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SALT LAKE CITY â It didn't take long for Utah's football program to get an increase in attention after its appearance in its first Rose Bowl in program history.
The program has been busy fielding official recruiting visits in June (more than the program ever has in previous years) and will likely be a top-10 team (many early projections have the team in the top five) entering the 2022 season when the Utes kickoff its schedule with a road trip to The Swamp against the Southeastern Conference's Florida.
The Rose Bowl appearance also gave longtime head coach Kyle Whittingham a significant raise to an already signed extension in 2020 to lock up the coach through the 2027 season. The amended contract, which was signed in March and made public Wednesday, makes Whittingham one of the highest-paid coaches in the Pac-12, though contracts of Stanford and USC are not made public.
Whittingham's base salary increases to $4.5 million per season, up from his previous base salary of $1.38 million, with a yearly increase for the life of his contract. In 2023, Whittingham will receive a $200,000 raise that will be increased $100,000 each year until it tops out at $600,000 in 2027, making his base salary $5.1 million the last year of his contract.
Whittingham's total salary for the 2022 season will be $6 million, with the additional $1.5 million coming from compensation from the university's partnership with Under Armour and Learfield. By 2027, Whittingham's total salary will be $8 million.
"Kyle Whittingham has elevated our football program to the highest levels of success, while also establishing a culture of excellence that prioritizes the academic achievement and overall development of our student-athletes," Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said in a statement. "It is important that we continue to invest in our football program, and equip coach Whittingham and his coaching staff with sufficient resources to be able to sustain success that ultimately benefits all of our athletics programs and our entire department.
"This is a commitment that recognizes what coach Whittingham and his program have achieved, and reinforces our intention to build upon that success in the years to come."
The amended contract also give Whittingham a retention bonus of $25,000 each year, in addition to other "incentive based compensation" such as if the football program makes an appearance in a New Year's Six bowl game or playoff game ($400,000) or if the team plays in the Pac-12 championship game ($100,000), among others.
Whittingham maintains a retirement clause in the amended contract that makes him a "special assistant" should he retire at any point during the life of the contract. Rumors of his retirement increased at the end of the 2021 season, but Whittingham denied them and said he was having some of the most fun he's had as a coach.
But during a charity golf event earlier this month, Whittingham told media he was getting "close" to being done coaching when speaking about former Utah Jazz coach Quin Snyder, who recently resigned as head coach.
"There comes a time where you need a new voice and a new leader," he said. "Obviously, he felt like that was the time for him right now. And I'm getting kind of close to that in my career."
Once Whittingham retires, he will retain the special assistant role for five years and will be paid $995,000 each year.
As part of the amended contract, the university also included a $100,000 one-time payment to Whittingham if certain facility upgrades were not made by the department's estimated deadlines.
