LIKE A LOT of sons, Kyle Whittingham wanted to follow his father's footsteps, but he never thought it would be like this. No way. It's one thing for a son to follow his father into the coaching business, it is quite another to replace his father.
What are the odds of that?After all, it's a little different than a son taking over, say, his father's insurance business.
On the other hand, the paths of Kyle and his father, Fred, have crossed so many times that maybe he should have expected something like this.
Two years ago Kyle and Fred were defensive coordinators at Idaho State and Utah, respectively. Then last year Kyle joined his father's staff as the defensive line coach. They coached together one season and then Fred was hired to coach linebackers for the Oakland Raiders.
"As you know, your father's leaving," Utah coach Ron McBride told Kyle one day in his office. "I want to elevate you to coordinator."
Whittingham was stunned. Just like that he was his dad's replacement, at 35. Even now there are days he has to sit back a moment - sit back in the very chair and office his father sat in - and take it all in.
If he thought about it, he might reflect on how often fate has thrown him and his father together and all their similarities. Both college and professional football players. Both middle linebackers. The father coaching the son, first at BYU, then in the NFL. The father coaching with the son at Utah.
Of all the Whittinghams, only Kyle continued to pursue football as his father did. Not that they all didn't put in their share of time on the gridiron. Fred played in the National Football League for 10 years, for the Rams, Eagles, Cowboys and Saints. Kyle and younger brother Cary were all-conference middle linebackers at BYU (Kyle was named Defensive Player of the Year in the Western Athletic Conference in 1981). Fred Jr. was a starting fullback at BYU, and Brady was a receiver for one year at BYU.
Since then, Cary has become a Provo policeman, Fred an executive with a large publishing firm and Brady a stockbroker. Meanwhile, Kyle became a coach, figuring it was the next best thing to playing the game.
After a free agent tryout with the Denver Broncos, he fell into an assistant's job at Timpview High and loved it. But then the United States Football League opened its doors for business, and Whittingham played linebacker for the Denver Gold and New Orleans Breakers during the next three years.
When the USFL folded in 1985, Whittingham took a graduate assistant's job for two years at BYU and finished a master's degree, then became defensive coordinator at College of Eastern Utah. Once again a chance to play postponed his coaching career. He had barely begun the CEU job when the NFL went on strike, and the Rams, no doubt with some direction from their outside linebacker coach, Fred Whittingham, asked him to play inside linebacker on their replacement squad.
Whittingham spent the next six years coaching the defense at Idaho State, the last two as defensive coordinator. He improved the defense vastly, but he and Head Coach Brian McNeeley clashed personally and philosophically. Whittingham left the staff just about the time the Utes had an opening on their staff, and McBride dispatched an assistant to check him out.
"He's the guy you want," the assistant told McBride a few days later. "I wouldn't even look any further."
Answering the obvious but unasked question, McBride says, "We didn't hire him because of his father. I thought he would be a good fit here."
Not kidding. Not surprisingly, Whittingham's defensive philosophy is much the same as his father's. Over the years he has called Fred to ask him technical X-and-O questions, and it shows. They both play 4-3 defenses. They play gap control in the line and a three-deep zone in the secondary. Their strong-side linebackers play on the line. Their middle linebacker play is identical, which isn't surprising since the father coached the son at that position.
They share the same general defensive philosophy: Bend but don't break, don't give up the big plays, because the offense will find a way to screw it up before it gets to the end zone.
Kyle hasn't changed the Utah defense since taking over last spring, and why would he? All Kyle has done is add a couple of coverages to respond to some new offensive sets the Utes faced last year, but Fred would have done the same thing.
In truth, the father and son are not that much alike, despite all their commonalities. Where the father was gruff, no nonsense and taciturn, the son is more open and warmer. But there are days on the practice field when the son is coaching that his players will pause long enough to say, "That's just what your dad would have said!"
Kyle smiles after relating this story. "My dad's the best coach I've ever been around," he says.