Kyle Whittingham

Kyle David Whittingham (born November 21, 1959) is an American football coach and former player.

He remained in Provo and played college football for the BYU Cougars from 1978 through 1981, where his father Fred was the linebacker coach, later defensive coordinator, under longtime head coach LaVell Edwards.

In his senior season in 1981, he was the WAC Defensive Player of the Year, and the defensive MVP of the Holiday Bowl.

Whittingham played in the first four Holiday Bowls; he was a running back as a freshman in the inaugural and a linebacker in the next three, during which he recorded 27 tackles.

Whittingham graduated from BYU in 1981 and went on to play linebacker for the Denver Gold and New Orleans Breakers of the USFL and the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL.

Whittingham became a graduate assistant for BYU during the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

He also played for the Los Angeles Rams' replacement squad in 1987.

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 five seasons with Idaho State, Whittingham joined the Utah staff as defensive line coach, working alongside his father, Fred Whittingham.

In the 1995 season, Whittingham replaced his father as the defensive coordinator, who had been hired as the linebackers coach for the Oakland Raiders.

He was named head coach of Utah after Urban Meyer left for the University of Florida in 2004.

Whittingham remained the defensive coordinator for ten years, serving under both Ron McBride and Meyer, until being named head coach in 2004.

The 2004 season ended with Utah becoming the first BCS non-AQ conference team to make a BCS bowl game, the Fiesta Bowl.

After winning the Fiesta Bowl, the Utes' overall record improved to 12–0 under the leadership of junior starting quarterback Alex Smith (in his final season before declaring for the NFL draft) and head coach Urban Meyer, who announced his departure to the University of Florida in December 2004.

After the regular season, and before the Fiesta Bowl, Whittingham was offered the head coaching job at Utah and also the head coaching job at his alma mater, Brigham Young University.

After struggling with the decision for four days he chose the Utes.

He is the head football coach at the University of Utah, a position he has held since 2005, and is the all-time leader in wins at Utah.

Prior to becoming the head coach at Utah, Whittingham served as Utah's defensive coordinator for ten seasons.

Because Urban Meyer had already officially accepted the head coaching job at Florida before the Fiesta Bowl, Whittingham and Meyer acted as co-head coaches of the 2005 Fiesta Bowl.

Utah and the NCAA credit the Fiesta Bowl to both Meyer and Whittingham.

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 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 Johnson's first start since 2005, he broke his collarbone against Oregon State and starting running back Matt Asiata broke his leg as Utah got routed 24–7 by the Beavers.

The following week, wide receiver Brent Casteel was lost for the season in an embarrassing 20–12 loss at home to Air Force.

Utah looked as if it righted the ship the following week with a 44–6 rout of No. 9 UCLA, the highest-ranked team ever defeated by the Utes.

In 2006, Whittingham's team faced a degree of adversity.

Starting quarterback Brett Ratliff struggled through parts of the year, and so did the Utes.

Like the year before, the Utes rebounded toward the end of the season, but lost to rival BYU at home by a score of 33–31.

The Utes 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.

2007 would provide more adversity.

He won AFCA Coach of the Year and the Paul "Bear" Bryant Award in 2008 after leading the 2008 Utah Utes football team to an undefeated season and a win in the 2009 Sugar Bowl over the 2008 Alabama Crimson Tide football team.

He and Oklahoma State's Mike Gundy are the second longest tenured FBS coaches (with one school), trailing only Kirk Ferentz.

He is the longest tenured head coach in the Pac-12.

A graduate of Provo High School, Whittingham was all-state at linebacker and fullback and earned two letters in baseball for the Bulldogs.

In 2009, he was inducted into the Holiday Bowl Hall of Fame.