Kyle Whittingham has been in Tom Allen's shoes before.
Kind of.
Allen is about to coach his first game as a head coach in Indiana's Foster Farms Bowl game against No. 19 Utah after taking over for Kevin Wilson, who resigned. Back in 2004, Whittingham's first game as a head coach came in the Fiesta Bowl against Pitt in place of Urban Meyer, who was headed for Florida.
"It's a good place to start," Allen said of the circumstances.
Said Whittingham: "You'll always remember that first game."
Whittingham's first taste of coaching was with higher stakes. He was leading the Utes in its first BCS bowl appearance in program history. He was replacing a man who would become one of college football's best coaches in Meyer, who was still with the program to help but was getting things in line for his job with the Gators.
Four more assistants from Utah's team were headed to Florida and another to UNLV. So here was Whittingham, trying to prepare his team to play in one of the biggest games in program history and maintain his footing on the recruiting trail without much to back him up.
The end tally wound up being Whittingham himself, Meyer, a quarterbacks coach and a defensive line coach leading the way to a dominant 35-7 win against Pitt to welcome in a new era.
"It was a skeleton crew," Whittingham said. "We were short on man power, but we had good players. Alex Smith was our quarterback, and he was a great player. It was challenging, but it was exciting at the same time."
In a time full of change and transition, Whittingham turned to his senior leaders.
He said players who were ready for their final games were the first to rally around him as the new head coach. They wanted their last game to be Whittingham's optimum first game.
At Indiana, Allen has experienced more of the same. Fifth-year seniors Dan Feeney, Ricky Jones and Mitchell Paige were among the first to back him up with their own confidence to get his coaching career under way when news of Wilson's resignation hit.
"Our seniors, those guys, they've been through it all with us," Allen said. "I'm incredibly fortunate and grateful to have some of the guys we have whether it be a Feeney or a Mitchell or a Marcus Oliver and Tegray Scales."
Whittingham's first bowl game ended with him lifting the Fiesta Bowl trophy. It was only the first of nine bowl wins in 10 appearances since then with Utah emerging as one of the nation's best postseason teams.
There is no mystery as to why Utah is as strong as it is in the postseason, Whittingham said. It all comes down to preparation. He said his players take bowl prep as seriously as they would a regular season game.
"Our guys do a great job of preparation," he said. "It's not like you go out there with shorts and a halmet and toss the ball around for 30 minutes. Our guys get after it."
HIs next task is stopping Allen, the man trying to do the same with the Hoosiers as Whittingham did with the Utes.
And make no doubt, IU's players want to send their new head coach out into the offseason with a win.
"We've talked about that, yeah. We want to get it for him," Feeney said. "There would be no better way to end this year, my career, than to get Coach Allen a W."
