Utah has extended head coach Kyle Whittingham's contract, the school announced Wednesday.
Whittingham will remain under contract through 2027, extending his current deal by four seasons. Financial terms were not disclosed; Whittingham is set to earn $4.634 million in 2020 (down $365,000 and change due to the pandemic) making him the highest-paid head coach in the Pac-12 among all publicly available contracts.
"Kyle Whittingham has established a culture in the Utah Football program that not only achieves success on the field, but also in the classroom, the community and in the development of student-athletes for their future beyond their time on campus," AD Mark Harlan said. "This has been especially evident throughout the pandemic, as he has steadily demonstrated leadership, patience and flexibility, putting the priority of health and well-being for student-athletes above all else."
The 2020 campaign will mark 27 seasons on Utah's staff for Whittingham and 16 at head coach. The extension will take Whittingham through 23 seasons as Utah's head coach and past his 68th birthday. He is the third-longest tenured head coach in FBS, trailing only Iowa's Kirk Ferentz and TCU's Gary Patterson.
Putting Whittingham's longevity in perspective: he replaced Urban Meyer when the former left for Florida; Meyer spent six seasons at Florida, took two seasons off, coached seven years at Ohio State and is now in his second season removed from that job.
At 131-64, Whittingham stands 14 wins shy of passing Ike Armstrong (141-55-15 from 1925-49) for the most wins in Ute football history. In addition to the 131 games, Whittingham has led Utah to one Mountain West championship, at least a share of three Pac-12 South titles and six AP Top 25 finishes. His 2019 team went 11-3 (8-1 Pac-12), appeared in the Pac-12 Championship and finished No. 16 in both polls.
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