3 College Football Coaches Who Don’t Get Talked About Enough

College Football Coaches can be lightning rods for discussion, positive and negative. There are some who get all the glory and become the gold standard for the profession, others who never seem to get any credit but are criticized frequently. Still others create headlines with their antics, both positive and negative. But there’s some guys who seem to go relatively unnoticed, they show up for work, go about their business, win games and no one outside the local fanbase seems to notice. Here’s three College Football Coaches we think should be getting noticed more.

Kyle Whittingham, Utah

Whittingham took over for Urban Meyer when he left for Florida after the 2004 season. Since then Utah has won double digit games 5 times. Whittingham has an 11 – 3 bowl record and has won 67% of his games overall. For some perspective, before Whittingham took over Utah had won double digit games just three times in the program’s history; two of those seasons were with Meyer at the helm immediately before Whittingham took over.

What makes Whittingham’s ability to win even more impressive is that in 2011 Utah moved to the Pac 12 conference and has played a tougher schedule than ever before. Despite the bump up in competition the Utes just keep adapting and winning. It’s not a surprise when Utah beats the traditional powers anymore, that’s just what Utah does. Year in and year out the team is well coached and shows up to play every game. The team takes on the character of it’s coach and goes about it’s business.

The program has been consistent, but has also shown growth. In the first three years after the move to the Pac 12 the Utes only averaged 6 wins per season, but in the six seasons since, Utah has averaged 9.2 wins per season. The improvement has been drastic, but Whittingham is never talked about as a program builder even though he should be. The job Whittingham has done at Utah is phenomenal, and the trajectory appears to be heading even higher.

The Utes are recruiting at a higher level than they ever have. They are developing talent and putting players in the NFL at an impressive clip. A quick check of our Position U Rankings reveals that the Utes are among the Top 25 at RB, OL, DL, LB and DB, and if you watch the trends most of those picks are recent. Those ranks are likely to improve in the future (even more so if players like Zach Moss don’t go undervalued).

Perhaps Whittingham gets overlooked because he took over for Urban Meyer and the program was firing on all cylinders when he took over. However, Will Muschamp’s experience at Florida is a stark reminder that it’s not so easy to replace a legend. More importantly, we would argue that Whittingham has not only followed Meyer but continued to elevate the program, they have moved to a Power 5 conference and are competing at a high level. Utah is no longer a lovable underdog, when they win it’s because they are supposed to. Perhaps Whittingham should get the well deserved credit for making that happen.

Paul Chryst, Wisconsin

Wisconsin is and has been a consistent program since the mid to late 90’s, and perhaps that’s why Paul Chryst doesn’t get talked about as much as he should. In his five years as the Head Coach at Wisconsin, Chryst has won 10 games or more four different times. No Coach in Wisconsin history had had such a five year stretch. Sure he took over a successful program that Barry Alvarez built and Bret Bielema continued to elevate, but lets not ignore that Chryst has continued the program’s elevation and contributed as an assistant in the past as well.

When Bielema was the Head coach at Wisconsin his offensive coordinator was none other than Paul Chryst. The offensive line and the running game was the staple of the offense and the quarterbacks and receivers were tough; stop us if this sounds a lot like Wisconsin’s teams today. When Chryst left to be the Head Coach at Pittsburgh, Bielema struggled and finished the season unranked (which hadn’t happened the three years prior). Bielema left for Arkansas but the pastures were not greener. His Arkansas teams looked nothing like the Wisconsin teams Bielema coached with Chryst at his side.

Two years later, Paul Chryst returned to be the Head Coach at Wisconsin, and with him came that same tough brand of football Wisconsin fans had loved. Chryst won games consistently and played in 3 of the last 4 Big Ten Championship games. But something else is changing in Wisconsin that bodes very well for the program. Chryst is elevating the recruiting to new levels. In the 2019 class Wisconsin landed OL Logan Brown, the only 5 star to commit to Wisconsin in over a decade and QB Graham Mertz, the highest rated QB to commit to Wisconsin ever (according to 247Sports Composite). Things are trending up on the recruiting trail for Wisconsin and that’s trouble for the rest of the Big Ten West.

Maybe people assume that Paul Chryst is just more of the same for Wisconsin. The truth is he’s not, he helped elevate Wisconsin once as the Offensive Coordinator and probably never got enough credit for it. Now he’s elevating the program again right before our eyes and it’s time someone took notice of it. Sure, Ohio State is dominating the Big 10, but the biggest challenge to the Buckeyes dominance may just come from Madison, Wisconsin.

Mark Stoops, Kentucky

Stoops’ brother was a championship winning coach at Oklahoma so there was always going to be a shadow cast. Stoops did not shy away from the challenge by joining the SEC where it’s hard for new coaches to stand out. It certainly couldn’t help to be at Kentucky, a program that hadn’t won 10 games since 1977. But Mark Stoops, the brother of Bob Stoops, decided to take over Kentucky and do battle with Georgia, Florida, Alabama, LSU and the rest of the SEC. It was easy for him to be overlooked. It’s not so easy to overlook him now though.

Things didn’t start pretty, but that was expected. Kentucky won just two games in 2013 but there was only one direction to go, and so the climb began. Back to back 5 win seasons were followed by back to back 7 win seasons. Then in 2018, after 41 years, Stoops lead the Wildcats to a 10 win season. This past year they regressed to 8 wins but that was still a respectable showing considering they had a WR playing QB most of the year.

Kentucky is located in a state that does not have the talent it’s SEC counterparts have, which means your starting at a disadvantage. Recruiting out of state is a lot harder when you don’t have the brand name and winning tradition to sell to recruits. Kentucky basketball has always been the brand in Lexington; but Stoops has found a way to find quality players. He finds kids in his home state of Ohio that the Buckeyes may have overlooked. He goes further north into Michigan and finds a quality player or two there. He scours his home state and tries to uncover every gem Kentucky has to offer. More than anything else, he works at recruiting and finds the players he needs.

The results are impressive, Kentucky is winning games and they are finding good players. Their probably not going to beat Georgia or Florida for the SEC East title and a spot in SEC Championship Game just yet, but every year Stoops inches closer to that goal. It’s something that can be discussed now and that hasn’t been the case in quite some time.

The shadows of giants may loom large but they also provide inspiration as you work. Mark Stoops never has to look far for that, but for Kentucky football, he maybe the inspiration towards a new era, where winning is the expectation and basketball season can wait just a little longer.

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Camp Randall Stadium Image by Jim Bauer is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.