Utah coach Kyle Whittingham was an Urban Meyer assistant
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has a connection with Ohio State football, and he’ll face the…
Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has a connection with Ohio State football, and he’ll face the Buckeyes for the first time on Jan.1 in the 2022 Rose Bowl.
Whittingham has been the Utah head coach since 2005, and the 62-year-old is 144-69 overall and 11-3 in bowl games. He became coach when Urban Meyer left Utah after two seasons to become the coach at Florida.
Whittingham was elevated from defensive coordinator to head coach when Meyer left and he’s gone on to be the all-time winningest coach in program history. He surpassed Ike Armstrong, who coached at Utah from 1925-1949, for most wins in program history.
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Whittingham set that mark with a 38-7 win over then No. 3 Oregon in November.
Oregon was one of two teams that beat Ohio State this season, and Utah handedly beat the Ducks twice in 2021.
Here are some other things to know about Utah coach Kyle Whittingham.
Kyle Whittingham is the son of longtime coach Fred Whittingham
Fred Whittingham, who died in 2003, played professional football from 1963-1971 before becoming a defensive coach at BYU in 1973. He became the BYU defensive coordinator in 1978.
He then had stints in the NFL as a position coach before twice coaching for the Utes, first from 1992-1994 and then from 1998-2000.
Kyle Whittingham was a star linebacker at BYU
Before becoming a coach, Kyle Whittingham played at BYU.
His dad was the defensive coordinator for College Football Hall of Famer LaVell Edwards, who was 257-101-3 in 29 years at BYU.
Kyle Whittingham was the 1981 WAC Defensive Player of the Year. He was the defensive MVP of the 1981 Holiday Bowl and in 2009 was inducted into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame.
While at BYU he was teammates with future NFL star Jim McMahon and future Pro Football Hall of Famer Steve Young.
After college, Whittingham played professionally in the CFL, USFL and NFL.
Kyle Whittingham became a defensive football coach in 1985
In 1985, Whittingham started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at BYU. His first real position came in 1987 at Eastern Utah as defensive coordinator.
After a stop at Idaho, Whittingham took the job as defensive line coach at Utah in 1994, where his father was the defensive coordinator for coach Ron McBride.
Whittingham has been there ever since.
He started coaching the line, then became the defensive coordinator in 1995 when his father left the program. His father was his linebackers coach from 1998-2000.
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Urban Meyer and Kyle Whittingham
McBride was at Utah from 1990 to 2002 and was fired following the 2002 season. Utah hired Bowling Green coach Urban Meyer.
Meyer retained Whittingham as his defensive coordinator, and it wasn’t a tough decision.
“Kyle is as good of a football coach as I’ve ever been around and I could tell that right away at dinner,” Meyer said in a FOX Sports segment in 2020. “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.”
In two seasons under Meyer, Utah went 22-2 and reached the Fiesta Bowl in 2004, beating Pittsburgh 35-7.
Meyer had already accepted the Florida job before the Fiesta Bowl game and Whittingham was offered both the Utah and BYU head coaching jobs. He opted to stay with the Utes.
Meyer won two national championships at Florida and eventually became the Ohio State coach in 2012. Meyer won the 2014 National Championship at Ohio State.
In the same timespan, Whittingham has ushered the Utes from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac-12, winning Pac-12 Coach of the Year twice (2019 and 2021) and the Bobby Dodd Coach of the Year award in 2019. He has won four Pac-12 South division titles and won his first PAC-12 title this season.
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https://www.dispatch.com/story/sports/2021/12/28/utah-coach-kyle-whittingham-urban-meyer-assistant/8983361002/
