Kyle Whittingham on future after stepping down at Utah: 'I'm in the transfer portal'

Earlier this month, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham announced his intention to step down as the Utes head football coach after 21 seasons. Longtime assistant Morgan Scalley is set to replace him after the Las Vegas Bowl.

However, Whittingham revealed this isn’t a retirement, per se. For now, he’s stepping away but appears to be keeping his options for whatever the next stage of his career brings.

“Who knows? We’ll see, I guess, stepping down, stepping away and reevaluate things and see where we’re at,” Whittingham said.

“I’m a free agent, I’m in the transfer portal. Like I said, I’m at peace and I did not want to be that guy that overstayed his welcome with people just saying, ‘Hey, when’s this guy gonna leave?’ That was not my intention, ever. I hope I didn’t do that. I’m sure with some people, I did do that, but, the timing to me, the timing is right.”

Whittingham leaves Utah as the program’s all-time winningest coach, amassing a 177-88 record during his time in Salt Lake City. Utah AD Mark Harlan said in a statement earlier this month that Whittingham’s legacy is that of one of the most impactful figures in the history of Utah athletics.

He ultimately walks away after more than 30 years with the Utah program, starting out as defensive line coach in 1994. Still, it doesn’t appear to be the end of the road for Whittingham in the coaching space.

It’s unclear if Whittingham will take any time off of coaching. It appears as though he’s unsure of that at the moment as well. If anything, the itch to coach hasn’t gone away.

“I don’t know if it’s ever out of your system,” he said. “I mean, it’s in your blood. I don’t know about that. That being said, I’m not sure what I’m going to do, but when you got coaching in your blood, it just doesn’t go away.”

Whittingham got his start in coaching while serving as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, BYU, from 1985-86 before becoming Eastern Utah’s defensive coordinator in 1987.

In 1988, Whittingham joined the coaching staff at Idaho State and stayed with the program until 1994 when he arrived at Utah. After starting out as defensive line coach, he became the Utes’ defensive coordinator in 1995 and remained in that role until 2004. After Urban Meyer’s departure for Florida in 2005, Whittingham took over as head coach.

On3’s Nick Schultz contributed to this report.