SALT LAKE CITY — This wasn’t the first meeting between Kyle Whittingham and John Baxter.
When Utah hosted Michigan on Thursday night at Rice-Eccles Stadium, it was merely a certain reunion between Whittingham, Utah’s 11th-year head coach, and Baxter, Michigan’s special teams coordinator who is in his first year on Jim Harbaugh’s staff.
In fact, when Whittingham was looking to fill an opening on his staff at Utah after the departure of offensive coordinator Dave Christiansen, he said he took a long look at adding Baxter to his staff.
Baxter is in his 32nd year of coaching college football and is renowned not only for his expertise on special teams, but also for his emphasis on academic planning.
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“He’s got a lot of expertise and experience,” Whittingham said earlier this week. “Not only the special teams aspect, but he’s got a great background with some of the things he’s done academically, with the academic game plan he’s put together and marketed. And he’s just a heck of a football coach.”
Baxter began coaching college football in 1981 at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, as a student assistant, and has coached at eight schools at the FCS and FBS level. From 1997-2009 he served as Fresno State’s associate head coach and special teams coach while also coaching tight ends and wide receivers, and spent four seasons at USC as associate head coach and special teams coordinator before taking last year off.
Baxter also designed the “Academic Gameplan,” a coaching-based program that is meant to develop skills and enhance academic performance for students.
Facing Utah, Baxter said, has a certain level of significance for him.
“One, I don’t like playing against my friends but hey, coach Harbaugh and his brother coached against each other in the Super Bowl together,” Baxter said. “It’s like pickup basketball. If we’re going to go out and play pickup basketball, I’m going to try to win. If we’re going to play beanbags, I’m going to try to win but, like I said, I have seen this program grow and watched it myself from the inside. It’s a place I have unbelievably fond memories for. I hold the head coach in the highest of esteem.”
That feeling, it seems, is mutual, especially given the Utes’ success on special teams. Utah finished fourth in the nation last year in punting, was second in Pac-12 Conference on kickoff returns and punt returns, and had three special teams players named to the Pac-12 All-Conference team.
“He’s a heck of a coach and has done a great job with special teams for many, many years,” Whittingham said earlier this week. “We faced each other several times when he was coaching at Fresno State and USC.
“He’s done a great job with special teams wherever he’s been. He’s probably one of the foremost authorities in the country on special teams. A lot of the stuff we use here, we’ve gotten from him.”
LOCAL CONNECTION: Jim Harding, Utah’s co-offensive coordinator, is a 1996 Maumee High School graduate who played football at Toledo from 1997-2001.
Harding was an offensive tackle who made 46 consecutive starts for the Rockets. He was a first-team all-Mid-American Conference selection in 2000, and helped the Rockets to a 10-1 record and a No. 25 ranking in the final Associated Press and USA Today/ESPN Coaches’ polls.
Harding also coached at Troy (Mich.) High School, Missouri, and Wyoming before joining Whittingham’s staff at Utah before the 2014 season as offensive line coach. He was named a co-offensive coordinator in February, and shares the coaching position with Aaron Roderick, who also coaches Utah’s quarterbacks.
SWARMED: The satellite camps that the Michigan football coaching staff worked at came at a cost: more than $211,000.
Michigan's expenses, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by The Blade, totaled $211,948 for the eight-day, seven-state, nine-camp tour dubbed the “Summer Swarm." That total included $198,481 for airfare, $4,178 for meals, and $9,289 for ground transportation through the course of the satellite camp tour.
Michigan's staff made stops in Indianapolis, Prattville, Ala.; Tampa, Easton, Pa.; Houston, Grand Prairie, Texas; Mission Viejo, Calif., Fresno, Calif., and in Detroit.
Michigan, however, did not provide a response for a copy of an itemized breakdown of the costs, stating that a summary of expenses did not exist and that the university was not required to create a compilation.
ON THE DOCKET: Michigan is the only Power Five home game on Utah’s schedule until the Utes host Baylor of the Big 12 in 2024. Utah also hosts nonconference opponent Utah State of the Mountain West Conference on Sept. 11.
Utah athletic director Chris Hill told the Deseret News that Thursday’s Michigan-Utah matchup came as a result of a proposal by the Pac-12 and the Big Ten that would require schools to play a team from each conference each year.
That mandate never materialized, but the Utah-Michigan home-and-home series did. According to the contract between the two schools, obtained by The Blade through a Freedom of Information Act request, each team received a $1 million payout.
First Published September 4, 2015, 4:57 a.m.
