Utah coach Kyle Whittingham has received national acclaim this season, especially after the Utes went into Los Angeles and knocked off the USC Trojans.
No coach has done more with less this season than Whittingham. Here’s a look at some of the starters and key contributors that were out in last Saturday’s game — quarterback Cam Rising, tight ends Brant Kuithe and Thomas Yassmin (who was starting in place of Kuithe), wide receiver Mycah Pittman, defensive end Logan Fano and running backs Micah Bernard and Chris Curry. Then linebacker Lander Barton suffered a season-ending injury during the contest.
The Utes got creative, playing safety Sione Vaki two ways. Vaki had two tackless on defense while playing excellent coverage — he was the second-highest graded player in coverage for Utah vs. USC, per Pro Football Focus — and added 68 yards on the ground and a game-high 149 receiving yards and two touchdowns.
Whittingham also got into Lincoln Riley’s head a little bit, substituting defensive tackles to kill the clock every time the Trojans subbed on offense in one drive in the third quarter, causing the Trojans to have to burn a timeout.
Among the pundits praising Whittingham following the USC win was his old boss, former Utah coach Urban Meyer, who’s now back with Fox Big Noon Kickoff after a disastrous stint as the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2021.
“I’ve said many times, Kyle Whittingham is one of the best coaches in college football. He’s the best. He’s the best coach in college football,” Meyer said on the “Urban’s Take with Tim May” podcast this week.
Sure, there may be some bias here — Meyer took the Utah program to unprecedented heights with Whittingham as his defensive coordinator in a 2004 undefeated season that saw a non-BCS team break into the system for the first time — but it’s still high praise from, like him or not, one of the all-time greatest coaches in college football history.
Meyer also gave props to Utah quarterback Bryson Barnes, who threw for a career-high 235 yards and three touchdowns and rushed for one more, adding 57 yards on the ground at USC.
He highlighted a play on Utah’s game-winning drive when Barnes, bruised ribs and all, lowered his shoulder on a defender to fight for extra yards on a run.
“If you watched the play closely, when he hit the safety, the safety takes himself out of the game. Bryson, you can tell stung, that’s it. That was a train wreck of two people, and he gets up slowly, but the way he plays, I just love to shake a guy’s hand because instant admiration for that guy,” Meyer said.
Meyer went back to a story about Whittingham that he’s told a few times before. When he Meyer was hired at Utah, industry friends told him to clean house, but when he met with Whittingham, he knew he had to retain him.
“I got hired there and Kyle interviewed for the job when I did, and everybody told me, don’t hire him. He’s kind of a unique personality. And I had no plan of hiring him. And then once I got hired and I settled down, I realized how good they were on defense, and then I went to dinner with him and his wife, and I’m sitting there looking like, what am I, stupid?” Meyer said.
“This guy knows the conference. He knows the personnel on our team. He’s a good person. He’s a guy that, yeah, he is a little different. Personality was so am I, very respectful. And the two of us, I can’t imagine a better working relationship even to this day. That’s how close I’m with him.”
Asked if there was a secret that made Whittingham so good, Meyer touched on Utah’s culture.
“He is culture and discipline. He’s tough, he’s tough as nails. His father was an NFL coach for a long time. And I mean, Fred Whittingham, one of the toughest cats, I met him before he passed away. I can go on and on about Kyle Whittingham and what he’s done, but he’s not one of the best, he’s the best coach in college football,” Meyer said.