There’s a one-word reason that Kyle Whittingham won’t be on the sideline next season, doing what he’s done for more than three decades now, 21 of those years as head coach of Utah football.
Pride.
That’s it. That’s what it came down to. Pure and simple. The proud man has too much self-respect. He felt like there were those around the program who were nudging him out, nudging in head-coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley.
And because Whittingham sensed that, he thought it was time to exit, stage left.
It’s not as though he wanted to hang around for another five years. But one year? It’s speculation, but, yeah, that would have suited him.
Here’s part of what he was asked on Thursday about his decision to leave the Utes after their upcoming bowl game in Las Vegas. His answers were honest enough to be candid, cryptic enough to leave out some details and to leave in some mystery, clear enough to send a signal to those who paid attention. Read between the lines for yourselves. Then, we can reconvene and discuss.
“The program’s in a good place right now,” Whittingham said. “As I’ve said many times, after last season, it didn’t sit right with anybody, particularly me, and so I came back and got the ship righted, [got] things on track. The program is in a good spot. Got good coaches. Coach Scalley will come in and do a great job.We’ve got good players. So, now is the time.”
Is coaching out of your system?
“I don’t know if it’s ever out of your system,” he said. “It’s in your blood. I don’t know about that. That said, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. When you have coaching in your blood, it just doesn’t go away.”
Is this not a retirement?
“Who knows?” he said. “I’m stepping down, step away and reevaluate things. … I’m a free agent, I’m in the transfer portal. It’s a different feel, but I’m at peace. And I did not want to be that guy who overstayed his welcome with people saying, ‘Hey, when’s this guy gonna leave?’ That was not my intention — ever. I hope I didn’t do that. I’m sure with some people I did do that. To me, the timing was right.”
He repeated: “The time was right.”
If you might want to keep coaching, why not do it at Utah?
“Like I said, I don’t want to overstay my welcome,” he said. “Somebody once told me that every year that goes by as a coach, 10 percent of the fan base starts to hate you. So after 20 years, they all hate you. It was a good run. I’ll say it one more time: I didn’t want to be that hanger-on-er that people just got sick of.”
Come on, I said. Who’s gotten sick of you?
“You, for one,” he said. [Laughter]. “I don’t know. I just feel like I just didn’t want to be that guy.”
OK, so what can be extrapolated from those comments?
Kyle Whittingham didn’t say it, but it’s fairly obvious to me that someone, somehow made him feel as though he no longer was wanted or valued as Utah’s head coach. It’s a rather remarkable thing, given that his teams, in total, have won more games than any other football coach’s teams at the school. And that this season, Whittingham’s Utes finished the regular season with a 10-2 record, ranked highly in the national polls, just a couple of notches outside College Football Playoff qualification.
This is the guy somebody or somebodies were sick of? This is the guy those folks made feel as though he was on the edge of being a “hanger-on-er”?
That, in and of itself, is strong evidence of the progress Utah football has made under Whittingham. Is making the CFP now the minimum standard for the Utes? If it is, you can thank the 66-year-old coach for that.
Scalley didn’t shove his boss out the door. I don’t believe that, not according to people who would know. But he did have leverage because other coaches at other high-profile programs were interested in hiring him away. And there were individual boosters at Utah who championed Scalley’s cause, eager to have him take over sooner, not later.
Interesting it was that Whittingham showed class in praising Scalley on Thursday, paying him perhaps the ultimate compliment by comparing him, his abilities, his football acumen and philosophies to … himself.
No matter. Let’s say it like this: If Whittingham had strongly desired to return for one more season, if he’d been adamant about it, the powers that be at Utah should have allowed him to do so. He deserves that because he’s earned it. If Scalley had already waited as long as he has, the defensive coordinator could’ve waited one more year.
But, then, Whittingham didn’t want to be “that guy.” He didn’t come right out and say that he was irritated by the nudges. He didn’t have to. He didn’t want to spoil or sully in any way his “good run” at Utah.
And very good, it has been.
He preferred to walk away, head held high, his self-respect intact, his pride preserved. As for that coaching blood? That will never leave him.