This is a great group. They’ve got a great work ethic. – Utah coach Kyle Whittingham

SALT LAKE CITY — When asked what he learned in his first 10 years as head coach of the Utah Utes, Kyle Whittingham responded in the form of a question.

“What didn’t I learn?” he said.

Whittingham’s tenure at the helm, which began with co-coaching the Utes in the 2005 Fiesta Bowl with Urban Meyer, has run the gamut from capping an undefeated season with a win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl in 2009 to overseeing the program’s move from the Mountain West Conference to the Pac-12.

Utah is 85-43 under Whittingham, including a sparkling 8-1 record in bowl games.

“It’s gone quick in a way and in a way it’s seemed like an eternity,” Whittingham said. “But one thing I still love doing is coaching. I love being around the players.”

As the Utes prepare for Thursday’s season opener against Michigan (6:30 p.m., FS1), Whittingham noted that he’s particularly fond of this year’s team.

“This is a great group. They’ve got a great work ethic,” he said. “It’s a more experienced group. We’ve got a lot of excellent leadership and guys that have played a lot of football at most positions, not every position, and so it’s a fun group to work with.”

The Utes are coming off their first winning Pac-12 season since joining the conference in 2011. They went 5-4 with triumphs over UCLA, Oregon State, USC, Stanford and Colorado.

Switching leagues, Whittingham acknowledged, has been a challenge.

“Without a doubt. That was the biggest change in the 10 years that I’ve been the head coach and as I’ve said before it was like getting a new job in a lot of ways,” he said. “It was just a complete overhaul of everything we’re doing — facility-wise, recruiting-wise, everything. The bar had to be raised in every area.”

Besides facing a higher level of competition, Whittingham has overseen a transition that includes moving the program into the $32 million Eccles Football Center in 2013. The overall upgrades have the Utes equipped for continued success.

It’s a trajectory Whittingham has set in motion. However, as usual, he’s not looking too far ahead.

“The next decade? I just hope we play well against Michigan this next week,” Whittingham said. “That’s what I'm hoping for.”

At Pac-12 Media Days in July, Whittingham pointed to the game against the Wolverines as evidence of Utah football’s evolution since joining the Pac-12.

“Five or six years ago there was no chance that Michigan would have done a home at home deal with the University of Utah,” he said. “But now that we're in the Pac-12 and evolved as a program, we have an opportunity to get programs like this.”

Including 10 years as an assistant, Whittingham has been on the Utah sidelines for 170 wins — the most of any football coach in school history. The biggest triumph, though, came as head coach when the Utes capped a 13-0 season with a 31-17 victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl, after which he was named National Coach of the Year.

Last year, in an article commemorating the 10th anniversary of Utah’s Fiesta Bowl championship, Whittingham received praise from Meyer — his former boss, who went on to lead Ohio State to last year's national championship.

“Kyle Whittingham, without hesitation, is one of the top coaches in America,” Meyer said.

Meyer also noted the “absolute grind” of transitioning the Utes into the Pac-12.

“Every week you’re facing a team that’s as even as you or sometimes more talented than you,” he said. “It takes a while to develop depth.”

Prior to last season, Utah had three consecutive losing seasons in Pac-12 play. The breakthrough was accompanied by an overall mark of 9-4, capped by a 45-10 win over Colorado State in the Las Vegas Bowl. It was the most victories the program has had since going 10-3 in its final season in the Mountain West.

Whittingham, the longest-tenured coach in the Pac-12, acknowledged it's something to build on as Utah enters its fifth season in the conference. Since he has 17 returning starters, Whittingham told reporters at the league meetings that there’s a lot of optimism as well.

“We've got to make sure that we don't back off in any way, shape or form as coaches or as players — and that we continue to press forward and build on last year rather than take a backward step,” Whittingham said.

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In his first four seasons at Utah, Whittingham’s teams improved their win totals each year. After the 13-0 Sugar Bowl campaign, the Utes won 10 games twice before moving to the Pac-12. They went 8-5 overall in 2011 before back-to-back 5-7 finishes. Last season’s turnaround ended with an outcome that put Whittingham in the record books with former USC and UNLV coach John Robinson for the best bowl-game winning percentage at .889, based on an NCAA minimum of seven appearances.

Other accolades associated with Whittingham during his tenure as an assistant or head coach at Utah include having 63 first-team all-conference honorees and 35 players getting drafted into the NFL.

Email: dirk@desnews.com

Twitter: @DirkFacer

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