Utah football fans, welcome to WhittTok.
There may be about 100 days until college football restarts again all over the country. But Utah Utes football coach Kyle Whittingham is still hard at work delighting fans.
Except in this case, it looks like he’s doing so reluctantly.
Whittingham appeared in a post from the football program’s official TikTok account late Friday morning, seemingly to his surprise. The video has the team’s social media manager telling the camera, “Can you guys watch my boss for a sec?” only for the boss in question to be revealed as Whittingham.
And in his most Whittingham-iness, Utah’s longtime coach looks baffled to be in front of the camera.
“Watch me what — twiddle my thumbs?” he says.
He continues.
“OK, well, this is very awkward,” Whittingham says as he looks directly at the camera. “But here I am, with Hannah. I have no idea what I’m doing, or why I’m doing it. But it’s TikTok.”
Whittingham goes on to say that he believes he’s making his first appearance on the widely popular social media platform.
“Congratulations to me,” he says with a good hint of sarcasm. “My inaugural — is that the right word? inaugural? — appearance.”
He ends with a sentiment that’s become something of a trademark for him.
“OK, get this out of my face,” Whittingham says as a smile begins to form. “I’m done.”
Of course, Whittingham was most likely not taken completely by surprise with the video. Social media content is often staged for maximum effect.
Even so, Utes fans online welcoming Whittingham to TikTok with open arms in the comments to that video will likely delight in more appearances from him in the future.
And who knows? Maybe he’ll start his own account.
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