Just saw a Josh Newman tweet about USC targeting Coach McDonald for the same role. Will be interesting.
He gone.
DNews is reporting a tweet he sent thanking Whittingham and the rest of the staff for the opportunity to work with them. Very complimentary, but sure reads like a goodbye.
Hard to compete with the Brinks truck that is USC. I can’t blame assistants for taking these kinds of opportunities. An entire staff could just as easily be looking for work if things don’t go well. He’s done good by Utah. Good luck to him.
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Moving from a low to mid-six digit job to a seven digit job is tough to turn down.
Best wishes to him…except when U$C plays us, then I hope we get to feel the sting of getting beat by the Utes. 
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Good luck to him. My only concern is if/how it will affect the recruiting pipeline at RB.
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on twitter the chatter is the obvious pick to replace him is Quinton Ganther. He’s with the NFL Jaguars currently … so maybe?
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I love Q, but wouldn’t going from an NFL position coach to a college position coach be a pretty significant downgrade?
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If we’re going to dream, dream big.
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true, but wasn’t he an Urban Meyer hire? I suspect he might be getting his pink slip after next Sunday
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It’s not uncommon for NFL position coaches to come back and coach of the tier 1 football program in college. Kyle‘s dad certainly did it.
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I would suspect a lot of turnover with the jaguar staff in the very near future. It has to be the first or second call that Kyle makes.
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Utah led the PAC in rushing, so thank you.
FTFO!
We will continue to do that. A strong running game has been a Utah staple for like…forever (with a minor detour during Jim Fassel and Urban Meyer’s tenures). Whoever replaces Kiel will have the tall expectations every running backs coach has face at Utah - getting the guys to carry the rock violently.
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And a good part of that was good running backs. We will miss Kiel, but we will survive. Whether you like it or not, Utah ain’t going away, and our run game will still be good.
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He’s also not a position coach.
His title is “Offensive Quality Control Coach”
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Utah’s run game under Urban was pretty good. In 2003, Utah averaged 160 yards per game. In 2004, that number rose to 236 yards per game.
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Looking at the scores of 2004, I wonder how much of those running numbers were from running out the clock during garbage time blow outs, as opposed to running schemes as part of the game plan. Also, the running scheme used back then leaned heavy on the QB, it was definitely not Utah style, even if the numbers were good.
Alex Smith rushed for 631 yards in 2004 for an average of about 52 yards per game. So you could subtract that from the 2004 rushing total if that’s what you want to do for comparative purposes. Just data, not making an argument one way or another.
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