"kyle whittingham retirement announcement"

*Kyle Whittingham Retires: Utah Football Loses a Legend After 21 Great Seasons**

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After 21 seasons, Kyle Whittingham is leaving his job as Utah's head coach.

Salt Lake City, UT – December 12, 2025 – Kyle Whittingham, who's been the head football coach at the University of Utah for ages and won more games than any other coach in the school's history, said on Friday he's quitting after the Las Vegas Bowl on December 31, 2025. (SI)

Whittingham said it was just the right time to leave. He's super thankful for his players, the people he worked with, and everyone in the Utah community. He said his time at Utah was awesome and thanked everyone who helped make the program so good. (KSAT)

He's leaving Utah with a record of 177 wins and 88 losses, lots of conference championships, and some really great seasons, like when they didn't lose a single game. (SI)

What Whittingham Said

Whittingham said he really appreciated the relationships he made during his 20 years with the Utes. He called the whole thing a blessing and thanked all the coaches, players, and fans who supported him. (KSAT)

Even though a lot of news places are calling it a retirement, Whittingham didn't actually say retirement in his statement. He just said he was leaving his job as head coach. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

Retiring or Moving On?

After he made the announcement, everyone started wondering if Whittingham was really done with coaching or if he was just leaving Utah. Some reports said he wasn't ruling out other coaching jobs. People were saying he still really loved coaching, even if he was leaving Utah. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

His son, Alex Whittingham (who coaches in the NFL), said his dad wasn't ready to completely stop coaching and might take another coaching job at some point. (The Salt Lake Tribune)

Quick Change: Going to Michigan

Just a couple of weeks after leaving Utah, Whittingham agreed to coach at the University of Michigan for five years. So, instead of retiring, he's jumping right back into coaching. The deal is worth around $8.2 million a year, which is way more than he was making at Utah. (Yahoo Sports)

The athletic folks at Michigan said Whittingham is a great leader with awesome character and a history of winning. They said he's exactly what they want for their program. Whittingham also said he's excited to go to Michigan and work with the players and coaches there. (Yahoo Sports)

His Time at Utah

*   Been the head coach at Utah for 21 seasons. (SI)

*   Won 177 games, making him the coach with the most wins in Utah's history. (SI)

*   Led the Utes to a bunch of conference championships and big bowl game wins. (KSAT)

Utah's athletic director talked about how much Whittingham helped the program, saying he was a great leader who really helped Utah's football team get better over the past 20 years. (KSAT)

What's Next?

Whittingham won't be coaching Utah in the Las Vegas Bowl. Instead, Morgan Scalley, who's the defensive coordinator for Utah, will be the head coach for that game. (Reuters)

Whittingham is expected to start coaching Michigan at their Citrus Bowl game on December 31. (Yahoo Sports)