Longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham is pondering whether to retire or return for his 21st season as the school’s head man.
Whittingham, 65, said he will decide on his future after the season. The Utes finish Friday at UCF.
“My decision will be made on what’s best for the program, not what’s best for me,” Whittingham said during his Monday press conference. “So, it’ll be completely determined on how I feel this program is best served going forward.”
Utah has struggled mightily in its first season in the Big 12 and has dropped its last seven games. The Utes were preseason favorites but sit 4-7 overall and 1-7 in Big 12 play.
This marks just the third losing campaign in Whittingham’s 20 seasons as head coach. The other two were in 2012 and 2013 when the Utes were in the Pac-12.
Whittingham has recorded seven seasons of 10 or more wins and has a 166-86 record with the Utes since replacing Urban Meyer late in the 2004 season.
The school has been preparing for the future by announcing prior to this season that defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley would become head coach whenever Whittingham chooses to retire.
“I’ll sit down and evaluate everything,” Whittingham said. “I can tell you right now that Coach Scalley will be involved in decisions going forward because it’s only right that he does that because he’s the coach in waiting and when that time comes we need to make sure that he’s had input on big decisions. So it’ll be a team effort in that respect going forward as far as hiring and recruiting and that type of thing.”
Whittingham said not many coaches get to pick their timing in terms of their tenure ending.
“Like I said, it’s what’s best for the program that … my decision will be dictated based on,” Whittingham said. “To time it just right so you go out at just the right time, I mean, there’s a very, very small percentage of people that are able to do that.
“And so again, I’m not saying, ‘Well this was a bad year so for me I got to come back and have a better year.’ I mean everyone wants to have a better year next year regardless of who the coach is.”
Part of Utah’s slide is due to losing standout quarterback Cameron Rising to a season-ending leg injury. Rising is weighing whether to seek a medical waiver that would allow him to play in 2025 for an eighth college season.
“That’s on Cam’s timeline and obviously we’ve got to at some point make our own decisions on what’s going to happen if there is still indecisiveness, but I think that should be cleared up in the next week to 10 days,” Whittingham said.
Freshman Isaac Wilson replaced Rising but sustained his own leg injury in Saturday’s 31-28 loss to then-No. 22 Iowa State. Wilson will miss the finale but is expected to recover in time to compete in spring football drills.
Luke Bottari will start for Utah against UCF. He completed 5 of 9 passes for 55 yards against Iowa State.
–Field Level Media
