Read on the Spartan Board comparing Whittingham and Fitzgerald hirings
Kyle Whittingham has an all time win % at utah of .668 or .070 better than Utah is historically. He's 4th all time in win % at Utah (min 25 games coached).
Pat Fitzgerald has an all time win % at Northwestern of .521 or .080 better than Northwestern is historically. He's 6th all time in win % at northwestern.
"They are basically the same hire, but one is 66 and the other is 51"
More from the Spartan Board:
I’m not minimizing Whittingham’s career, he’s a good coach, but also it’s not as glossy as some are making it out to be. They’ve only been P4/P5 since 2010. And only won twice PAC II right before it split up in 2021, and 2022.
Both years they ended up 10-4, In 21, they lost to BYU, Hoke’s San Diego St, Jonathan Smith’s Oregon State and OSU in the Rose Bowl.
In 22 they lost to Florida, UCLA, Oregon, and Penn State in the Rose Bowl. 3 of those are programs he’s going go be playing regularly again at Michigan.
Whittingham’s team haven’t won a bowl game since 2017. They are 0-5.
His best year at Utah since joining the P4/P5 level was 2019. They went 11-3 with losses to unranked USC, Oregon in PXII champ game, and unranked Texas in the Alamo Bowl. Their only win against a ranked opponent that year was over No. 17 Arizona State (Herm Edwards team) early in the conference season. ASU finished un-ranked.
His average conference record since joining the P5/P4 is only @ 5-4 in 15 seasons.
