Penn State head coach James Franklin has gone head-to-head with some of college football’s best coaches of a generation during his head coaching career. He has gone up against Nick Saban and Urban Meyer and has had recent clashes with Jim Harbaugh. But in the Rose Bowl on January 2, 2023, Franklin will match wits with one of the most consistently solid coaches the game has to offer today in Kyle Whittingham. What Whittingham has done since taking over the reins of the Utah program from Meyer so many years ago is truly commendable.
There is no debate that Whittingham deserves a spot among the top 10 coaches in college football today. After a handful of coaches with national championship rings and multiple appearances in the College Football Playoff, Whittingham is among the first names that pop up on any ranking of the top coaches in college football today. He was nearly a consensus top 10 coach heading into the 2022 season with very few outlets leaving him just outside their top 10. But after winning back-to-back Pac-12 titles with Utah, he should be a lock to be considered a top 10 by any media outlet leading up to the start of the 2023 season no matter what happens in the Rose Bowl against Penn State.
For a BYU grad, Whittingham is the perfect Utah man. Whittingham has bled Utah red since 1994 when he joined the staff as a defensive line coach for former head coach Ron McBride. While Penn State was making a national championship argument with an undefeated season in 1994, Whittingham was coaching up the defensive line for a Utah team that had its first 10-win season in program history. Utah’s defense allowed just 17.5 points per game in 1994, and defense would prove to be a key for Utah’s success as the years went on.
Whittingham took over defensive coordinator duties in 1995 and moved to coach the safeties for the Utes. Utah picked off 15 passes against opponents in 1995 and 12 more the following season. Whittingham continued in his role as defensive coordinator up through the 2002 season and ended up continuing in the role under new head coach Urban Meyer in 2003. Meyer had turned a successful stint at Bowling Green into an opportunity to coach Utah. When he could have brought in his own staff, Meyer was wise to keep Whittingham on the staff and coaching the defense. And with Meyer helping to give the offense a jolt with a successful college career for quarterback Alex Smith, Utah was in a terrific spot a few years into its new conference home of the Mountain West.
The Utah offense with Smith, who would go on to be a No. 1 NFL draft pick, stole the show as Utah made a claim for a national championship in 2004 with a 12-0 record, but Whittingham’s defense had allowed fewer than 20 points per game in each of Meyer’s two seasons in Salt Lake City. As Meyer sprung for an opportunity to coach at Florida, there was no man better suited to take over the program than Whittingham. Whittingham was named the new head coach of the Utes as Meyer headed to the SEC, and Whittingham would steer the program to greater heights.
After three years of some transition, Whittingham kept things rolling in the right direction. Whittingham coached Utah to a perfect 13-0 season in 2008, highlighted by a Sugar Bowl victory over Nick Saban and Alabama, a 31-17 statement for the Utah program. Utah followed that dream season up with back-to-back 10-win seasons as the program suddenly found itself caught up in the age of realignment changes. And Utah’s realignment fallout was about to elevate the program even more.