Conference Pac-12 Conference 2011 record 8–5 (4–5 Pac-12) Offensive scheme Pro Style | Division South Division Offensive coordinator Norm Chow (1st year) | |
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Head coach Kyle Whittingham (7th year) | ||
The 2011 Utah Utes football team represented the University of Utah in the 2011 NCAA Division I FBS football season. The team was coached by seventh year head coach Kyle Whittingham and played their home games in Rice–Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City, Utah. After playing the previous 12 seasons in the Mountain West Conference, this was Utah's first season in the new Pac-12 Conference in the South Division. They are the first former "BCS Buster" to join a BCS conference. They finished the season 8–5, 4–5 to finish in a tie for third place in the South Division. They were invited to the Sun Bowl where they defeated Georgia Tech 30–27 in overtime.
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Before the season
The Pac-12 media picked Utah to finish third in the South Division. Four media members (out of 42 total) voted Utah first in the division. The media picked USC to finish first, but USC will be ineligible for the inaugural Pac-12 Championship Game due to NCAA sanctions. Arizona State came in second, and Arizona, UCLA, and Colorado finished fourth, fifth, and sixth, respectively, in the South Division voting. The media also picked Oregon to win the North Division with 29 first place votes, and to win the Pac-12 Championship Game and thus be the Pac-12 Champion.
Coaching changes
Kyle Whittingham made a few changes to his coaching staff for the 2011 season. Prior to Utah's appearance in the 2010 Maaco Bowl Las Vegas defensive line coach John Pease retired from coaching. During the offseason, Whittingham replaced Pease with Chad Kauhaʻahaʻa, a second team all-WAC defensive lineman for Utah in 1996. The previous two seasons he had been the defensive line coach for Utah State.
The Utes also hired Norm Chow to be the Offensive coordinator and coach the tight ends. He had been an offensive coordinator at UCLA the three previous seasons. In 2002, when he was the offensive coordinator at USC, Norm Chow won the Broyles Award. Former co-offensive coordinators Aaron Roderick and Dave Schramm were reassigned to coach different positions in the offense. They will coach the receivers and the running backs, respectively, positions they have both previously coached for the program. Finally, Whittingham hired Tim Davis to coach the offensive line. Davis replaces Blake Miller who left the program to coach the same position with Memphis. Davis coached the offensive line the previous three seasons at Minnesota and has had a prior stint as Utah's offensive line coach 1990–1996 and worked under Chow at USC 2002–2004.
Move to the Pac-12
During the 2010 offseason, Utah successfully negotiated to join the Pacific-10 Conference (Pac-10) for all sports, including football. Utah, along with Colorado, officially joined the Pac-10 on July 1, 2011 to form the Pac-12 Conference (Pac-12). The previous 12 seasons, Utah competed in the Mountain West Conference.