[Jim Vanderhoof]

McBride established the culture and poly pipeline. Urban brought discipline and a winning attitude. Whitt built off the two and ushered in the Pac12 era. He has established a solid program and his player development has been amazing. Until Urban showed up Utah football was not even on the map. As a long time fan it’s been an amazing ride. Whitt has put us in the national spotlight and done an amazing job in my opinion. Scalley is the perfect guy to put his stamp on the program next.

[belli1976]

I wish Snoop would get a spot. But potential will win out the decision.

[EagleMountainUte]

Being a backup is probably the best position in Football. You actually can walk correctly post career and most likely won’t have CTE issues.

[ProudUte]

I hope he gets a spot somewhere, too. I just doubt it will be with the Browns. They have like 6 QBs on the roster. They needed him during camp while some minor injuries heal.

[Tony (admin)]

He’s very skilled, and a super lovable dude. You just can’t not like this guy.

[Jim Vanderhoof]

Great post proud Ute. It’s nice to see the other side of the NIL portal madness. The type of player you can really root for (even better he is an Olympus high alum like me). Player development and culture has been the calling card of the program since Whitt took over. I know I’ll cheer a little louder when I see that # on the field.

[press-on]

Not wanting to throw shade on Whittingham, but in reflection I’m not nearly as bewitched with ‘the man’ as many on this board. Three conference championships in 20 years. Not bad. Just not great. One of which we can thank a convoluted 2nd place tie-breaker in ’22 for squeaking us into that championship game. And another back in ’08 with a nucleus of Senior talent assembled by and inherited from Urban. All together, not bad. Graded out I would say, he’s somewhere in the solid B range as captain at the helm.

Whitt’s great accomplishment, however, is longevity. He has placed his mark on Utah football for generations and you do have to tip your hat at his ability to win just enough to keep the natives engaged for two decades.

Interestingly, and by way of a rough comparison, Ronny Mac had two championships in 13 years. Ratio wise just about equal to Kyle. But of course, Kyle has had the good fortune to be able to hang around much longer. (And I do use the phrase ‘good fortune’, deliberately).

McBride turned Utah football around. Urban put Utah on The Map. Whittingham kept the Utes in the Game. And the next hire hopefully will establish Utah as a perennial power on the national stage.

Go Utes!

[J Rocksville]

I think that’s the multiplier, is that Witt has done it while almost always being at a resource and spotlight disadvantage to his competition. Consistently outperforming expectations is the mark of a good coach, and I think he’s consistently done that. Consistently identified and developed talent that maybe others have missed and got us competitive with big time programs in the pac 12 probably a decade before most expected. The AZ schools have more resources, and how well have they done in football since they joined the pac?

He’s not a perfect coach, but he might have been the perfect coach for the time and place. Who else would have hung around Utah so long before parlaying any success or reputation into a bigger pay day? Very few other coaches can match his consistency over such a long period while staying loyal.

He very well might not be the perfect coach for the rapidly changing landscape of modern college football, but that’s to be seen. I hope the last two years were just an anomaly, not a trend, and he can go out on a high note with another conference title in yet another conference.

[Uteanooga]

Dude you are comparing apples to oranges. Ronnie Mac coached in the MWC. Kyle won 2 P12 championships. These are not comparable.

Utah competed in the P12 with massive disadvantages in terms of recruitment and resources. Ronnie Mac competed with advantages over most of the other MWC teams.

Utah winning even one championship was extremely improbable. Mac was a great Ute and instrumental to the program development. But his accomplishments did not rival Whitt’s.

[Tony (admin)]

The link was missing. Proud must have fixed it. 🙂

[Author]

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