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Utah coach Kyle Whittingham stepped down last Friday, ending a 21-year run at the helm of the football program.
Whittingham will go down as the greatest coach in Utes history after building the program from the Mountain West into a Pac-12 championship-winner.
The winningest coach in University of Utah history has 177 victories, with an opportunity to get 178 in the Las Vegas Bowl vs. Nebraska.
Here are 10 of Utah’s most memorable wins during the Whittingham era.
2008: No. 8 Utah 13, No. 12 TCU 10
The stage was set for one of the biggest games in Utah football history.
After beginning the season with a win at Michigan and producing heart-stopping, close wins against Air Force and Oregon State, the Utes were 9-0 and No. 8 in the BCS rankings, facing No. 12 TCU in the school’s first-ever blackout game.
Quarterback Andy Dalton and the Horned Frogs jumped out to an early 10-0 lead in the first quarter, and Utah’s offense sputtered all night.
Kicker Louie Sakoda made a 49-yard field goal for the Utes’ first points, then a 37-yard field goal to end the first half after Sean Smith returned an interception to the TCU 43-yard line.
Utah trailed 10-6 at halftime.
Both defenses held strong in the second half, forcing six straight punts to start. With just over five minutes left in the fourth quarter, TCU drove down to Utah’s 9-yard line but couldn’t convert on third down.
Normally reliable Horned Frogs kicker Ross Evans’ 26-yard field goal bounced off the left upright, but Utah’s ensuing drive went nowhere, and the Utes were forced to punt.
Sakoda’s punt went off the side of his foot and gave TCU great field position at the 50-yard line.
TCU moved the ball to the Utah 18-yard line and had to settle for another field goal with 2:48 to play. If Evans made his 35-yard field goal, it would put TCU up seven.
Evans missed it right. It started to feel like Utah was destined to win.
Down by four with just under three minutes remaining, Utah quarterback Brian Johnson engineered a nine-play, 80-yard drive, converting a fourth-and-5 along the way.
Johnson hit Freddie Brown on a slant route for the go-ahead touchdown with 47 seconds left, causing Rice-Eccles Stadium to go into a frenzy that caused the press box to shake.
2009 Sugar Bowl: No. 6 Utah 31, No. 4 Alabama 17
Though Utah entered the game with a perfect 12-0 record with wins over No. 11 TCU and No. 16 BYU, it was an underdog against Alabama.
The Crimson Tide had a perfect regular season, losing only in the SEC championship game against Urban Meyer’s Florida Gators, who would win the national championship that year.
No one in the national media thought the little school from the Mountain West had a chance against the SEC power.
Then, Utah shocked the country.
The Utes went no-huddle on their first offensive series, going 68 yards on five plays, culminating in a Brian Johnson to Brent Casteel touchdown to put Utah up 7-0.
Robert Johnson intercepted Alabama quarterback John Parker Wilson on the next drive, and Utah went up 14-0 after a 30-yard pass from Johnson to David Reed set up a Matt Asiata touchdown run.
The Utes forced the Crimson Tide to punt again, then Utah scored another touchdown on an 18-yard Johnson pass to Bradon Godfrey.
Utah led 21-0, and there was still four minutes left in the first quarter.
Alabama would score 17 straight points to cut Utah’s lead to four points in the third quarter, but the Utes responded with a 28-yard touchdown pass from Johnson to Reed.
Utah held Alabama scoreless the rest of the way.
Johnson threw for 336 yards and three touchdowns, and Robert Johnson had two interceptions.
The best win in Utah football history capped a 13-0 season. The Utes finished the year ranked No. 2 in The Associated Press poll.
2012: Utah 24, No. 25 BYU 21
Each of Whittingham’s 11 wins against his former school were memorable.
Candidates include the 2008 win over No. 14 BYU to clinch an undefeated regular season, in which the Utes picked off Max Hall five times, the wild 35-28 Las Vegas Bowl between the two schools in 2015, the 54-10 drubbing of the Cougars in Provo in 2011, the Brandon Burton field goal block in 2010 and the Jason Shelley-led 35-27 comeback in 2018.
But no Whittingham-coached Utah-BYU game was quite as memorable as the 2012 contest.
Utah took a 24-7 lead at the end of the third quarter before the Utes’ offense went cold the rest of the way. BYU scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns to draw within three points, then Riley Nelson completed a 47-yard pass on fourth-and-13 on the Cougars’ final drive to bring BYU to the Utah 34-yard line.
Nelson then threw two incomplete passes, the latter of which as time expired.
Or so Utah fans thought.
Utah fans and players stormed the Rice-Eccles Stadium field while BYU players signaled that there was still one second left. After review, officials determined BYU was right.
After fans were cleared from the field, Cougar kicker Justin Sorensen came on for a 51-yard attempt, which was blocked, sending Utah fans back onto the field again.
But Ute fans rushed the field while the ball was still live, and officials flagged them for a 15-yard penalty.
BYU got another chance to tie the game, this time from 36 yards, and brought in kicker Riley Stephenson to attempt it. His kick was off the upright, and for the third time, Utah fans stormed the field.
It wasn’t the most satisfying win of Whittingham’s career, but it was perhaps the craziest.
2013: Utah 27, No. 5 Stanford 21
After an 8-5 season in their first year in the Pac-12, the Utes returned to earth during the next two seasons with a pair of 5-7 campaigns as Utah built its roster to Power Five levels.
One of the first indications that Utah was starting to find stability in its new power league was a shocking upset of No. 5 Stanford.
Travis Wilson threw for 234 yards and two scores and Bubba Poole rushed for 111 yards, but the standout moment was a red-zone stand by the Utes to win the game.
Jared Norris blitzed Cardinal quarterback Kevin Hogan and forced an incompletion on fourth-and-3 to deliver the upset.
2015: Utah 24, Michigan 17
Few regular-season games at Rice-Eccles have been as hyped as Michigan’s visit to Utah to open the 2015 season.
Blue-blood teams like Michigan don’t venture to Utah much, so any game vs. the Wolverines would have been highly anticipated, but the Michigan debut of Jim Harbaugh added another layer of excitement to the game.
With Utah clinging to a seven-point lead after a missed field goal, Michigan drove into Ute territory, threatening to tie the game.
Justin Thomas jumped in front of Wolverine quarterback Jake Rudock’s third-down pass and raced 55 yards down the sideline for a pick-six that put Utah up 24-10 with 7:58 left.
The Utes proceeded to seal the game with another defensive stop on the ensuing drive and deliver the sellout crowd one of the more memorable wins in the Whittingham era.
2015: No. 18 Utah 62, No. 13 Oregon 20
Utah handed Oregon its worst home loss since 1977 and scored the most points ever by an opposing team at Oregon, demolishing the Ducks 62-20 in a top-20 matchup.
Travis Wilson threw for 227 yards and four touchdowns and also rushed for 100 yards and a score.
Devontae Booker added 98 yards on the ground.
The game was tied 6-6 in the first quarter before the Utes’ offensive onslaught started. Utah outscored Oregon 49-7 over the next two quarters in one of the most astonishing performances in team history.
Utah gained over 530 yards of total offense, and its defense also had a great game, intercepting Oregon quarterback Jeff Lockie two times and forcing a fumble.
You name it, it was working for Utah.
A 60-yard run by Wilson? Check.
A 25-yard touchdown pass from Booker to Britain Covey? Check.
A high snap that punter Tom Hackett barely corralled, then ran 33 yards for a first down? Check.
A punt return in which Covey pretended to field the ball, drawing Oregon players and the camera to him, only for Boobie Hobbs to actually field the punt and return it for a touchdown? Check.
It was a masterpiece of a game plan from Whittingham.
2021: No. 23 Utah 38, No. 3 Oregon 7
It’s only fitting that Whittingham’s 142nd win, which made him Utah’s all-time leader, was one of his most memorable.
Utah dominated No. 3 Oregon in a high-stakes game, clinching the Pac-12 South title and knocking the Ducks out of playoff contention.
Two months prior, with Utah sitting at 1-2 following nonconference losses to BYU and San Diego State, it was hard to imagine the Utes winning the division.
Then major tragedy struck the program for the second time in less than a year. The Utah football program lost two teammates, Ty Jordan and Aaron Lowe, in a span of nine months.
The murder of Lowe came after Utah’s win against Washington State on Sep. 25. After grieving the loss of Jordan in December 2020, the Utah football program had to bury a teammate, a friend, a brother — again.
When you consider how incredibly difficult the 2021 season was for the players and the coaching staff, it only made Utah’s achievements that season more remarkable.
In the dominating win against the Ducks, quarterback Cam Rising threw for 178 yards (118 of that to tight end Brant Kuithe) and rushed for a touchdown and Tavion Thomas rushed for 94 yards and three scores.
Utah’s defense held Oregon’s vaunted rushing attack to just 63 yards and made life miserable for quarterback Anthony Brown, who completed just 49% of his passes.
The highlight of the game was Britain Covey’s 78-yard punt return touchdown that put Utah up 28-0 at the end of the first half.
Utah punched its ticket to its third Pac-12 championship game in four years, and it did it in one of the most memorable games in program history.
2021: No. 17 Utah 38, No. 10 Oregon 10
After two fruitless trips to the Pac-12 championship in 2018 and 2019, Utah finally broke through in 2021, defeating Oregon 38-10.
Utah took a 23-0 lead, highlighted by Devin Lloyd’s pick-six, and never took its foot off the gas en route to a blowout win.
Rising threw for a touchdown, Thomas scored twice and TJ Pledger added a touchdown, while the defense forced two interceptions.
Utah finally reached the Pac-12 mountaintop after years of close calls.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock, Whittingham pointed to the sky in a moment of gratitude — a pose that may be fitting for his eventual statue at Utah.
2022: No. 20 Utah 43, No. 7 USC 42
In an instant-classic offensive shootout, Utah defeated USC 43-42.
In the late fourth quarter, Rising drove the Utes to the red zone and running back Micah Bernard got the Utes to the 1-yard line. After Bernard was stuffed on third down, Utah put the ball in Rising’s hands with the game on the line.
Utah’s quarterback knifed through the Trojan defense for the score with 48 seconds left, and Whittingham went for the win, deciding to go for two down one point.
Rising dropped back to pass, evaded a USC defender, and then tucked the ball and ran, hitting paydirt to knock off the seventh-ranked Trojans on the night the school retired Lowe and Jordan’s No. 22.
2022: No. 11 Utah 47, No. 4 USC 24
Nearly two months later, the Utes punched their ticket to their second straight Pac-12 championship game, where they would face a USC team on the precipice of a College Football Playoff appearance.
Despite beating the Trojans earlier in the year, the Utes were underdogs, and the first half of the game was a heavyweight fight.
Utah broke a 17-17 tie in the third quarter and outscored USC 30-7 in the second half to spoil the Trojans’ playoff hopes.
Rising threw for 310 yards and three touchdowns, Ja’Quinden Jackson rushed for 105 yards and two scores, and the Utes’ defense bothered an injured Williams all second half.
For the second year in a row, the Utes were Pac-12 champions, and they did it with another dominant performance.
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