Really? Just how sheltered was your friend?
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My guess is Whitt & Scalley will be co-HC’s in the Vegas Bowl, like the handoff in Fiesta Bowl.
Vegas Bowl - lol. That was an early faux pas of Whit’s while he was learning the ropes as HC in his first season, earning the wrath of Tina Kunzer-Murphy
At the 2005 Emerald Bowl in San Francisco: “This beats the heck out of Memphis, Tennessee, and the best place to see Las Vegas is in your rearview mirror. I guess I shouldn’t say that, but … "
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You would have thought he knew better, given he was the driving force behind our barnstorming basketball team in Brigham City we called, “The Gentiles.”
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That’s hilarious. My brother and I were mulling over having a team called the “Fightin’ Polygs”… but then reason prevailed.
Some aspects of living in Utah in the 70s and before were pretty funny.
- “I love being in Utah, because it’s the only place I can be a Jew and a Gentile at the same time”
- “Living in Utah was so interesting. When you met another person who wasn’t Mormon, you had an instant connection!”
- Various quotes from Mark Twain’s Roughing It
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Yes. But it is probably rigged. One of the candidates will only accept the results if he wins.
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Utah in the 1970’s was something, living in Utah County was something else.
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Showing your teenage rebellion by buying a coffee at the Seven Eleven then drinking it while playing video games at the Wilkinson Center.
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Cross Country skiing up South Fork Canyon to Vivian Park for a fondue party, then skiing back to the cars to go home.
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Living in a “mixed family” because your father was Lutheran and your mother was a “California” LDS convert.
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Going to school with the children of the TDS coaches, who by the way many by the time they got to their Senior year of HS were angling hard to go anywhere but TDS.
Yes, it was something.
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Well, I suppose in his defense. While the Borgias were in power in Florence, they did kinda have a choke hold on the Papacy. At least one of the Borgia Popes did have a child that did move up the ranks. I don’t recall if that child ever became Pope.
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We had a lot of fun. We mostly played various ward teams around the town. We had Baptists, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans, and Buddists on our rag tag squad. We held our own for the most part. We had a bitter rivalries with the 14th and 17th ward teams.
It kept us out of trouble.
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Wow. Sorry for your loss, and a tip of my hat to him. Very good coach and wonder how things would have been different had he come to USC in 2010.
FTFO!
What are your top Whit-coached games. Here are my 10 favorite, ranked based on a combination of significance, satisfaction, and just being a plain-old incredibly fun game:
1- Alabama 2009, 31-17. Not sure how any other game could top a list like this.
2- TCU 2008, 13-10. The Alabama game never happens had it not been for this electric comeback.
3- USC 2022 (regular season), 43-42. I know the conference title game meant more, but this back-and-forth thrilling game was one for the ages.
4- Oregon 2021 (regular season), 38-7. Again, the conference title game was more meaningful, but Utah doesn’t get there without this win. It was so fun watching the Utes clobber the Ducks. Remember Covey’s punt return to end the first half?
5- BYU 2008, 48-24. Yeah, 2008 was a tremendous season. Picking of Max Hall five times. Beating TDS to complete an undefeated regular season: legendary.
6- USC 2022 (conference title game), 47-24. The Caleb Williams fingernails game. Utah gets down 17-3 then fumbles the ball in their own territory. Somehow, Utah proceeds to go on a 44-7 run.
7- Oregon 2021 (conference title game), 38-10. Once wasn’t good enough. A second blowout of Oregon in a three-week span sure was fun.
8- Oregon 2015, 62-20. This might be the most unexpected result of Whit’s career—not that Utah won but how they won. Who could imagine Utah would roll up 62 on the Ducks in Eugene?
9- BYU 2011, 54-10. I still laugh when I think about this game. Seven BYU turnovers, some pretty comical. Utah outscored BYU 47-0 over the final 32 minutes. I hope to see a game like this with TDS again soon.
10- Washington 2019, 34-23. This one might not be high on a lot of people’s lists, but it was a significant one. It was only Utah’s second-ever win over UW, and it avenged the conference title-game loss the previous year.
Honorable Mention, in no particular order: BYU 2005, Wyoming 2007 (Glenn’s bird), Oregon St. 2008, Stanford 2013, USC 2014, USC 2016, BYU 2018, USC 2023, Kansas St. 2025.
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I specifically remember watching that shy, stammering young man, grow in his ability to present himself to the media and the public during Urban’s time. He had been progressing each year in the PR realm during the preceding years, but the one thing I remember and appreciate from Urban was his giving Whitt that opportunity and pushing him to make the most of it.
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Kyle changed so much over the years. I started working as a volunteer in the football program in February after Kyle took over. It was an intense, no nonsense atmosphere the first couple of years. The assistants made sure they arrived at the offices before Kyle and left after he left. Kyle’s attitude was that if things didn’t go right it would not be due to lack of hard work. As the program had more success the work ethic and drive stayed the same but the atmosphere lightened. He was always a great defensive mind, but he had to learn to manage the administration (Chris Hill and his minions were not liked in the football offices), the media, the fanbase, the donors and all the rest that goes with being the head guy. It took time for him to learn the ropes and be comfortable doing it. He had people he looked to, like Urban, Mac and Edwards, but social media and the internet made things significantly different then they had been for Mac and Edwards. I left after the 2012 season and it wasn’t until then that I really saw how much he had changed and grown.
I hope and believe that he will be a great resource and sounding board for Morgan, who I know fairly well. Morgan will go through the same learning curve. He will forever be compared to Whitt just as Whitt was compared to Urban at least until the Sugar Bowl.
It will be interesting to see how Morgan operates. I worked mostly with the offensive staff - primarily Lud, Arod and Schramm. Whitt rarely sat in on offensive staff meetings, which was fine with them. He might pop in for 10 minutes of a 1 hour meeting, make a couple of observations, ask questions about players and what the coaches were seeing as the strengths and weaknesses of the next opponent, but that was it. He spent the majority of that time with the defensive staff.
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I was able to watch practice under 3 coaches (more or less): Ron McBride, Urban Meyer & Coach Whitt.
- Tons of fond memories of Mac, both then and more recently. Ronnie deserves his own thread, but he unquestionably laid the foundation.
- Meyer was a genius in a few ways - sizing up a player and knowing how to motivate him + having a gift for knowing the right thing to say - but he was only here 2 years, a whirlwind that built on Mac’s foundation.
- Whitt built on both of the previous two coaches’ legacies here, with his own style and strengths.
To say Utah football produced tough players would be an understatement. “Honor the Process” wasn’t just cliche, it was driven home by the way Kyle approached his own physical conditioning. I remember WR Kenneth Scott being in awe of how hard Whitt worked on his various workout routines.
“When I get to be his age I’ll probably be sitting on the couch and starting to put on weight, but here… being here… the way Coach Whitt works out I better put in the work. We all know it.”.
I remember him coaching up individual players in things like running gassers, something a lot of talented athletes didn’t have to do a lot of when they were in HS, having the talent to overwhelm the competition without having to put in much work.
“Don’t buckle!! Don’t buckle!!” He’d be right up in their grill, yelling. But after practice he treated everyone with respect, the same kind of love that we’ve all seen with the 22 Forever ritual between the 3rd and 4th quarters at RES. (I had a Cincinnati fan ask me what the “moment of loudness” was all about after our game against them this year. He was really impressed. “That’s pretty remarkable”.)
The respect and love Whitt had for his players was legit. Players don’t put it on the line like they did in last year’s last game for a plastic personality. I remember in the early years asking him about a Cornerback we’d recruited who was struggling to pick up the schemes. “Hope the light comes on, we’ll keep working with him”, but there was never any question about how he felt about the player as a person.
There’s been some chatter about Whitt taking another job. I wouldn’t rule it out, the guy is a competitor through and through, and I’m sure would like to hoist a Natty. But I think he’ll find his new path and soak it up.
I know there was Cactus Jack Curtice and Ray Nagel, great coaches from way back, but I don’t think there’s any serious question about who is the best coach in Utah FB history:
Kyle Whittingham
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I guess he never read the newspaper or paid attention to any news media.
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A truly stupid concept, given that priests have to be unmarried/celibate. Exactly how is it supposed to be hereditary? HAHAHAHAHA
Admittedly Urban VIII certainly made it hella nepotistic, but I’m not sure it ever passed even between brothers. Perhaps Uncle to nephew, but I’m too lazy to go look it up.
In my High School years the 400+ year lock of Italians in the Papacy was finally broken, and we’ve now had a Pole, a German, an Argentine, and an American - albeit one who lived a great deal of his life in Latin America.
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There have been a lot of rumors that Whit wasn’t retiring and may very well coach again. I was skeptical of these claims, but Whit himself said he isn’t ruling out coaching again somewhere. This really surprises me and makes me wonder why he wouldn’t have Utah be his last stop.
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Trib says the same thing. Reporters were probably both there at the same time.
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They got it from Scott Mitchell’s interview with Kyle on ESPN 700 this morning.
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He can be semi retired and make 3.75m a year…or with his resume he might be able to go do a couple year gig for 11-12m a year or even do something new in the NFL. So I can see lots of reasons he’d both retire now and still keep the door open. He’s not some old guy who’s all worn out. He could easily do another 2-5 years if something exciting enough came along. I won’t blame him if he takes a shot like that. How many of us would ignore offers like that? In fact I am currently open for any offer like that 
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