Kyle Whittingham sees similarities to Utah in Oklahoma State

The Utah Utes are entering the Big 12 for 2024. For head coach Kyle Whittingham, it’s his third conference as the head coach of the Utes but he already is finding some similarities to other teams in the Big 12.

In particular, at Big 12 Media Days, Whittingham pointed out that he sees similarities between his Utah program and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.

“Oklahoma State,” Kyle Whittingham said. “I think that their physical brand of football, Coach [Mike] Gundy‘s committed to the run game. We’ve been at our respective schools within days of each other. I mean, we — there’s a lot of parallels between those two programs.”

At one point, the Big 12 was a conference known for its high-flying offenses and passing attacks. However, that’s a trend that has started to change in recent years. A lot more teams have become power running teams and Utah fits into that mold well as the Utes move into the conference. Certainly, the Cowboys behind Ollie Gordon, are one of those teams.

Utah comes into the Big 12 as one of the favorites to win the conference. The Utes are the favorite in the preseason media poll, with Oklahoma State sitting at third in the same poll.

There are plenty of other teams who fit into a similar mold as Utah does. Both Kansas State and Kansas, for instance, are excellent running schools. Then, the Utes are naturally going to share similarities with the other incoming Pac-12 schools. On top of all of those schools, they’re now in the same conference as rival BYU again.

Still, amid all those similar programs, Whittingham still thinks it’s Oklahoma State who is the closest among them.

Kyle Whittingham talks about ability to adapt through multiple eras of college football

Kyle Whittingham has now been the head coach at Utah since 2004. Amid that time, there have been numerous changes to college football as a sport, and adapting to those different eras is something that’s been vital to him.

“First of all, it’s not trending towards paying players, we are paying players. That’s in place. I’ve been in this profession a long time, and you talk about four, five years ago we couldn’t give them a ride to the dormitory or a slice of pizza to what’s going on now, it’s incredible,” Whittingham said.

“And there’s more change to come. We’re not done yet. I promise you that. Not by a long shot. There’s big changes on the horizon. But the bottom line is it doesn’t matter whether you love NIL, transfer portal, hate it, it doesn’t matter, you’ve got to embrace it. Because if you don’t, if you don’t adapt and update with the times, you’re going to get left behind and you’re going to be eliminated.”