So Kyle Whittingham is coming back to the University of Utah to coach football — and so much more. He's coming back for more NIL headaches. He's coming back for more transfer portal insanity. He's coming back for a big rebuilding project and to a broken offense. He's coming back despite, or because of, a rare losing season and the immediate challenges that brings.
He re-upped for all of it.
After 39 years as a coach — 20 as a head coach — he's back (actually, he never left).
Whittingham, a self-contained man, keeps his thoughts to himself — please see his two-word press release — but you have to wonder why. The game has changed dramatically, and so have the expectations for the Utes. He has made Utah football a national brand, but with one bad season there was grumbling in Ute nation about him being too old-school and maybe it was time to move on.
In other words, what have you done for us lately? He's a victim of his own success.
Whittingham's situation has become similar to that of Brett Favre's or Tom Brady 's years ago. Every year the quarterbacks were dogged with questions about retirement, as if everyone was eager to rush them out the door, the most popular theme being, "What else do they have to prove?"
Finally, the quarterbacks relented and retired — and then regretted it and returned. It wasn't about proving anything — why can't Favre or Whittingham continue simply because they enjoy what they do?
Bill Belichick, who took his teams to nine Super Bowls and won six of them before retiring in 2023, has nothing to prove, but this week he signed up to become the head coach at North Carolina — at the age of 72. That makes him the oldest coach in college football. Whittingham is the fourth oldest, at 65.
Whittingham's return isn't about proving anything or to write a better ending for his career, as so many assumed. As the coach said at the end of the season, when he left open the possibility of retirement, "I'm not saying, 'Well, this was a bad year so, for me, I gotta come back and have a better year.' Everyone wants to have a better year next year, regardless of who the coach is."
After the season, he said he was not sure he would return, which triggered a lot of guessing in the media until this announcement arrived Sunday:
SALT LAKE CITY, UT (Dec. 8, 2024) — The following statement was released today by Kyle Whittingham, through the office of Swoop Associates, of the University of Utah Football Team located in Salt Lake City, UT, in response to questions about his future career plans: "I'm back."
Whittingham's legacy is secure. He is the most successful football coach in the history of the school, whether he leaves after a losing season or not. He has presided over the greatest era of Utah football. Urban Meyer's two-year run wasn't long enough or sustained to qualify. Whittingham has done it for two decades. He's won a school-record 167 games (against 86 defeats) and has led the Utes into two new conferences (the Pac-12, the Big 12), taken them to Rose Bowls and a Sugar Bowl, and finished in the top 25 of the national rankings 10 times. Under Whittingham, the Utes have rolled.
It's only in the brief time that the transfer portal and NIL turned the game upside down that the Utes have begun a slight downturn — two 10-win seasons have been followed by 8-5 and 5-7 seasons, the first losing season in 11 years.
Whittingham has made no secret of his disdain for the current state of affairs in college football. His job has become less about coaching and developing players and more about finding already-developed talent in the portal, managing NIL money and trying to contain the constant turnover of players. While several younger coaches have actually given up head coaching jobs precisely for those reasons, Whittingham — and Belichick — are taking them head-on late in their careers.
Whittingham's legacy is secure. He is the most successful football coach in the history of the school, whether he leaves after a losing season, or not. He has presided over the greatest era of Utah football.
The day before Whittingham's "I'm back" announcement, three of his quarterbacks — freshman Isaac Wilson , veteran Brandon Rose and Sam Huard — entered the transfer portal. Huard, who was injured for his one and only season at Utah, is searching for his fourth school in four years. Wilson's move to the portal was entirely predictable. He was made the starter well before he was ready, and the Utah offense languished.
Given the sudden turn of events at Utah, there will be many more players who flee via the portal, as well. Everything that could go wrong did go wrong this year.
Whittingham has been pondering retirement for a few years — which is why defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley has already been tabbed the "head coach in waiting" — but at age 65 he's decided to begin the process again of building a team. He's back.
Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham celebrates with players and fans after a game against Oklahoma State, Saturday, Sept. 21, 2024, in Stillwater, Okla. | Mitch Alcala
