SALT LAKE CITY — Would the last remaining coach at the University of Utah please turn out the lights?
College campuses tend to shut down during the holidays, but this is extreme.
Soon there might not be anyone left in the football offices but the maintenance crew.
Since winning the Las Vegas Bowl last Saturday, three assistant coaches have left the program, with potentially more on the way. Meanwhile, head coach Kyle Whittingham continues to be mentioned in coaching rumors, even as vacancies dwindle. This was supposed to be a quiet time of reflection and satisfaction after a 9-4 season. Instead, personnel are turning over like the cast of “The View.”
Now apparent disagreements, dissatisfaction or contractual issues have led to Utah losing its offensive and defensive coordinators and its defensive line coach. Kalani Sitake and Ilaisa Tuiaki left for Oregon State, while offensive coordinator Dave Christensen took a lesser job at Texas A&M. Problems? Oh, yes. You don’t leave a job as a top assistant in a power conference for one as an offensive line coach, anywhere, unless someone’s unhappy. Nor do you leave a job as a defensive coordinator in a lateral move if everything is hunky-dory.
There's even a chance the Utes could lose Whittingham. He has turned down offers, including Tennessee, before. His name has come up this year with Michigan. So it stands to reason he’d want security beyond 2016. But assistant coach contracts might be an issue, too. Whittingham was an assistant long enough to value what they do. How much athletics director Chris Hill values them is a matter of perspective.
A GRAMA request by KSL.com on Dec. 5 revealed the school planned to offer contract extensions and raises for several assistant coaches, including Sitake, Tuiaki and Christensen. KSL.com’s Robert Jackson reported Dec. 17 that Hill e-mailed Whittingham saying Utah does “not want to lose Kalani to another defensive coordinator position.”
Many of the comment boards and Twitter postings since last Saturday have criticized Hill, saying he failed to secure valuable talent. That’s a reasonable argument, in context of this week. But last December, the Utes were coming off back-to-back 5-7 seasons, with only two conference wins that year. Contract extensions would have been risky.
As good as Utah’s season was this year, the Utes won five games by six points or less, including two in double overtime. They also lost one game by a point and one in overtime. So the margin between success and failure was thin.
Even if Hill has mismanaged the current situation, it would be hard to criticize his overall record. He hired Rick Majerus, Urban Meyer, Larry Krystkowiak and Whittingham. Hill also led Utah’s drive to get in the Pac-12.
All things considered, both Hill and Whittingham have been commendable. Whittingham has only had two losing seasons and coached the Utes to the Sugar Bowl in 2008. As strong as Sitake is as a defensive coordinator, it was Whittingham who established Utah as a great defensive team.
This season the Utes had a winning Pac-12 record for the first time, beating Michigan, Stanford, UCLA and USC. They have won seven of their last eight bowl games under Whittingham’s direction.
Still, it didn’t stop things from getting weird on Christmas week.
How come they’re having problems after all the good that has happened?
Same reason everyone has problems: money, insecurity, ego, personalities and perceived lack of appreciation.
What should the U. do now?
Get its act together.
Utah is far richer than it was in the old Mountain West days, but no wealthier than 11 other schools in the Pac-12. Hill would have been excoriated if he had extended contracts last year and the Utes had failed. But once they earned a bowl berth in 2014 — or even during the late season — he could have made an official statement of support for Whittingham and his staff. That alone might have avoided the type of exodus that is occurring, unless there was conflict among coaches, too. Meanwhile, Whittingham could have framed the aforementioned assistants’ raises as a nice reward for a well-done job, or maybe even sweet-talked some of them into staying.
Obviously that didn’t happen.
If Whittingham does leave the U., it would be a sad ending to what a week ago seemed a bright beginning. Realistically, they should all do what any good coach does when things begin to unravel: call a timeout.
Email: rock@desnews.com; Twitter: @therockmonster; Blog: Rockmonster Unplugged