Kyle Whittingham stood up for his team, and the very organization he defied awarded him with its top award.
The American Football Coaches Association named Whittingham its 2008 National Coach of the Year on Tuesday. The AFCA award is the oldest national coach of the year award, dating back to 1935.
The AFCA is made up exclusively of college football coaches from every level. Of the 119 Football Bowl Series teams, 61 of those coaches, including Whittingham, vote every week in the Coaches Poll. Under AFCA mandates, all 61 voters in the coaches poll are required to vote the Bowl Championship Series winner as their No. 1 team in the final poll.
Despite Florida’s 24-14 win in the BCS Championship game, one voter8212;Whittingham8212;gave Utah his No. 1 vote after his team became the only undefeated FBS team with its 31-17 win against Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Whittingham would not be stripped of his vote in 2009, despite going against the AFCA agreement, according to AFCA executive director Grant Teaff.
“From a personal and professional point of view, Kyle Whittingham is one of the outstanding young coaches and a fine man,” Teaff told the Tribune. “As a person who spent 37 years coaching, I understand his passion for his team.”
Whittingham’s Utes started the season unranked in both the Associated Press and Coaches polls. After beginning the season with a win against Michigan, Utah went on to win 12 more games, including a victory in the 75th Sugar Bowl against a team that few people gave Utah a chance to beat. Utah rose all the way to the No. 2 spot in the AP poll, and the No. 4 spot in the Coaches poll. Whittingham was a finalist for several other national coaching awards, but was beat out by his Sugar Bowl counterpart, Nick Saban, in several of those awards, including the AP national coach of the year award and the Eddie Robinson coach of the year award.
Whittingham picked up his first national coach of the year award just four years after replacing Urban Meyer. The Utes went 21-3 under Meyer and became the first non-BCS team to play in a BCS game.
In 2008, Whittingham outdid his predecessor with a school-record 13-0 season. Utah owns the nation’s longest winning streak at 14 games and also an eight-game bowl winning streak, the top in the country.
Whittingham recently signed a five-year contract extension with Utah, worth $6 million and will have 11 starters returning in 2009. Whittingham was also named the Mountain West Conference’s coach of the year.
Tyler CobbAfter leading Utah to a 13-0 record ecord head coach Kyle Whittingham was named AFCA coach of the year.