Utah's Hill works to get past jeers


Save Story
Leer en español

Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes

This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.

Impressive accomplishments spread over the course of nearly 30 years as one of the country’s most distinguished athletic directors weren’t good enough to prevent some of Chris Hill's own from turning on him.

As Hill presented an award to a fan at halftime of a Utah basketball game, a chorus of boos aimed at the athletic director rang out at the Huntsman Center. Spearheading an athletic department that has two undefeated football seasons and dozens of conference championships in other sports didn’t account for much anymore.

All that mattered to some at the moment was Hill’s perceived feud with Kyle Whittingham, the popular football coach who led the Utes to a No. 2 final national ranking in 2008 and the recently concluded thrilling season in the Pac 12.

The negative reaction caused Hill’s 36-year-old daughter to become “hysterical,” in his description, and rush up the stairs into the concourse. She wasn’t the only family member upset.

“That was extremely painful,” Hill said. “I’m human, just like everybody else. That was hard.”

Fans got news of problems between Hill and Whittingham one day after Christmas when word leaked of an unpleasant meeting between the two. Radio and newspaper reports stated the acrimony reached the point that Whittingham thought his 10-year head coaching career at Utah was done.


That was extremely painful. I'm human, just like everybody else. That was hard.

–Chris HIll


But a second meeting two days later changed the tenor. One day after the second meeting Hill issued a press release saying that Whittingham was still the coach.

In the release Hill also gave out his contract offer to defensive coordinator Kalani Sitake, who already had left to take a similar position at Oregon State under former Utah assistant coach Gary Andersen. Sitake’s family members have since stated Utah’s contract offer came too late.

In the following weeks Hill and Whittingham agreed on a four-year contract with annual raises of $100,000. With three years remaining on the deal, the new contract amounted to a one-year extension, short of the three years Whittingham preferred.

Hill, who doesn’t think the new contract is much different from the prior one, has since said the reported furor between the two was exaggerated. In the end, it remains business as usual.

“Anybody can say anything nowadays,” he said. “People let their minds run away with them when they’re not right there and hear everything that’s going on.”

And yet, the coach and athletic director have a strained relationship at least to some degree. Hill admitted as much, pointing out that he is management and Whittingham is labor.


All of that stuff is in-house, PK. We're just moving forward. We both have our challenges in our respective jobs, and both doing the best we can.

–Kyle Whittingham


Before Whittingham signed the extension, in an interview on 97.5-FM/1280-AM, I asked him about his relationship with Hill.

His response: “All of that stuff is in-house, PK. We’re just moving forward. We both have our challenges in our respective jobs, and both doing the best we can.”

Known for going to great lengths to keep personnel matters private, Hill didn’t like his discussions with Whittingham getting out. But Whittingham’s reactions to his first meeting with Hill did get out and were accurate at the time they were reported.

“It was very disappointing because that’s not the way we operate or people should operate,” he said. “It happened, and we got through it. With personnel, for the people involved I just think it’s unfortunate to bandy about things that really aren’t worth bandying around in a lot of ways.”

From a business standpoint, Hill does what he has to do, even if it isn’t popular with the public and media. It’s part of the job, he said, citing as an example replacing BYU on the schedule with Michigan.

As it turns out, the Utes will play host to Michigan in next season’s season opener in Jim Harbaugh’s first game as the coach at his alma mater. Hill said it will be the most-watched Utah game ever. Hill took heat for dumping BYU but said he did what’s best for Utah.

“It’s not (best) for the media; it’s not for BYU,” Hill said. “For our fans, I think it’s been a great strategic thing in our recruiting.”

Related stories

Most recent Sports stories

Related topics

Sports

ARE YOU GAME?

From first downs to buzzer beaters, get KSL.com’s top sports stories delivered to your inbox weekly.
By subscribing, you acknowledge and agree to KSL.com's Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

KSL Weather Forecast