Pac 12 Media: Kyle Whittingham doesn't believe Utah is a team flying under the radar in 2022

Despite all the recent conference noise, Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham doesn't feel like his reigning champion Utes are flying under the radar.

With the college football season just a little over a month away, the Pac-12 Conference kicked off its preseason media weekend on Friday. As the reignging Pac-12 Champions, Utah's head coach Kyle Whittingham was one of the first to field questions, the likes of which included a plethora of different subjects.

As for one particular question, a reporter asked Whittingham if he feels like they're flying under the radar, given all the attention on several of the new coaches and players, and despite being the reigning champions.

"I would say probably not. There's new coaches in the conference, they're always interested in that and finding out more about those guys," Whittingham said.

While recongnizing the inevitable interest that fans and media have in the new coaches, Whittingham made sure to remind everyone that while they've normally been a team thats flown under the radar, the Utes were recently selected as the preseason champions, a testament to all their hard work and dedication over the past 11 years.

"We've always traditionally been a team that likes to fly under the radar a little bit and play with a chip on our shoulder so we don't take offense to any of that. We've been chosen as the early champion you can say, that's a show of respect to our program and where we are at. We've worked hard. It's been eleven years of hard work and recruiting to get to that point," He added.

As to whether or not Whittingham is correct, he understands what his team is capable of, and clearly, others are beginning to notice too. Not only were the Utes selected by the Pac-12 Media to repeat as conference champions, but they're also favored in 10 of their 12 games by ESPN.

Looking ahead to the season, the Utes will have an opportunity to silence any remaining haters with a week one matchup against Florida in the Swamp. If they can emerge with a victory over a respected SEC opponent, there will be no doubting what Utah is capable of in 2022.

"We've always traditionally been a team that likes to fly under the radar a little bit, play with a chip on our shoulder.… being picked first was being shown respect behind a lot of hard work."

🗣: @UtahCoachWhitt | @76 pic.twitter.com/JgIWanRZhp

— Pac-12 Network (@Pac12Network) July 29, 2022

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