Whittingham Remembers His Time Coaching At Idaho State

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The University of Utah will wrap up the non-conference portion of their schedule on Saturday when they host Idaho State, a school that has history with Utes head coach Kyle Whittingham.

When Whittingham began his legendary coaching career, he had his first significant role on a coaching staff when he was hired at Idaho State in 1988. It originally started at his alma mater BYU as a graduate assistant for two years from 1985-86 and then spent one season with Eastern Utah, now known as College of Eastern Utah as the defensive coordinator.

He spent five seasons with Idaho State in many capacities as the special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for three seasons, followed by two years as the defensive coordinator before leaving to be the defensive line coach at Utah in 1994.

Time At Idaho State

The experience in Pocatello, Idaho with the Bengals shaped Whittingham into what is now a fantastic coaching career.

“I know it was an excellent experience for me because I was able to be the special teams coordinator the first four years and then the defensive coordinator those last two,” Whittingham said. “I didn’t know a whole lot about special teams and our guy that was special teams coordinator resigned like a month or two ahead of the season, so I kind of just got thrown into that and it turned out to be a good experience. I coached the linebackers the entire time, so it was very good for my development and learning. I was a young coach that didn’t know what I was doing and was forced to learn pretty quickly.”

Whittingham’s very first game on staff with Idaho State was at Rice Stadium against the Utes. He remembers that game to this day.

“It was our opener that very first year in 1988 and I think we hung around for a quarter or two and then got run out of the stadium, which is what you expect,” Whittingham said. “I do remember that it was a pretty exciting experience for me to be in a stadium that size and play a team like Utah. The environment was pretty cool.”

It was a close game in the first half as ISU held a 3-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. The Utes scored 10 straight points in the second quarter before the Bengals returned an interception for a touchdown to tie the game at 10. Utah added a field goal before halftime, taking a 13-10 lead at the break.

The Utes scored 28 unanswered points in the third quarter before ISU scored once in the fourth quarter as Utah pulled out a 41-16 win.

The Crimson Corner podcast previewed the game against Idaho State.

The 2019 Bengals

This season will be a much different story between Utah and Idaho State with the Utes ranked No. 11 in the AP poll and the Bengals projected to finish seventh in the Big Sky preseason media poll.

Idaho State has played just one game this season, which was a 38-13 win over Western Colorado. They are led by junior quarterback Matt Struck from Riverside Community College. He threw for 402 yards, 5 total touchdowns and one interception in their win over Western Colorado. Running back Ty Flanagan rushed for 96 yards on 22 carries. He is a senior from Las Vegas, Nevada.

Tanner Conner leads the wide receivers with 10 receptions for 173 yards and two touchdowns.

On the defensive side of the ball, Luke Holloway had two sacks, while Oshea Trujillo had an interception.

This will be the eighth meeting between Utah and Idaho State, with the Utes leading the series 7-0.

The game will begin at 2:15 p.m. on Saturday and will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Network.