Kyle Whittingham Isn’t Michigan’s Curt Cignetti

When Indiana took a shot at hiring 62-year-old Curt Cignetti, it felt like a well-thought-out risk. Yes, Cignetti is older for a coach just breaking into the Power-Four ranks, but since leaving his coordinator position at Alabama, success has followed him to each of his stops.

Most importantly, while at James Madison, he led the Dukes to success at the FCS level and guided them through a seamless transition to FBS football. His ability to navigate a process that has been difficult for most teams is what really attracted Indiana to Cignetti. Of course, we all now know that Indiana crushed its hire of Cignetti and, in just two years, has turned Indiana from a basketball to a football school.

In the modern college football landscape, if a program has the proper resources, it doesn’t take long to turn a program around.

Michigan is hoping to return to its status as a national title contender quickly, but the road ahead is not as simple as it may seem. The Wolverines announced they are hiring former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham to right their ship. It appears Michigan struck out on most of the coaches they were actually interested in, so landing Whittingham isn’t a horrible result after a tenuous hiring process.

Even though Whittingham might have a solid floor as a safe program builder, his ceiling feels very limited at Michigan. Utah doesn’t have elite resources, but it never felt like he was able to reach the highs at Utah that Urban Meyer had reached before him. He’s a guy who can keep Michigan relevant and appearing in top-25 rankings, but he doesn’t feel like a guy who will win you national titles.

He’s also four years older than Cignetti when he was hired at Indiana, so he isn’t some young gun; we know what Whittingham is at this point. Also, he ran his course at Utah. It doesn’t seem like his departure was a mutual parting of ways. It feels more like Utah pushed him out. I’m not sure a marquee program like Michigan should be bringing in a coach who was pushed out of a school like Utah.

Lastly, this might seem like nothing, but in a rivalry like Ohio State vs Michigan, the little things matter. Whittingham went to BYU and coached at Utah. When I see something like that, it doesn’t make me feel that a guy like that cares enough about his rivals as he should. One of the biggest knocks on Ryan Day is that he doesn’t care enough about The Game. If a guy went and coached for his biggest rival from his playing days, does that feel like a guy who’s going to be all in on The Game?

Only time will tell if Michigan found their guy, but if he’s not, it could be the continued downward spiral of the post-Jim Harbaugh era at Michigan.