One of college football’s longest-tenured head coaches will return next season.
Utah announced Sunday afternoon that Kyle Whittingham would return for his 21st season as coach of the program in 2025 with a news release featuring just two words: “I’m back.”
On the heels of a disappointing 5-7 season, questions arose regarding Whittingham’s immediate future and whether this was it for the legendary head coach. Utah was the preseason favorite to win the Big 12 Conference in 2024 but a second straight year of injuries decimated the quarterback room and played a direct hand in Utah suffering its longest losing streak — dropping seven straight — since 1986.
Before Utah’s season-ending win at UCF, Whittingham, who recently turned 65, said he still had “plenty of gas in the tank” even after the emotional and frustrating toll a year like 2024 took on him and everyone within the program.
“To time it just right so you can go out at just the right time, there is a very, very small percentage of people who are able to do that,” Whittingham said in late November regarding retirement. “So, again, I’m not saying, ‘Well, this was a bad year for me, so I’ve got to come back and have a better year.’ Everyone wants to have a better year next year regardless of who the coach is.”
𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎📰
We are looking forward to 2025‼️#GoUtes | @UtahCoachWhitt pic.twitter.com/jq9BnjypgO
— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) December 8, 2024
For the 21st straight season in Salt Lake City, it will be him. But there is a tremendous amount of work to do on the offensive side of the ball.
Utah defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley has been named coach-in-waiting since last November and will assume the head coach position whenever Whittingham decides to retire. But it won’t be at least for another season. Both Whittingham and Scalley together wrapped up a search for a new offensive coordinator after veteran offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig resigned from his post midseason during Utah’s monumental struggles on offense.
This week Utah hired New Mexico offensive coordinator Jason Beck. Utah was involved in negotiations with two other candidates, but both chose other openings. Former Washington State offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle was hired at Oklahoma while former Texas State offensive coordinator Mack Leftwich took the job at Texas Tech. Beck will have his hands full in reshaping an offense that was statistically one of the worst in power-conference football in passing.
While Utah still waits to hear whether or not quarterback Cam Rising will return for an eighth year of college football, the quarterback room is pretty bare at the moment.
Within two days, Utah had three quarterbacks enter the transfer portal, including former four-star recruit Isaac Wilson who started in place of Rising after the veteran quarterback suffered two injuries throughout the year. Backups Brandon Rose and Sam Huard also announced their intention to leave this weekend. Utah signed two quarterbacks as part of its 2025 recruiting class, but with Rising’s future still up in the air, Beck will have to recruit not one but likely several quarterbacks in the transfer portal to come in and compete for next year’s starting job.
Required reading
- Utah coach Kyle Whittingham: Decisions on future to be made ‘based on what’s best for the program’
(Photo: Chris Gardner / Getty Images)
