UTAH UTES

College Football Analysts Rank Kyle Whittingham Among Top Coaches In Country

Jul 7, 2021, 3:00 PM | Updated: 3:07 pm

Kyle Whittingham - Utah Utes...

Utah Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham pumps his fist after beating the Washington Huskies in Seattle on Saturday, Nov. 2, 2019. Utah won 33-28. Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Pro Football Focus (PFF) gave high praise for Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham in their top 20 ranking for best coaches in the country.

Kyle Whittingham was listed as the No. 8 coach in the country by PFF. He is the only Pac-12 coach in the rankings.

Here is what PFF said about Kyle Whittingham in their ranking:

“We might forget that Urban Meyer served as Utah’s head coach for only two seasons, and while he may have started the Utes down this track, Whittingham has sustained a level of success the school has never even come close to enjoying before.

“Whittingham has won 67% of his games in his 17 years as head coach for a program that was invisible for most of its history.

“After moving from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 and starting 18-19 over the first three years, the Utes now have won at least nine games in five of the last six seasons, not including the shortened 2020 season. It’s easy to just think about Utah as a team that always competes for a conference title year in year out because of the recent past, but that is not how this program is viewed historically.  Since 2016, the Utes have been the best defense in the conference, posting a cumulative -0.149 EPA allowed per play in those five seasons.”

Here is the full rankings from PFF of the top 20 coaches in college football.

  1. Nick Saban, Alabama
  2. Dabo Swinney, Clemson
  3. Kirby Smart, Georgia
  4. Lincoln Riley, Oklahoma
  5. Dan Mullen, Florida
  6. Pat Fitzgerald, Northwestern
  7. Matt Campbell, Iowa State
  8. Kyle Whittingham, Utah
  9. Lance Leipold, Kansas
  10. Mack Brown, North Carolina
  11. Jamey Chadwell, Coastal Carolina
  12. Brian Kelly, Notre Dame
  13. Jimbo Fisher, Texas A&M
  14. Mark Stoops, Kentucky
  15. Luke Fickell, Cincinnati
  16. Tom Allen, Indiana
  17. Jeff Monken, Army
  18. James Franklin, Penn State
  19. Billy Napier, Louisiana
  20. P.J. Fleck, Minnesota

Trevor Allen is a Utah Utes Insider for KSLSports.com and host of the Crimson Corner podcast. Follow him on Twitter: @TrevorASportsYou can download and listen to the podcast, here.

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College Football Analysts Rank Kyle Whittingham Among Top Coaches In Country