Freddie Whittingham - Football Coach - University of Utah Athletics

Freddie Whittingham

Title:
Tight Ends/Recruiting Coordinator
Email:
fwhittingham@huntsman.utah.edu

Tight Ends/Recruiting Coordinator
10th Year

Heading into his 10th season as Utah’s tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator in 2025, Freddie Whittingham has helped develop Utah’s roster for the past 13 years. Before moving to the sidelines, Whittingham served as Utah’s director of player personnel for four seasons, from 2012-15.

The Utah tight ends under Whittingham's tutelage have played an integral role in one of the most successful offensive stretches in recent program history, prompting the Utes to deploy a two, and sometimes even a three-tight-end formation much of the time.

Out of the 15,304 yards produced through the air the last five seasons, Utah’s tight ends have accounted for 32% of the yardage with a tight end leading the Utes in receiving yards in three of the last six years.
With Whittingham’s tight ends being hybrid players, the tight end group has also been key in helping the Utes finish three of the last six seasons atop the conference in rushing offense.
Utah’s tight ends have also accounted for 56 total touchdowns in the last six seasons.
A Utah tight end has caught at least one pass in 95 of the last 96 games, which included 77 straight.

In 2024, the Utah tight end room benefitted from the return of a healthy Brant Kuithe, who led the way for a group that saw six different players catch passes and four reach the end zone at least once.

Kuithe, an All-Big-12 First-Team pick, would end the year with 35 receptions for 505 yards and a team-high eight total TDs, while along the way becoming the school's all-time leader in catches and receiving yards among tight ends.
New Ute Caleb Lohner, who joined the program having never previously played football competitively before, hauled in four passes during the season, all of which went for touchdowns.

With new faces in the tight end room in 2023, Utah saw three different players score at least one touchdown with the group combining for 302 receiving yards.

Injuries plagued the room with All-American Brant Kuithe taking a redshirt and Thomas Yassmin suffering a season-ending injury in game five.
Newcomer Landen King, who transferred to Utah in 2023 from Auburn, led the room with 166 yards and three touchdowns.
Whittingham was also key in the transition of Miki Suguturaga, who had played in 25 games on the defensive line before switching to tight end in 2023.

The Utes, or “Tight End U” as they are called, wrapped up the 2022 season with four different tight ends scoring at least one touchdown with the group accounting for 18 of Utah’s 31 receiving scores.

Senior Dalton Kincaid led the Utes with 890 receiving yards and eight touchdowns, the most produced by a tight end in the Kyle Whittingham era.
Kincaid earned first-team All-Pac-12, and All-America honors from AP, Bleacher Report and Phil Steele.
Kincaid, Thomas Yassmin and Brant Kuithe racked up 1,397 yards and 17 touchdowns in 2022.
Kincaid finished the year leading all FBS tight ends in receiving yards (890) and receiving yards per game (74.2), also ranking second in receiving touchdowns (8).
He saw Yassmin record five of his six receiving touchdowns in the final six games, including scoring one touchdown in three straight games to end 2022.

Utah finished the 2021 season as the only Pac-12 team with two active tight ends with over 1,000 career receiving yards in Division I football. The trio of Kuithe, Dalton Kincaid and Cole Fotheringham have combined for over 70 starts in the last three years.

Kincaid and Kuithe ranked sixth and seventh among active tight ends in the FBS in 2021 in career receiving yards with 1,733 and 1,670 respectively.
The duo combined to score 14 of Utah’s 24 receiving touchdowns (58%), each scoring six or more receiving touchdowns (Kincaid, 8; Kuithe, 6).
Kincaid’s 14.2 yards per receptions in 2021 ranked third among Pac-12 tight ends while his eight receiving scores is the most by a Utah tight end in the Kyle Whittingham era.
Kincaid’s eight receiving touchdowns ranked fifth among tight ends in the FBS and first in the Pac-12.

Whittingham has guided Kuithe to lead the Utes in receiving yards in 2019 and 2021, with the tight end also leading the team in receptions in 2020 and touchdowns in 2024. Fotheringham and Kuithe accounted for over 31-percent of the team’s receptions in 2020 for 288 yards.

In 2019, Whittingham’s tight ends played a key role for an offense that led the Pac-12 in rushing yards (201.4), passing efficiency (174.05), completion percentage (72.6%) and third-down conversion rate (46.3%) en route to a second consecutive Pac-12 South title.

Kuithe and Fotheringham combined for 758 receiving yards in 2019 which included Kuithe’s 602 yards and six receiving scores. He also finished with six rushes for 102 yards (17.0 ypc) and three rushing touchdowns.
Kuithe’s nine total touchdowns in 2019 tied for first in the FBS among tight ends.
His 17.7 yards per reception ranked second among tight ends in the FBS.
Fotheringham, who was one of Utah’s most consistent blockers, had 16 catches for 156 yards and a touchdown.

Kuithe is a four-time all-conference tight end under Whittingham, earning First-Team All-Big 12 in 2024 and Second-Team All-Pac-12 in 2019, 2020 and 2021, also being named to the Pro Football Focus All-America third-team in 2019. Kincaid received his first All-Pac-12 recognition in 2021, landing on the honorable mention squad before earning first-team honors in 2022.

Whittingham’s move into coaching runs in his bloodlines. His father, the late Fred Whittingham, Sr., was a 20-year veteran of NFL and college coaching, including six years at Utah. Brother Kyle is Utah’s head football coach and brother Cary was a successful high school football coach.

Even before becoming Utah’s recruiting coordinator in 2016, Whittingham played an important role in Utah’s recruiting efforts as the director of player personnel. His duties in that position also included overseeing camps and clinics and serving as the program’s NFL liaison.

Whittingham has been involved in higher education his entire career, spending nearly 20 years with the McGraw-Hill companies and Simon & Schuster as a sales and marketing executive in the higher education publishing industry. He directed McGraw-Hill Higher Education’s West Sales Region, encompassing universities and colleges west of the Mississippi and accounting for annual sales revenues of $100 million.

Playing Career
Whittingham lettered as a freshman on BYU’s 1984 national championship team and was a three-year starting running back from 1987-89. He served as BYU’s team captain in 1989, a season in which he was also named a first-team CoSIDA Academic All-American.

He was BYU’s leading rusher for three consecutive seasons (1987-89), a two-time academic All-Western Athletic Conference selection and BYU’s Outstanding Senior Student-Athlete for all sports in 1990. He played on the Los Angeles Rams’ practice squad in 1990 and in the World League of American Football in 1991 for the San Antonio Riders and as a member of the Team Dallas practice squad.

Coaching Experience

2016-	Utah
	Tight Ends
	Recruiting Coordinator
2012-15	Director of Player Personnel

Bowl Games

2023	Las Vegas Bowl
2022	Rose Bowl
2021	Rose Bowl
2019	Alamo Bowl
2018	Holiday Bowl
2017	Heart of Dallas Bowl
2016	Foster Farms Bowl

Education
Brigham Young, 1992
Bachelor’s in psychology

Personal Data
Hometown: Provo, Utah
Birthdate: Mar. 16, 1966
Family: Children Ashley, Sam and Rachel