List of Utah Utes head football coaches

Summary

The Utah Utes football program is a college football team that represents the University of Utah. The team has had 23 head coaches since organized football began in 1892. Harvey Holmes was the first paid head coach, and the Utes have had 17 paid, professional head coaches. The Utes have played in more than 1,000 games during its 116 seasons. In those seasons, 5 coaches have led the Utes to postseason bowl games: Ike Armstrong, Ray Nagel, Ron McBride, Urban Meyer, and Kyle Whittingham. 7 coaches have won conference championships with the Utes: Thomas Fitzpatrick, Armstrong, Jack "Cactus Jack" Curtice, Nagel, McBride, Meyer, and Whittingham. Armstrong is the all-time leader in number of games coached with 211, years coached with 25, and total wins with 141. Meyer is the all-time leader in winning percentage with a percentage of .917 in his two seasons at Utah. Tom Lovat is, in terms of winning percentage, the worst coach the Utes have had with a percentage of .152 during his three seasons as head coach (with the exception of Walter Shoup who only coached one game in 1895.)

Of the 23 Utes head coaches, Ike Armstrong has been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Kyle Whittingham is the current head coach and has received National Coach of the Year honors from multiple organizations. He was hired in December 2004.

Key edit

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches edit

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
# Name Term GC W L T WP% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT WP% CCs National awards
1 Robert Harkness 1894 3 1 2 0 .333
2 Walter Shoup 1895 1 0 1 0 .000
3 C. B. Ferris 1896 5 3 2 0 .600
4 Byron Cummings 1897 6 1 5 0 .166
5 Benjamin Wilson 1898 3 2 1 0 .667
6 Charles Gatehouse 1899 3 2 1 0 .667
7 Harvey Holmes 19001903 23 13 9 1 .587
8 Joe Maddock 19041909 38 28 9 1 .750
9 Fred Bennion 19101913 27 16 8 3 .648 10 6 1 .618
10 Nelson Norgren 19141917 24 13 11 0 .542 10 10 0 .500
11 Thomas Fitzpatrick 19191924 43 23 17 3 .570 17 10 3 .617 1
12 Ike Armstrong[4] 19251949 211 141 55 15 .704 108 24 8 .800 1 1

[A 6]

0 .500 13
13 Jack Curtice 19501957 81 45 32 4 .580 32 9 2 .767 4
14 Ray Nagel 19581965 82 42 39 1 .518 21 17 1 .551 1 0 0 1.000 1
15 Mike Giddings 19661967 21 9 12 0 .429 5 5 0 .500
16 Bill Meek 19681973 64 33 31 0 .516 23 14 0 .622
17 Tom Lovat 19741976 33 5 28 0 .152 5 12 0 .294
18 Wayne Howard 19771981 56 30 24 2 .554 17 13 2 .563
19 Chuck Stobart 19821984 34 16 17 1 .485 10 11 1 .477
20 Jim Fassel 19851989 58 25 33 0 .431 14 26 0 .350
21 Ron McBride 19902002 151 88 63 0 .583 58 42 0 .580 3 3 0 .500 2
22 Urban Meyer 20032004 24 22 2 0 .917 13 1 0 .929 2 0 0 1.000 2 The Sporting News National Coach of the Year (2003)[7]

Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year (2004)[8]

23 Kyle Whittingham 2005–present 241 162 79 0 .672 100 60 0 .625 11

[A 7]

6 0 .647 3 Paul "Bear" Bryant Award (2008)[10]

AFCA National Coach of the Year Award (2008)[11]

Notes edit

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[1]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[2]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[3]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  6. ^ The Pineapple Bowl, which was Armstrong's only loss in a bowl game, was not an NCAA certified bowl game and counts a regular season loss in official NCAA records.[5][6]
  7. ^ Kyle Whittingham and Urban Meyer were listed as "Co-head Coaches" for the 2005 Fiesta Bowl; both coaches are credited with the win in official NCAA records.[9]

References edit

General
  • "Utah Coaching Records". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
Specific
  1. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived from the original on August 22, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  2. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on November 24, 2009. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  3. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on October 22, 2009. Retrieved October 22, 2009.
  4. ^ "Ike Armstrong". College Football Hall of Fame. Football Foundation. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  5. ^ Joe Drape (2001-12-20). "ON COLLEGE FOOTBALL; Fish to FedEx: Bowl Name Game". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  6. ^ "Utah Bowl Games". College Football Trivia. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  7. ^ "Utah's Meyer named coach of the year". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  8. ^ "Eddie Robinson Coach of the Year Award". Football Writers Association of America. Retrieved 2010-09-06.
  9. ^ "All-Time Coaching Records: Urban Meyer & Kyle Whittingham Records by Year". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved 2010-12-23.
  10. ^ "Whittingham wins Bryant Award". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  11. ^ "Whittingham earns AFCA award". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2010-08-14.