Whittingham moving quickly to select his staff

Kyle Whittingham hadn't even completed his first press conference as Utah head football coach and he already had two assistant coaches in the bag.

Whittingham said "the first order of business is to assemble my staff," and then announced that he had already selected two of his nine assistant coaches.

With the departures of Urban Meyer to Florida and offensive coordinator Mike Sanford to UNLV, the state of the Utah football staff has been a concern, and Whittingham is moving quickly to stabilize it.

Gary Andersen, the Utes' defensive line coach, will take over Whittingham's old job as defensive coordinator, and Jay Hill, a graduate assistant, will become the secondary coach. He replaces Chuck Heater, who has already left to join Meyer in Florida.

Whittingham expects to have the "core" of the staff in place by next Monday and the rest of the staff soon after that, perhaps by the end of next week.

He said he'd like to have an offensive coordinator in place "within two or three days" and has several candidates in mind.

"I have my eyes on some good young minds, some minds that are established and have some good people to choose from," he said.

Whittingham said Ute quarterback coach Dan Mullen was a possibility, but he wouldn't make any commitment to elevating him to offensive coordinator.

"Dan's a good football coach, and he's welcome to stay," Whittingham said. "Dan will be a great offensive coordinator someday, whether it's soon or later."

Mullen has been with Urban Meyer the past four years and obviously would take the offensive coordinator job at Florida if offered.

Mullen is undecided on his future but has told others he would take the offensive coordinator job at Utah over the quarterback coaching job at Florida. The question is whether Meyer is considering him for the offensive coordinator job at Florida and whether Whittingham will hire him for the coordinator position if he's available.

Whittingham wasn't asked, but he addressed fears about the Ute offense under a defensive coach.

"What you can expect offensively is what we've been we've been doing all along, mixed in with some things in addition to that," he said.

"The bottom line is we didn't have a magical offense. We have magical players — Alex Smith, Marty Johnson, Steve Savoy. That's what makes this thing good. The players are the nuts and bolts. The scheme will be good, but the players are what drives the offense."