Kyle Whittingham stepping down from his post at Utah was quite a shock to the sports world a few weeks ago. He spent 21 years with the Utes. In his press conference, where he announced his departure from the team, he made it clear that he wasn’t retiring, but rather didn’t want to stay with the Utes for too long. Recently, Michigan has attempted to lure Whittingham to Ann Arbour.
The latest report from Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports has stated that negotiations are expected to be completed on Friday. With Whittingham likely taking over one of the most coveted coaching positions in sports, let’s take a look back at his postseason success at Utah.
Postseason by Year
Whittingham was 11-6 in bowl games for Utah during his time with the program. Out of the 21 seasons he coached, he had a winning record in seventeen of them. Which seems quite impressive for a school with a smaller football footprint in the West.
His first stretch of Bowl Games came at the start of his career with Utah. From 2004-2010, the Utes participated in seven bowl games. The first was in 2004 was 2004, when Whittingham took over at the end of the year and led Utah to a win against Pittsburgh in the Fiesta Bowl. The 2008 campaign was seemingly his best as Utah went a perfect 13-0 that year. While they were recognized for a national championship that year, they were ranked number 2 behind Florida in the major polls.
2004-2010 Postseason
2004: (W) Fiesta Bowl vs Pittsburgh
2005: (W) Emerald Bowl vs Georgia Tech
2006: (W) Armed Forces Bowl vs Tulsa
2007: (W) Poinsettia Bowl vs Navy
2008: (W) Sugar Bowl vs Alabama
2009: (W) Poinsettia Bowl vs Cal
20010: (L) Las Vegas Bowl vs Boise State
2014-2025 Postseason
Whittingham wouldn’t see another Bowl Game after that until 2014. From there onwards, the Utes would make the postseason in almost every year that he was at the helm. COVID would play a part in the 2020 season, where the season didn’t really get to play out. Other than that, Whittingham was almost always in the postseason. While there was less success for Whittingham during this period of his career at Utah, it is worth noting that every season from 2014-2025 was a winning season except for 2024. The most memorable season from this stretch of his career would likely be the 2021 campaign, which led the Utes to a Pac-12 Championship.
2014: (W) Las Vegas Bowl vs Colorado State
2015: (W) Las Vegas Bowl vs BYU
2016: (W) Foster Farms Bowl vs Indiana
2017: (W) Heart of Dallas Bowl vs West Virginia
2018: (L) Holiday Bowl vs Northwestern
2019: (L) Alamo Bowl vs Texas
2020: No Bowl
2021: (L) Rose Bowl vs Ohio State
2022: (L) Rose Bowl vs Penn State
2023: (L) Las Vegas Bowl vs Northwestern
2024: No Bowl
2025: (TBD) Las Vegas Bowl vs Nebraska
Bottom Line
Kyle Whittingham’s success at Utah seems to prove that he could be the right man for the job in Ann Arbor. Michigan officials certainly think so. It should also be interesting to see what happens to this Utah program that has been built up extremely well. Although all eyes will likely be on Whittingham. His upcoming challenge at Michigan will be the next part of his career and one his critics will be eyeing carefully.
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