LOS ANGELES — Kyle Whittingham has been coaching football for a long time.
He’s been on a college football coaching staff since 1985, when he was a graduate assistant at BYU, and has been coaching at Utah since 1994. Since becoming Utah’s head coach in 2005, he’s led the Utes to an undefeated season, three conference championships, two BCS bowls and two New Year’s Six bowls.
By this point, Whittingham knows the NCAA rule book inside and out.
The longtime Utah coach used his knowledge to his advantage multiple times in Saturday’s 34-32 win in over USC in Los Angeles.
When the offense substitutes a player, the defense gets an opportunity to respond by substituting a player of their own.
“When Team A sends in its substitutes, the officials will not allow the ball to be snapped until Team B has been given an opportunity to substitute,” the NCAA rule book states.
So multiple times on Saturday, Whittingham made sure to use that rule to his full advantage.
Take this play in the late third quarter, third-and-7 with 2:44 left, Utah up 28-14.
USC replaced wide receiver Zachariah Branch, who reached the sideline with 21 seconds left on the play clock, and Utah immediately responded with a substitution of its own. The Utes subbed defensive tackle Junior Tafuna on, who replaced defensive tackle Keanu Tanuvasa. Tanuvasa reached the sideline with four seconds left on the play clock. The Trojans couldn’t get the play off and USC coach Lincoln Riley was forced to call one of his three second-half timeouts.
During the timeout, Riley screamed at the officials, but it was a perfectly legal move by Utah.
“You wait in the play clock to do that around 15 to 18 seconds, you’re playing with fire, especially when the ball is all the way across the sidelines from Utah,” Fox commentator Brock Huard said on the broadcast.
There is an NCAA rule about completing substitutions promptly, which may have been what Riley was arguing.
“Delay of game on Team B (the defense in the case) for not completing its substitutions promptly ... five yards from the succeeding spot. The referee will then notify the head coach that any further use of this tactic will result in an unsportsmanlike conduct foul,” the NCAA rule book states.
But Utah initiated the substitution promptly, sending Tafuna onto the field immediately after Branch reached the sideline. It’s not like Tafuna was walking, and neither was Tanuvasa, plus the ball was on the far hash from Utah’s sideline. It just so happens that Tafuna is 310 pounds and Tanuvasa is 295 pounds and the two players may not have the fastest 40-yard dash time on the team.
Was it gamesmanship by Whittingham? Almost certainly, though you can’t prove it definitively. Defensive linemen are substituted in and out all game.
The Utes employed the tactic later in the the drive, sending defensive tackle Aliki Vimahi on for defensive tackle Simote Pepa on second-and-15 from the Utah 33-yard-line with 19 seconds left in the play clock, wasting another nine seconds. On the very next play, USC substituted again, and Utah responded, this time with Tafuna for Vimahi. Another 11 seconds burned. Boos rained down from the Coliseum stands.
USC settled for a field goal on the drive, cutting Utah’s lead to 11 at the end of the third quarter.
Whittingham pulled out all the tricks he could, and it paid off in Utah’s fourth win in a row against USC.