Whittingham back for 21st season as Utah coach

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham announced Sunday that he will return as the program’s head coach in 2025 for his 21st season.

“I’m back,” Whittingham said in a statement posted on Utah football’s X account, which mimicked Michael Jordan’s return announcement to the NBA in 1995.

𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚒𝚖𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚛𝚎𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎📰

We are looking forward to 2025‼️#GoUtes | @UtahCoachWhitt pic.twitter.com/jq9BnjypgO

— Utah Football (@Utah_Football) December 8, 2024

Whittingham, 65, said two weeks ago that he was unsure whether he would opt to return as the Utes’ head coach for another year.

“My decision will be made on what’s best for the program, not what’s best for me,” Whittingham said at the time. “So, it’ll be completely determined on how I feel this program is best served going forward.”

In July, the program announced that defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley would be Whittingham’s successor following his retirement.

“[I’ll] sit down and evaluate everything,” Whittingham said. “I can tell you right now that Coach Scalley will be involved in decisions going forward because it’s only right that he does that because he’s the coach in waiting and when that time comes we need to make sure that he’s had input on big decisions. So it’ll be a team effort in that respect going forward as far as hiring and recruiting and that type of thing.”

The Utes were preseason favorites to win the Big 12 in their first year as members, but after they lost Cam Rising for the year due to injury for the second season in a row and their 4-0 start was followed by a seven-game losing streak. The 5-7 finish made 2024 Whittingham’s first losing campaign since 2013.

Whittingham was hired by Utah in 2004, and he has since posted a 167-86 record as head coach. He is tied for the second-longest tenured coach in FBS, behind only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz.