Kyle Whittingham is set to enter his 19th full season as the Utah Utes head coach, and during his time in charge, he has managed to accomplish quite a bit with his team. Utah is consistently one of the top teams in the Pac-12 conference, and have won their conference championship for two straight seasons now.

While Utah is one of the better teams in their conference, there is still quite a bit of competition for the top spot right now. This was highlighted in the Pac-12 preseason poll, which had Utah coming in third behind USC and Washington. While some folks are a bit concerned with those rankings, it doesn't seem like Whittingham is worried about them at all.

Via Josh Furlong:

“Whittingham said ‘I couldn't care less' about being picked 3rd in the Pac-12 preseason poll.”

While Utah did manage to win their conference last year, it was a bit of a shock to see them upset USC, so it's not totally surprising to see that USC is leading the pack right now. Even then, though, these rankings are much more for fans to analyze than folks on the teams involved, so it's not surprising to see that Whittingham isn't paying it much mind.

Either way, Utah's veteran leader will be focused on getting the most out of his team once again in the 2023 season, and given his track record of success, it wouldn't be wise to bet against him. Utah may not be ranked where they believe they should be on this poll, but until they get beat, they are going to be the team everyone in the Pac-12 is chasing due to their champion status.