Coach Whittingham—Winning Percentage A- This is why.

[utetastic]

     This is a list of all University of Utah Coaches and their records and winning percentages. Coach Whittingham has the 4th highest percentage of all time. I think most of us agree that Urban is probably the best coach we have ever had. Thus Urban gets an “A”.

     I think an argument can be made that Kyle is the second best coach we have ever had. Joe Maddock has a higher winning percentage than Kyle in  38 total games but you have to look at who he played. Here is a list of some of his wins. (Oregon Short Line, Fort Douglas, Utah A.C., Colorado College, Colorado Mines, Colorado A.C.) (lost to teams like St. Vincent, Denver and Colorado College) Maddock is not even close to Whittingham.

     The only other coach that even compares to Whittingham is Ike Armstrong. (Whittingham 67.5%–Armstrong 70.4 %) Whittinhams percentage is slightly lower than Armstrongs but Whittinghams percent was higher than Armstrongs percent before he was added to the Pac 12. Before the Pac 12 Whittingham was 57-20, which is 74% (That is not counting the Fiesta Bowl which is on paper a win for Whitt) When you look at who Armstrong beat there are still a lot of Colorado Colleges and Denvers etc. Whittingham has the best long term record ever, especially when you compare the competition. It is not even close. I have a hard time not giving Coach Whittingham an A- when it could be argued he is the best coach we have ever had. (Meyer bailed on us for  places easier to win)

                                                                               Total games     wins       losses      ties          %

                Walter Shoup                    1895                       1              0              1              0              .000       

                Tom Lovat                        1974–1976           33           5              28           0              .152

                Byron Cummings              1897                       6              1              5              0              .166       

                Robert Harkness               1894                       3              1              2              0              .333

                Mike Giddings                   1966–1967           21           9              12           0              .429

                Jim Fassel                            1985–1989           58           25           33           0              .431

                Chuck Stobart                    1982–1984           34           16           17           1              .485

                Bill Meek                             1968–1973           64           33           31           0              .516

                Ray Nagel                            1958–1965           82           42           39           1              .518

                Nelson Norgren                 1914–1917           24           13           11           0              .542

                Wayne Howard                 1977–1981           56           30           24           2              .554

                Thomas Fitzpatrick           1919–1924           43           23           17           3              .570

                Jack Curtice                        1950–1957           81           45           32           4              .580

                Ron McBride                      1990–2002           151         88           63           0              .583

                Harvey Holmes                  1900–1903           23           13           9              1              .587

                C.B. Ferris                            1896                       5              3              2              0              .600       

                Fred Bennion                     1910–1913           27           16           8              3              .648

                Benjamin Wilson              1898                       3              2              1              0              .667

                Charles Gatehouse          1899                       3              2              1              0              .667

                Kyle Whittingham            2005–                    154         104         50           0              .675

                Ike Armstrong                   1925–1949           211         141         55           15           .704

                Joe Maddock                     1904–1909           38           28           9              1              .750       

 

                Urban Meyer                     2003–2004           24           22           2              0              .917

[gUrthBrooks]

A+ post and K-Whitt is an A+ coach: Most wins per dollar spent of ALL MAJOR PROGRAMS! in the past 10+ years….plus consistently top 25 program.

[Ute Bc]

Look I love Whitt.  He’s a great coach.  But you don’t get an A+ until you win a National Championship.  I think he may do it now that we don’t have to go undefeated to get in the game. 

[gUrthBrooks]

Don’t forget your history. He and Chris Hill (&Urban) got us into the PAC12. I still can’t believe it. A+ Forever!

[Ute Bc]

Fair enough. Urban and Mac also helped that. 

[AlohaUte]

Coach Whitt is fantastic and is an A+ coach. No, he’s not perfect, but he has done more with less than any coach I’ve seen over a longer period of time. We are very fortunate to have him.

[ironman1315]

You forgot the part where he got a Wyoming coach to flip him off on camera. Good times.

[KiYi-Ute]

I wish he approached more games like he did that game. Never call off the dogs.

[FtheY]

Agreed. Let’s see some onside kicks this year. 

[UtMtBiker]

Yes he is a great coach and probably the best we’ve ever had but you can’t get an A- or even A rating with some of the mistakes he has made. 9 OC in 10 years? That just means that you made 8 bad hires in a row. I would even say that he is the best coach that Utah could get at the time, and as he has grown into a better coach, probably still the best we could get. Utah can’t have whoever we want.

With that said, still not and A- Coach for me. I’m sitting at B- to B. South division title gets him a bump, a Pac12 title gets him a bump, and National Title gets him a statue. Just not an A grade for me yet.

[UteThunder]

Don’t be so quick to say “8 bad hires in a row.”

Schramm/A-Rod weren’t bad in 2009 & 2010. We won 10 games both years and their offense was one of the better offenses we have had under KW(I realize that may not be saying much, but still).

Chow was a great hire. Unfortunately for us, he had aspirations to become a HC and Hawaii offered after just one year with us. That isn’t a reflection on KW.

Johnson was a bad hire if for no other reason than he was too young and inexperienced.

Erickson wasn’t a bad hire. His contributions to this team are invaluable. The fault with Erickson appears to be that he wasn’t truly the OC, rather he was just brought in to help BJ.

Hiring Christensen and the Co-OC hiring of A-Rod/Harding were bad moves, though, Harding has worked out in other ways like DE did.

All in all, I would say there has been 3 bad OC hires (BJ, DC, & Hard-Rod) mixed with a questionable decision(not allowing DE to be the OC).