2022. | Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
Though Utah never lifted the Rose Bowl trophy, Whittingham took the program from the Mountain West to great heights during the Pac-12 era. Utah was one of four schools, along with Oregon, Stanford and Washington, to win multiple conference championships in the 12-team league.
“I’d say it turned out as good as we could have hoped it to turn out,” Whittingham said.
Building men
The main priority for Whittingham was to win football games, but a secondary aspect of his unique job is that he made an incredible impact on the lives of 120 young men every year in some of the most crucial years of their lives.
Whittingham created a culture of toughness that permeated his program, and it started from the top.
Every day since July 2008, save for one rest day on Sundays, Whittingham has completed a workout. Whether he’s on the recruiting trail, on vacation or at the hotel with the team ahead of a road game, it doesn’t matter — he hops on the bike, elliptical machine or treadmill.
It’s no surprise that a coach that demands so much from his players also demands so much from himself. Whittingham placed a big priority on physicality and toughness, and recruited as such. Utah’s play in the trenches is a big reason it had the success that it did.
“This is one of those programs that I personally like just because I like Kyle Whittingham. I like his style. I’m an old-school type of dude. He’s an old-school type of coach, so I respect the physicality that they bring to the gridiron,” “College GameDay” analyst Desmond Howard said about Utah in 2023.
The discipline Whittingham instilled in each player was an adjustment for some who arrived on campus, but most everyone who went through the program left with valuable life lessons.
“I think the biggest thing was just holding people accountable,” said Utah receiver Kenneth Scott, who played under Whittingham from 2010-15. “If he sees that potential in you, even if you don’t see it in yourself, he will hold you accountable to that potential.”
“And it makes you strive to reach that expectation day in, day out, right? He wants you to be great, and if he doesn’t hold you accountable to your own greatness, then how do you expect to be great? And so I think that’s the biggest thing that I took from it. Every day, I’m working. Every day, I’m trying to be the best that I can be because he set that standard.”
“This is one of those programs that I personally like just because I like Kyle Whittingham. I like his style. I’m an old-school type of dude. He’s an old-school type of coach, so I respect the physicality that they bring to the gridiron.”
— “College GameDay” analyst Desmond Howard on the Utah football program
For cornerback Eric Rowe, who played at Utah from 2011-15 before being selected in the second round of the NFL draft by the Philadelphia Eagles, the way Whittingham ran his program made the transition to the pros easier for him.
“I found it pretty beneficial because when I transitioned, it wasn’t like a new shock of why we do this and why we do that. He was already running a professional business like an NFL program when I was there,” Rowe said.
While Whittingham, like every good coach, was demanding of his players so they could reach their full potential, he was always willing to lend an ear and help out where he could, even after players had graduated.
“That’s the type of personality he is, man. Very easygoing, very easy to talk to. You can literally come to him with any problems, literally,” Scott said. “And I’m talking about even as a current player or a former player. I’ve reached out to him many times just post-playing days, just asking him for guidance. What’s his thoughts, what’s his opinions on how I should move about things as far as if I wanted to go into coaching, et cetera, and (he’s) just given me solid advice, being a good mentor.”
Over his 21-year reign at Utah, Whittingham coached thousands of players and ensured that the vast majority left with their degrees.
“That’s why they’re here. Ultimately, that’s why you go to college is to get your degree and our guys take care of business in that regard,” Whittingham said.
Leaving a legacy
There were times in Whittingham’s career when Utah wasn’t able to reach that elite level.
With a couple more wins in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2025, the Utes may have made the College Football Playoff, and before those years, there were the late-season letdowns that prevented trips to the Pac-12 championship game. Offense was never Whittingham’s forte for the majority of his time, either, with a carousel of offensive coordinators and middling quarterback play more years than not.
After the 5-7 season in 2024, Whittingham knew that he couldn’t leave the school he had poured so much into on a note like that.
“I couldn’t stomach going out on that, with that season, as frustrating as it was, and as discouraging as it was,” Whittingham said ahead of this season. “It just didn’t sit well with anybody, but most of all me, and so I thought, ‘Hey, that’s not going to be the final act of my deal. I got to come back and try to get the ship right and get back on track.’”
Utah underwent a complete offensive overhaul, as Whittingham hired New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck. Around Beck were some new staff members — Mark Atuaia (running backs) and Micah Simon (receivers) — with offensive line coach Jim Harding and tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham as the only holdovers.
The Utes picked up New Mexico quarterback Devon Dampier, Lobo receiver Ryan Davis and Washington State running back Wayshawn Parker, among others, in the transfer portal.
Combined with one of the best offensive lines Utah has ever put together, Utah’s offense rose from the ashes in 2025, scoring 40.9 points per game (seventh in the nation) and gaining 478.6 yards per game (eighth in the nation).
While Utah’s defense still ranked No. 17 nationally in points allowed per game, in a twist of fate, it was the Utes’ offense saving the defense in two of the last three games, the same way the defense had saved the offense countless times in Whittingham’s tenure.
Utah is 10-2, and though a win over BYU or Texas Tech this season may have put the Utes in the Big 12 championship, Whittingham is handing the program off to Scalley on much better footing than last season.
Despite not getting the dream ending to his career — a College Football Playoff berth — Whittingham will leave a lasting legacy at Utah that may never be matched by another coach.
There is bound to be something to recognize his legacy at Utah: a statue built, or the Rice-Eccles Stadium field named after him — something Whittingham will shy away from, but deserves nonetheless.
Most of all, Whittingham provided Utah with the rarest thing in college football — stability and consistency — while growing the program from a scrappy Mountain West team to a two-time Pac-12 champion.
Twenty-one seasons … 177 career victories … 156 weeks in the Associated Press poll … three conference championships … one undefeated season … and 123 players sent to the NFL.
That’s a real legacy to leave.
Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham carries his granddaughter as he leaves the field after Utah defeated Baylor at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Sept. 7, 2024. Utah won 23-12. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
