Kyle Whittingham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Date of birth | November 21, 1959 | |
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Place of birth | San Luis Obispo, California | |
Sport | Football | |
College | Utah | |
Title | Head Coach | |
Overall Record | 15-10 | |
Bowl Record | 2-0 | |
Coaching Stats | College Football DataWarehouse | |
School as a player | ||
1978-1981 | Brigham Young University | |
Position | Linebacker | |
Coaching positions | ||
2005-Present 1995-2005 1994 1992-1993 1988-1991 |
University of Utah University of Utah, Defensive Coordinator University of Utah, Defensive Line Coach Idaho State University, Defensive Coordinator Idaho State University, Assistant Coach |
Kyle Whittingham (b. November 21, 1959 in San Luis Obispo, California) is the head football coach of the University of Utah Utes. Prior to becoming the head coach at Utah, Whittingham served as Utah's defensive coordinator for 10 seasons. He was named head coach of the Utah after Urban Meyer left for the University of Florida in 2004.
Whittingham graduated from Brigham Young University (BYU) in 1984 and went on to play linebacker for the New Orleans Breakers of the old USFL and the Calgary Stampede of the CFL. Whittingham also became a Graduate Assistant for BYU during the 1985 and 1986 seasons. In 1987 Whittingham was named defensive coordinator at the College of Eastern Utah. He coached there for a season before taking a job at Idaho State. After two seasons with Idaho State, Whittingham joined the Utah staff and coached under his father, Fred Whittingham. In the 1995 season, Whittingham replaced his father as the defensive coordinator, where he would stay until being named head coach in 2004. Whittingham is married to the former Jamie Daniels and the two have four children: Tyler, Melissa, Alex and Kylie.
[edit] Head Coaching Career
Whittingham replaced celebrated coach Urban Meyer after Meyer led Utah to a 11-0 season in 2004. That season ended with Utah becoming the first non-BCS team to make a BCS bowl game, the Fiesta Bowl. After winning the Fiesta Bowl, the Utes' overall record improved to 12-0. After the 2004 season, the Utes lost junior starting quarterback Alex Smith to the NFL when he was drafted #1 by the San Francisco 49ers.
Whittingham's first season was an up and down ride for Utah as the team not only adjusted to a new coaching staff, including Andy Ludwig, but also a new offense led by quarterback Brian Johnson. Utah struggled early on, going 3-4 in their first 7 games, however a strong finish -- with a win over their bitter rival BYU -- gave Utah their third straight bowl invite.
In the 2005 Emerald Bowl the Utes faced the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Utah beat Georgia Tech 38-10, the Yellow Jackets' worst bowl loss by point margin in school history. Whittingham finished his first year at Utah with a 7-5 record.
In 2006, Whittingham's team faced great adversity. Starting quarterback Brett Ratliff struggled through parts of the year, and so did the Utes. Yet, like the year before, the Utes rebounded toward the end of the season and became bowl eligible for the fourth straight year, a school record. Whittingham led the Utes to a 25-13 victory over the University of Tulsa in the 2006 Armed Forces Bowl, running his record to 15-10 (.600) with Utah.
[edit] Head Coaching Record
Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl Game | Bowl Opponent | Outcome | Rank# |
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Utah Utes (Mountain West Conference) (2005 — Present) | ||||||||
2005 | Utah | 7-5 | 4-4 | 4-T | Emerald Bowl | Georgia Tech | W 38-10 | |
2006 | Utah | 8-5 | 5-3 | 3-T | Armed Forces Bowl | Tulsa | W 25-13 | |
At Utah: | 15-10 | 9-7 | ||||||
Career: | 15-10 | |||||||
National Championship Conference Title | ||||||||
†Indicates BCS bowl game. #Rankings from final Coaches Poll of the season. |
[edit] External links
Preceded by Urban Meyer |
University of Utah Head Football Coach 2005– |
Succeeded by Current |
Mountain West Conference Head Football Coaches |
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Troy Calhoun (Air Force) • Bronco Mendenhall (BYU) • Sonny Lubick (CSU) • Rocky Long (New Mexico) • Chuck Long (SDSU) • Gary Patterson (TCU) • Mike Sanford (UNLV) • Kyle Whittingham (Utah) • Joe Glenn (Wyoming) |