SALT LAKE CITY — As Kyle Whittingham sat in a Kansas City area restaurant with family in December, following what he previously described as one of the most difficult seasons in his coaching career, an alert came over his son’s phone.
The alert said the long-time head coach at Utah was making his return for his 21st season.
It caught his son, Alex, by surprise, a bit. He knew how challenging the season was for his father, and he, too, had been curious if it was his last after months of speculation. His son, who is now the assistant defensive line coach for the Kansas City Chiefs, found out like everyone else.
“I get a notification, and it’s like, ‘Oh, Kyle Whittingham to return for whatever season.’ I look at him like, “Were you going to tell us?” the younger Whittingham recalled. “OK, good to know. He was like, ‘Oh, did they put that out?’ I’m like, OK, I’ve been asking you for freaking months.”
Whittingham, ultimately, couldn’t walk away after that season — a 5-7 campaign defined by injuries and an inept offense.
Ahead of the 2025 season, Whittingham said he “couldn’t stomach going out with that season, as frustrating as it was and is — as discouraging as it was.” He added that it “didn’t sit well with anybody, but most of all me.”
“As the head coach, you’ve gotta put on a brave face and lead the men and be the standard,” Alex Whittingham said. “But I could tell just talking to him, because I’ve known him for so long, that it was — like that losing streak they had was tough on him. He’s as competitive as they come, so he’s trying every which way to shake the guys out of it and to get some wins.”
The most winningest head coach in Utah football history couldn’t let that be his last season, especially for someone who has worked so long to put the program in the best possible situation it could be in under his stewardship. The end of the 2024 season was far from its best, especially in a way to leave the program.
“I think he wanted to leave the program a little better — on a better note, and not for himself, but for the fans, because I know he loves the fans,” Alex Whittingham said. “I know he loves the community and the players and everybody that he works with.
“I think he felt through whatever number of factors that were — the injuries, everything that went on — that all just kind of snowballed and became something that I don’t think he wanted to be the last picture that people have of the University of Utah program led by him. Like, it wasn’t for himself, but I think for the people that care about Utah football. I think he wanted to do right by them, and so that’s what he’s trying to do this year.”
At 7-2 on the season and ranked No. 13 in the initial College Football Playoff rankings — still with a shot to potentially be included in the playoff — Utah is well on its way to being in a better spot should he walk away from the game.
The question remains if that’s enough for Whittingham to hang it up after 21 seasons, but only Whittingham will be the judge of that.
But as one career nears an end, another member of the Whittingham family is just getting started in the family coaching legacy, and it’s a way for Kyle Whittingham to remain close to the game whenever his coaching tenure does come to an end.
A continued legacy
Football is in the Whittingham blood, and it’s all Kyle Whittingham has known for his near 66 years of life. His father, Fred, started his collegiate career at BYU before transferring to Cal Poly, where he eventually parlayed that to an NFL career from 1963-71 with six different teams.
But after his final stint with the Philadelphia Eagles in 1971, his last season, Fred Whittingham returned a couple years later to BYU as a linebacker coach under LaVell Edwards. It was the beginning of what has now been 52 consecutive years with a member of the Whittingham family coaching at either the NFL or college level.
Kyle Whittingham got a front view of it all until eventually playing at BYU himself and then coaching alongside his father — with Fred Whittingham hiring his son to the staff at Utah in 1994 to coach the defensive line while as the defensive coordinator.
After coaching for two years at Idaho State University, Kyle Whittingham, left, came to the University of Utah to coach under his father, Fred Whittingham, right. Fred Whittingham coached in the NFL in the ’80s and ’90s as well. (Photo: Courtesy Whittingham family)
For the last 31 years, it’s where Kyle Whittingham has made home as one of the most influential coaches in Utah history. But the Utah coach credits his father for everything he is today.
“I certainly am grateful to my father; I wouldn’t be where I am today without him and his influence and his tutelage, I guess you can say,” Whittingham told KSL.com. “I was very fortunate and blessed to be coached and coach with one of the best football minds I’ve ever been around.”
Any conversation with Kyle Whittingham about his coaching influences and it will almost always return back to his father, who had the single biggest impact in his coaching career.
Many coaches have come and gone over the years, but Fred Whittingham’s tutelage remains deep within his son, even after his passing in 2003, a year before his son was named head coach at Utah.
And like the tutelage Fred Whittingham gave to Kyle Whittingham, the current Utah head coach is now providing that to his own son.
After spending a few seasons as a player at Utah under his father, Alex Whittingham made the decision to get into coaching, carrying on a legacy for the Whittingham family.
“I always kind of saw myself doing something that he was doing, becoming a coach and all that,” Alex Whittingham said. “I just couldn’t see myself selling insurance or going into real estate. I just wanted to stay around football, the competitive world in some way.”
Alex Whittingham said he “had no idea what I was getting myself into,” but that his “dad tried to warn me” and help him understand what it all meant to get into coaching.
“First of all, I told him all the details, as far as the hours — and he knew a lot of it anyway from growing up with it — but just making sure that he knew that it wasn’t just him, it was his spouse that needed to be on board as well, and that it would be a lot of sacrificing and a lot of long hours,” Kyle Whittingham said. “Probably things he already knew, but just reiterating and just reminding him of the grind that it can be.”
Fred Whittingham and sons: Cary (54), Fred (coach) and Kyle (59) (Photo: Mark Philbrick, BYU)
It was a similar conversation Kyle’s father had with him when he thought about getting into coaching, too.
“He had a very similar conversation, but he didn’t discourage me in any way, shape or form — nor did I discourage Alex,” Whittingham said. “I just had to make sure you completely understand what you’re getting into. And also, it can impact families. Most coaches have to move around quite a bit. And that’s, obviously, not just on you, but on your wife and your children, and that’s got to be a consideration, as well.”
But it’s what Alex Whittingham wanted.
He had a few options to pursue, but was hired on as a defensive assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs under head coach Andy Reid without any prior coaching experience after a previous coach retired. It was a foot in the door, and one that has remained open for the past seven seasons.
And now, Alex Whittingham is a seasoned coach with nearly eight years of knowledge at the NFL level.
“It’s been fun to see him grow as a coach,” Jamie Whittingham said about her son. “I mean, it was his first job going back there with Andy Reid, so I think it’s been really interesting, because I hear him and Kyle talk every night on the phone, and they talk football and stuff.”
During those nightly conversations that have taken place over the years, Jamie Whittingham said “I can see his growth,” which is obvious, she added, by just listening to the two talk.
“I’m proud of him, very proud of him,” she said.
“I love it. I mean, I love seeing his development,” added Kyle Whittingham. “And where he is now compared to where he was when he started is incredible how far he’s come and how much football knowledge he has. And couldn’t be in a better situation than with coach Reid and coach (Steve) Spagnuolo as the coordinator. I mean, it’s been a great environment for him to learn football.”
A new father-son relationship
Alex Whittingham has gotten to see the many faces of Kyle Whittingham over the years: father, coach and now mentor and peer. Though both have differences within the two coaching worlds they live in, the connection between the two has only been strengthened as the two connect over football in a new way.
As much as possible, the two coaches share near nightly conversations with each other about football — amid conversations about grandchildren and family, which is another deep passion Kyle Whittingham shares.
Coach Kyle Whittingham talks with his son Alex as University of Utah football team members gather during University of Utah graduation in Salt Lake City on Friday, May 5, 2017. (Photo: Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News)
The two talk about each others’ opponents for the week and what each is seeing from an outside lens.
“And then after the games, we talk about the games, because he gets to see most all of our games, I can see most all his games. … It’s just talking football,” Kyle Whittingham said. “It’s just two coaches — at that point, it’s not really father-son — it’s two coaches just conversing about strategies and personnel and that type of thing.”
It’s a conversation that goes “both ways,” Kyle said, but one in which Alex has “got so much more knowledge and expertise, and we ask each other.”
“It’s more of a — instead of me trying to teach him, it’s us just conversing about different ideas and concepts and things they’re doing, things we’re doing, and just helping each other out in that respect.”
Alex Whittingham said it’s often a one-way street, though, with his father only asking questions of him. The two say, though, they’ve been equally fulfilling conversations in a world of coaching that is often isolating.
“He’s always asking me about my stuff,” Alex Whittingham said. “I gotta dig for questions about Utah, like did you guys practice today? Like are you going to tell me what you guys did? … Having him as a, I guess, like a sounding board for a lot of things, like questions and advice and bouncing some ideas off him has been — I don’t think I’d be able to function as a coach if I didn’t have him, all the help that he’s given me over the years.”
More importantly, though, it’s an opportunity, Alex Whittingham said, to have “more to talk about” with his father.
“We get to talk about football and we got to talk about the kids and his grandkids, my daughters and everything,” he said. “It gives you more to talk about and kind of maintains that close connection, I guess, and just enriches it.”
A lasting legacy
As Alex Whittingham continues his coaching journey — one that has been vastly beneficial with multiple Super Bowl rings — it’s about trying to maintain a family legacy that is beyond him. There’s an obvious nod to his grandfather, but it’s living up to the standard his father set for several decades at Utah.
“His legacy is just admirable,” Alex Whittingham said. “I’ve been around a lot of coaches, and I still think he’s the best teacher that I’ve ever played for or worked with, so to speak. And the impact that he’s had on his players that have come through there — there’s been so many; he’s been there so dang long, there’s 1000s of guys now that he’s had an impact on.
“And, I think, just the impact that he’s had on those guys’ lives, that positive impact, and the things that I hear people say about him in the industry, I feel like it kind of just speaks for itself.”
The Whittingham family at the 2009 Sugar Bowl. Left to right – Alex, Tyler,Jamie, Kyle, Melissa and Kylie. (Photo: Courtesy Whittingham family)
But for Kyle Whittingham, there’s been no time to reflect on legacy or what he’s done over his long tenure. That day may come, he admits, but he’s still fully in the present moment as he works to get his team to a Big 12 championship and a possible spot in the 12-team playoff.
Or put another way, getting the program back to a place where he can leave it on a high note.
“I don’t really look back much, or even forward, for that matter,” he said. “I’m just so consumed with what’s going on. That’s really how you have to be as a coach. I mean, you can’t have your focus anywhere but on the next opponent. Otherwise, you’re just not — there’s no time for that. I mean, the preparation and process is so extensive and so demanding that it requires every bit of your attention and concentration.”
Even the thought of retirement makes him a little uneasy. After being around football his entire life, it’s difficult to imagine what life outside of that will be, especially as the one calling the shots.
“I don’t have a great answer right now, and it kind of makes me a little nervous to think about,” Whittingham said. “Because when you’re in the competitive arena as long as I’ve been, and all of a sudden that is just cut off, I don’t know, I really don’t know how I’m gonna react, and that’s something that I spent a lot of time thinking about in the offseason.”
But with his son carrying on the coaching legacy, there will always be a connection to the sport he’s known forever — even if it takes some adjusting to being a fan and not being the one calling the shots on the sidelines.
“It’s weird to go to a game and not be directly involved with it, just being a passive bystander,” he said. “And, of course, I’m very emotionally into it, because I want Alex and Andy to do great. But it’s just a whole different experience as a fan, so to speak, than being right in the fray. It’s kind of relaxing in a way. I mean, it can be really enjoyable just to sit back and watch the game unfold and not have all the stress.”
And soon — how soon remains uncertain — that day will come. For now, the father-son duo will continue on separate coaching paths, but one that continues to entrench the Whittingham family in the game of football.
The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.