‘He’s a legend’: After 21 years, Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham announces his retirement
SALT LAKE CITY — No football coach at the University of Utah has done more, and had more success, than Kyle Whittingham.
But after 21 seasons as the team’s head coach (32 years total coaching at the university), Whittingham is calling it a career.
The all-time winningest coach at Utah announced his retirement from the game Friday, saying “the time is right to step down.”
Whittingham returned for his 21st year following a disappointing 2024 season, in which the team went 5-7, because he “couldn’t stomach going out with that season, as frustrating as it was and is — as discouraging as it was.” He said it “didn’t sit well with anybody, but most of all me.”
The long-time head coach wanted to go out on a more successful note.
And though the 2025 season didn’t end with Utah reaching its goal of a College Football Playoff appearance, the Utes rebounded with a 10-2 record and a No. 15 standing in the final College Football Playoff rankings — the 50th total week ranked in the playoff era.
It was a successful end to a storied career, of which Whittingham is almost certainly guaranteed a spot in the college football Hall of Fame.
Whittingham had long said his decision to stay at Utah was based on “what’s best for the program, not what’s best for me.” The passion for coaching never waned, though, even adapting to many of the various changes over the latter part of his career; but after more than 20 years, he felt it was time for a new voice within the program.
Whittingham coached his last regular season game in Lawrence, Kansas, where Utah came from behind to beat Kansas 31-21 and cap off his eighth 10-win season and fourth 10-win regular season. A week prior, Whittingham coached his last game at Rice-Eccles Stadium against Kansas State in an improbable win that left the long-time coach emotional.
His last official game as a coach will be at the Las Vegas Bowl against Nebraska on Dec. 31 (1:30 p.m. MST, ESPN).
𝗞𝘆𝗹𝗲 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗵𝗮𝗺 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗽 𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮𝘀 𝗨𝘁𝗮𝗵 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵.
𝘼𝙡𝙡-𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 head coach in Utah Football history will coach his last game for the Utes in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31. #GoUtespic.twitter.com/ii706lcGXW
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) December 12, 2025
Though Whittingham hoped to go out with another conference championship — one in three different conferences — his last season proved to be a major improvement from a difficult 2024 season that he described as being the most difficult of his tenure.
For the last few years of his career, Whittingham dispelled rumors he was close to calling it quits, citing his love of coaching and having more work to do to build the football program.
Whittingham said in 2021 that he was “having as good of time right now as I ever had” and was “not even contemplating that right now.” It was a common refrain over the last few seasons as his love of coaching remained strong — even amid his second conference change as head coach.
Ultimately, though, Whittingham wanted to leave the program on a high note.
“I think he wanted to leave the program a little better — on a better note, and not for himself, but for the fans, because I know he loves the fans,” his son, Alex Whittingham, said. “I know he loves the community and the players and everybody that he works with.”
As part of his final contract, of which several amendments were made over the years, the university added a retirement clause that moves Whittingham into the role of “special assistant” to the athletic department for two years after retirement. Whittingham will transition into that role in the coming months.
In that role, he’ll serve as a consultant to the department, and his responsibilities may include “consulting advice, speaking engagements, fundraising, and meetings with donors and prospective donors,” according to his latest contract.
As a special assistant, he’s set to make $3.45 million each year of the two-year assignment.
Ahead of Whittingham’s retirement, the university publicly named defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley as the coach in-waiting before the 2024 season. Scalley was seen as the next, obvious successor to maintain the consistency and culture Whittingham developed over a tenure that spanned two decades.
Following the conclusion of the 2024 season, Whittingham said Scalley would be “very involved” in the hiring of a new offensive coordinator, as well as all decisions for the direction of the program.
“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,” Whittingham said. “And when that time comes, we need to make sure that he’s had input on big decisions, and so it’ll be a team effort in that respect going forward, as far as hiring and recruiting and that type of thing.”
Coach Morgan Scalley honors former teammates in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Aug. 29, 2024. Utah won 49-0. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
That transition shouldsoon take place as Scalley takes over the full duties as head coach (Whittingham had brought Scalley in on some decisions over the years to help him acclimate to being the head coach, including the naming of new offensive coordinator Jason Beck for the 2025 season).
“It is a distinction he has earned not only because of his outstanding coaching abilities, but also because of his selfless dedication to the program as well as to the Utah Athletics family,” Whittingham said in July 2024. “The culture and tradition within Utah football is a point of pride for our staff, and when the time comes for a transition in the leadership of our program, we know that Morgan will carry on those traditions the Utah football way.”
Though Whittingham said he still loved the game, he wanted to exit on his time.
Whittingham finishes his career at Utah with 177 wins and 88 losses, topping former Utah head coach Ike Armstrong (141-55-15 from 1925-49), who was previously the winningest coach in school history. Whittingham passed the all-time win mark in 2021 after his team handed then-No. 3 Oregon in a 31-point loss in front of a sellout crowd at Rice-Eccles Stadium.
“What he has done is unbelievable, and I don’t think people realize how much a part of the program, or the identity of the program, we owe to him,” former receiver Britain Covey said of Whittingham after that Oregon game.
“Coach Whitt, he means a lot,” running back Micah Bernard said in 2024. “He’s a legend. He knows a lot about football, he knows a lot about life, he knows a lot about everything.”
“You hear about best coaches in college football, and he was one of them,” Utah quarterback Devon Dampier said. “So just for him to live up to that, the guidance he’s given me, the respect and just the knowledge he gave me about the game, I love that guy. I appreciate him for giving me this opportunity to be quarterback here.”
Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham walks along the sidelines during an NCAA football game between the University of Utah Utes and the Iowa State University Cyclones held at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City on Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024. (Photo: Isaac Hale, Deseret News)
Throughout his career, Whittingham always deflected the praise and turned it back to the coaches and players who have come through the program to help him achieve the success he’s had. None of that changed up to the day he retired; it was always about the other people he was with over the years.
“It really is about relationships with the coaches and players that you’ve worked with, and that’s what makes it so rewarding in such a great profession,” Whittingham recently told KSL.com.
And though he never lost his competitiveness over the year, his perspective as a coach shifted.
“I’ve been trying through the years, all these years, to try to keep things in perspective a little better than I used to,” Whittingham said. “I’m still an ultra competitor, and it takes about seven or eight wins to offset one loss, and so I’ve got to try to keep myself as grounded as I can and just see the big picture and not get be able to do a better job of keeping things in perspective. That’s probably the bottom line.”
Part of that perspective includes spending more time with family, such as his several grandchildren who now get to see the long-time football coach more.
“He loves being a grandpa,” said Kyle Whittingham’s wife, Jamie. “He’s just the cutest grandpa, and they actually love him more than they love me. … They run to him. We just love our little family.”
The Whittingham family at the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Left to right – Alex, Tyler,Jamie, Kyle, Melissa and Kylie. (Photo: Courtesy Whittingham family)
The California born coach who made Utah County home — including graduating from Provo High and BYU as a linebacker — was always destined to be around football.
Whittingham tried his hand at professional football after a successful playing career at BYU, where he was named the WAC Defensive Player of the Year and the defensive MVP of the Holiday Bowl his senior season (and was later inducted into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame in 2009).
But coaching was where Whittingham found himself.
After five years as an assistant at Idaho State, Whittingham followed his father, Fred, to the University of Utah in 1994 to work as the defensive line coach — his father was the defensive coordinator. A year later, Whittingham replaced his father as defensive coordinator at Utah, where he coached for 10 seasons until being named head coach at the end of 2004.
Fred Whittingham and sons: Cary (54), Fred (coach) and Kyle (59) (Photo: Mark Philbrick, BYU)
Whittingham served as the team’s defensive coordinator under Ron McBride and Urban Meyer, and was instrumental in helping the university increase its competitiveness in the landscape of college football, culminating in an undefeated season and Fiesta Bowl win over Pittsburgh with Meyer as part of the 2004 season.
He followed it up as a head coach with the university’s second undefeated season and a Sugar Bowl win over Alabama in 2009. It was that win (among many other factors) that helped Utah make a jump to the Pac-12, where Whittingham eventually became a mainstay at Utah and cemented his legacy as a head coach.
But Whittingham almost didn’t get the chance.
After back-to-back 5-7 seasons in Utah’s transition to the Pac-12, the pressure to remove Whittingham from his position reached a fever pitch — as is the nature of college football. But Chris Hill, then the university’s athletic director, granted Whittingham more time — even as their relationship reportedly soured a bit.
And what a decision that turned out to be.
The next season, Utah went 9-4 and finished the season ranked No. 21 in the final Associated Press Top 25 poll. It was the beginning of a stretch in which Utah was in contention for a Pac-12 title every season, including an appearance in four of the last five full season conference championships.
Utah won back-to-back Pac-12 championships in 2021 and 2022 — with wins over Oregon and USC, respectively — and reached back-to-back Rose Bowl games.
Whittingham finished with an 11-6 record — including a nine-game winning streak — against BYU, his alma mater, and was 11-6 in bowl games (with a final one still scheduled). Under Whittingham’s tenure, Utah appeared in more bowl games (18) than all other bowl appearances combined in school history (nine).
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