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Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham led Utah to a 31-17 upset victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.
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Jan. 13, 2009
NASHVILLE, Tenn.-- Utah's Kyle Whittingham is the first football coach in Utah history to win The American Football Coaches Association and the Paul "Bear" Bryant National Coach of the Year awards. The AFCA award is the oldest national coach of the year award, dating back to 1935, and is the only one chosen exclusively by the coaches. The Bear Bryant award is selected by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association.
Whittingham, who led Utah to the best season in its 115-year football history in 2008, is the first Utah coach to win the AFCA's highest honor. Under his leadership, Utah went 13-0 and finished with a No. 2 Associated Press and No. 4 USA Today Coaches' ranking. The Utes upset Alabama 31-17 in the Allstate Sugar Bowl on Jan. 2 to become the only unbeaten FBS team in the nation. Four of the school-record 13 wins came against teams that finished in the top 25, including victories over top 10 members Alabama and TCU.
The bowl win over Alabama--a team that was ranked No. 1 for five consecutive weeks--extended Utah's postseason win streak to eight, which is the longest current bowl win streak in the nation. Whittingham has had a hand in all of them, beating Georgia Tech (2005), Tulsa (2006), Navy (2007) and Alabama (2008) as the head coach; Fresno State (1999), USC (2001) and Southern Miss (2003) as the defensive coordinator; and Pittsburgh (2005 Fiesta Bowl) as the co-head coach/defensive coordinator.
His 37-14 career record includes a 7-3 advantage over schools from conferences that automatically qualify into the BCS. He heads a Utah program that is the only non-BCS school to qualify for two BCS bowls. Utah, the original BCS Buster in 2004 (Whittingham's final season as the defensive coordinator) is 2-0 in BCS bowls, winning by an average of 21 points.
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