Kyle Whittingham, who’s now the head coach at Michigan, wanted to return to Utah in 2026.
That was the message his representatives sent university officials in documents The Athletic obtained Friday via an open records request from Utah.
Whittingham, the face of Utah football for 21 years, had led the Utes from Mountain West Conference upstart to an eventual repeat Pac-12 champion and into the Big 12. But the 66-year-old surprisingly parted ways with Utah on Friday, Dec. 12, a week after he was contractually required to inform the university of his hope to return for a 22nd year as head coach.
On Dec. 2, Whittingham’s agent, Bruce Tollner, emailed Jeff Rudy, Utah’s director of football operations, informing him, “Coach Whittingham does not intend to retire at the conclusion of the 2025 football season.” One day later, Tollner again emailed Rudy with a new one-year proposal to return as Utah’s head coach in 2026 with a $9 million salary, a guaranteed NIL allotment of $20 million and a salary pool increase of $2 million for Utah’s assistant coaches. Whittingham had a base salary of $6.9 million in his final year as Utah’s head coach.
Instead, Utah offered an $8 million salary to return but with stipulations that longtime defensive coordinator and coach-in-waiting Morgan Scalley would have “full and final oversight in decision-making for the areas of football recruiting/player personnel staffing and the General Manager position” and “complete decision-making authority over all football recruiting, roster management, and staffing matters that impact the program beyond the 2026 football season.”
Scalley was eventually named head coach on Saturday, Dec. 13.
In a contract amendment obtained by The Athletic, the university and Whittingham agreed to a buyout of a “transition bonus” amendment of $13.5 million to be paid in three installments from 2026 through 2028. A bullet point underneath that clause, termed “transition bonus expectations,” stated that in consideration for this buyout, “Coach Whittingham agrees that he will work with the university and its athletics department to facilitate a smooth and successful transition of the football program to the incoming head coach of the football program and its coaching staff.”
On Dec. 26, 2025, Michigan signed Whittingham to a five-year, $41 million contract after the program was rocked by scandal with the firing and arrest of former head coach Sherrone Moore.
Utah athletic director Mark Harlan informed the former Utes coach in January that the first payment of the contract’s transition bonus portion was on its way. But Harlan voiced his displeasure with Whittingham, who, in the weeks after going to Michigan, hired several Utah assistant coaches, including offensive coordinator Jason Beck, which Harlan believed to be a violation of the language in the separation agreement of a “smooth and successful transition.”
“As you know, the university was disappointed by your actions last month,” Harlan wrote. “The university felt that your involvement with recruiting our football coaches and staff to Michigan was contrary to the terms of your employment agreement which requires you to assist with a smooth and successful transition of the football program to the new coach and his coaching staff.”
Harlan contended that rather than attempting to pursue a breach of contract dispute due to terms in their separation agreement, the university determined that a “fight over this issue would not be in the long-term interests of the university and its football program of your legacy as our long-time football coach.”
Whittingham also would’ve forfeited his buyout had he publicly sought or accepted a paid or unpaid position with any other college in the state of Utah before Jan. 9, 2028. The agreement did not prevent Whittingham from seeking a coaching position outside the state, which happened two weeks after he parted ways with the program he built into a consistent winner.
“Coach Whittingham made clear his hope and desire to remain as the head football coach at the University of Utah under the current contract. When the university chose to move in a different direction, we negotiated a separation agreement in good faith and fully complied with every term. At all times, Coach Whittingham acted professionally and in a manner consistent with both the terms and the spirit of the agreement. That agreement did not prohibit Coach Whittingham from pursuing future coaching opportunities or engaging with coaches and staff, beyond the specific and limited restrictions that were expressly included,” said Whittingham’s agent, Tollner, in a statement. “… The Whittingham family cherishes his 32 consecutive seasons leading the University of Utah and will forever have a deep appreciation for the student-athletes and the Utah community.”
Harlan and the Utah athletic department declined further comment on the matter, according to a university spokesperson on Friday morning.
