Six Utah football alumni have expressed concerns about how their injuries were diagnosed during former head coach Kyle Whittingham’s tenure.
The former players also said they felt pressured by coaches to return before they were ready, according to a report Friday from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Defensive linemen Van Fillinger and Tevita Fotu, wide receiver Mycah Pittman, running back Jaylon Glover, tight end Miki Suguturaga and an anonymous player all suited up for the Utes between 2020 and 2024. They won two Pac-12 championships during that span, appearing in the Rose Bowl in the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Whittingham coached Utah for 22 seasons (2004-25) before taking over at Michigan this season.
Fillinger told the newspaper that after he fractured his right tibia in 2022, the team did not immediately X-ray his leg and put him in a walking boot even though he felt his ankle “snap” and was in serious pain. An eventual X-ray revealed the break, ending his season.
“It felt like they were handling it pretty lackadaisically. I should have gotten an X-ray that night because of the pain that I was in,” Fillinger told the Tribune.
After being sidelined for three weeks, Fillinger said position coach Lewis Powell told him that Whittingham would not allow him to redshirt the season. “(Powell) said that I’ll be kicked off the team if I don’t play,” Fillinger said.
Pittman described a similar experience after injuring his ankle in fall camp in 2024. One month after being diagnosed with a sprain following an X-ray, an MRI discovered a partially torn Achilles, per Pittman.
The players said the program’s culture encouraged them to return from injuries as quickly as possible.
“I feel like a lot of the times the training staff would be on one page, but the coaching staff was on another because it was all about, ‘We need him back,'” Glover told the paper.
Suguturaga alleged that he was encouraged to practice on an injured ankle.
“They had rehab deadlines to meet for injuries,” he said. “Whatever deadline they put on you was what it was supposed to be. They were kind of unrealistic guidelines that they thought you should be back by, and if you’re not feeling right, they still just kind of pushed you to get back as soon as possible.”
Fotu claimed he was told by an assistant that “the head man” wanted him to “push through” after tearing his left ACL in his redshirt freshman season.
“They’d threaten to put someone else in front of me,” Fotu said. “They’d even threaten to take away my scholarship. It was kind of heartbreaking. I thought these guys would care about me.”
The Utah athletics department and University of Utah Health issued a statement to the Tribune saying that return-to-play decisions are a collaborative process between doctors, trainers and athletes.
“The University of Utah Department of Athletics follows all University and national guidelines to ensure student success and safety,” the statement said. “We routinely evaluate our processes and welcome the opportunity to make adjustments if we determine our policies are not meeting expectations.”
A Michigan spokesperson also issued a statement.
“Coach Whittingham or his coaching staff did not make medical decisions (at Utah). He followed the lead of the medical team,” the Michigan spokesperson said.