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SALT LAKE CITY — We've been here before over the years, praising the man's uncanny ability to achieve success, but this time it demands an encore.
Not there was much doubt, maybe aside from a few unbelievers, but this season is proving once again his greatness. Describe it any way you prefer, Kyle Whittingham is one heck of a football coach.
Twenty years into it, the Utah coach is churning out as good a performance as we've seen around these parts. Scoot over a bit Jerry Sloan, LaVell Edwards and whomever else is on the list, Whittingham's name surely belongs with all the coaching legends.
He's also taking it a step further, worthy of inclusion with some of the best in his sport. Few have done more with less than what Utah has available this season.
As if a career 160-75 record, an undefeated season culminated in a win over Nick Saban's Alabama in the Sugar Bowl along with two appearances in the Rose Bowl weren't enough, compare Utah's recent domination over the Pac-12's most storied program.
The $10 million man and his multi-millionaire Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, aka Lincoln Riley and Caleb Williams, are 0-3 against the unassuming Whittingham and his pack of uncelebrated Utes.
In terms of the perpetual ballyhooed hype, not much has changed during Riley's tenure as USC's football coach. Forecasts going into both seasons had the Trojans making serious runs at the four-team national playoff, but bag that.
As it looks now, maybe pencil USC in for a trip to Las Vegas — only this time it would be for a bowl game rather than the Pac-12 championship in six weeks. Utah's soul-crushing defeat of the Trojans on Saturday, along with a tough remaining schedule, almost assuredly knocks them out of championship contention.
Meanwhile, up in the land of towering mountains, Utah continues to go about its workmanlike business. Leave the flash and glitter down in tinsel town.
Style over substance won again, for the fourth consecutive time between these two teams. The Utes haven't lost to the Pac-12's bell cow since the aborted 2020 season, which Whittingham refuses to count (justifiably so, we might add).
Given the circumstances, No. 4 might rank ahead of last season's two wins over USC. Granted, the stakes weren't as they were with the Rose Bowl on the line in the Pac-12 championship game in December, and few will ever forget the last-second thrilling win by 1 point in the regular season.
But the Utes had star quarterback Cam Rising and a future NFL first-round pick in Dalton Kincaid in both of those games. This year's version of the Utes featured a lightly recruited quarterback (Bryson Barnes), a safety taking turns at running back (Sione Vaki), and an assortment of tight ends subbing in for the injured Brant Kuithe and Thomas Yassmin.
Not that it matters, anyway. As Whittingham has repeated countless times, nobody cares about your injuries (justifiably so, we might add).
The steady-as-he goes Barnes might typify Utah's meat-and-potatoes approach to the game; he simply takes what's available, be it the open receiver or scrambles to put his team in position for a game-winning field goal on the final play as he did against the Trojans.
Think about it — as Whittingham so eloquently put it — the Utes keep rolling in the mud with a pig farmer and former walk-on at quarterback. USC is losing with a quarterback whose face is plastered all over our television sets in advertisements that net him gobs of cash.
Williams, the projected first pick in next spring's NFL draft, is accompanied by a personal security team. Barnes, whose ears may hear the dulcet tones of oink, oink the rest of his life, finally doesn't have to pay for his own schooling this year.
Crazy as that is, there's plenty of more ammunition. Consider that Utah's top two running backs were primarily a backup quarterback near this time last season and another who starts at safety yet pales in comparison to the attention Colorado's two-way star, Travis Hunter, receives.
This much is true: Whittingham is the conference's best coach since Pete Carroll roamed the sidelines for USC some 15 years ago. The likes of Jim Harbaugh, Chris Petersen and Chip Kelly (when he was at Oregon) deserve merit, but none have grinded it out as well and long as the former undersized BYU linebacker with an oversized heart and soul.
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Patrick Kinahan
