Why Michigan Is Betting on Kyle Whittingham at the Most Dangerous Time

At first blush, Michigan’s hire of Kyle Whittingham is a surprising -- and questionable -- decision.

He’s 66 years old, although he made it clear he wasn’t retiring when he stepped down at Utah after 21 seasons as head coach earlier this month.

He played at BYU and has never coached outside of Utah or the Pacific Northwest.

But the more you consider the hire, the better it fits.

Given its recent history of scandals -- both on-field like the sign-stealing which loomed over Michigan’s 2024 championship season and off-field like Sherrone Moore’s firing for cause for a relationship with a staff member -- Michigan definitely needed to go away from its norm of a “Michigan Man” head coach for someone outside the family.

Whittingham ran a clean program at Utah and should provide the clean slate that seems like a necessity for Michigan at this fork in the road.

Given the timing of when this job came open on Dec. 10, five days after the last major job of a chaotic and loaded coaching carousel had been filled at Penn State, many of the top candidates Michigan likely would have considered if its administration knew it was going to be hiring a new coach had either already taken other jobs or signed extensions to stay with their current schools.

That the Wolverines were able to find an experienced head coach with a background of doing more with less at such a precarious moment was a lucky break and a great decision.

Utah has never been among the highest-funded college football programs. But Whittingham won 66.8% of his games there (177-88 record) to leave as the winningest coach in program history.

Whittingham took over the program on a high off 22 wins in Urban Meyer’s two seasons leading the Utes. But the program hasn’t been historically great, with just three 10-win seasons in Utah football history before Whittingham took over.

He led the Utes to eight 10-win seasons and seven more with eight or nine wins. Utah won a Mountain West championship under him in 2008 and then back-to-back Pac-12 titles in 2021-22.

Had the College Football Playoff expanded to 12 teams earlier, Utah would have made at least two appearances.

Although the likes of USC and other top-tier Pac-12 programs regularly had more talent than Utah, the Utes were regularly competitive against those big-boy programs, winning their fair share of games with a talent disadvantage.

It was time for a change in Salt Lake City. Defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley was named coach-in-waiting ahead of the 2024 season, and it felt like Whittingham’s tenure had run its course at Utah.

But considering the Utes were 10-2 this season after winning 13 total games the prior two seasons, it feels like he has something left in the tank as well.

Whittingham is about to have access to a level of program funding he’s never had. Look no further than the $10-plus million NIL deal that the Wolverines signed five-star quarterback Bryce Underwood to last December.

With that support, though, will come expectations that Whittingham has also never dealt with.

The good news for him? He only has so much time left in his career, and this unexpected Michigan plot twist gives him a legitimate chance at a late-career national title he had probably accepted he would never win.

The good news for Michigan? Whittingham should set the next Wolverines coach up for success whether he returns the program to national-title contention or not.