Kyle Whittingham, Wolverine

 

Kyle Whittingham (image via X)

Michigan has hired Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham to be the new head man for the Wolverines.

Whittingham is 66 years old and spent the last 21 seasons as head coach of the Utes, being the only head coach for the team since Urban Meyer left following the 2004 season to go to Florida. Whittingham was a linebacker for BYU and spent a handful of seasons in the NFL and USFL with the Rams, Broncos, Denver Gold, and New Orleans Breakers. He coached at BYU, Eastern Utah, Idaho State, and then Utah, and he has been in Salt Lake City since 1994 when he coached the defensive line. He would then go on to become defensive coordinator in 1995 and alternately coached safeties and linebackers until becoming head coach in 2005.

He amassed a 177-88 record with the Utes, surpassing the former wins record for Utah, held by Ike Armstrong, who had 141 wins from 1925-1949. Whittingham's accolades include winning the Bobby Dodd Trophy, AFCA Coach of the Year, Mountain West Coach of the Year, and Pac-12 Coach of the Year (twice).

Whittingham is the son of former NFL linebacker Fred "Mad Dog" Whittingham, who played college ball at Cal Poly before embarking on a career with the with Rams, Eagles, Saints, and Patriots from 1963-1971. Fred then went on to coach at BYU and Utah, also spending time with the NFL's Rams and Raiders.

Kyle Whittingham's teams have been known for having a balanced offense and playing tough, physical, well coached defense. Urban Meyer thinks Whittingham is one of the top few coaches in college football, which may be a case of bias since Whittingham coached under Meyer. The Utes are currently #5 in scoring offense (41.4 points/game) and #17 in scoring defense (tied with Michigan at 18.7 points allowed/game).

For the 2025 season, starting quarterback Devon Dampier completed 63.7% of his passes for 2,180 yards, 22 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions while also running 127 times for 687 yards and 7 touchdowns. Running back Wayshawn Parker ran 133 times for 931 yards and 6 touchdowns. Meanwhile, defensive end John Henry Daley has 17.5 tackles for loss and 11.5 sacks, and the defense as a whole has 14 interceptions returned for 364 yards and 3 touchdowns.

Overall, Whittingham is an excellent football coach with a clean track record. When it comes to performance on the field, there's really not much concern. Some people point to his record, but we need to keep in mind that he was coaching at Utah, a place that doesn't have all the resources of other schools like USC, Oregon, etc. The Utes were competing in the Pac-12 from 2011-2023, so even with a great coach, they were unlikely to stomp all over the rest of the league for that entire time. He still had eight seasons with 10+ victories, including a 13-0 season in 2008 and a 10-2 record in 2025.

My biggest concerns are these:

1. Kids don't know Kyle Whittingham in the Midwest. Utah never recruited in Michigan or Ohio much, preferring to get their players from Utah, California, Texas, etc. The Utes have exactly two Michigan players on the roster, one a long snapper and another who came by way of Garden City Community College in Kansas. There's only one player from Ohio, and he transferred from Oklahoma. The Wolverines are really going to need to go on a P.R. campaign to get Whittingham's name out there and show what he's done. Utah has produced four 1st round draft picks in Whittingham's tenure, including DT Star Lotulelei, OT Garrett Bolles, LB Devin Lloyd, and TE Dalton Kincaid.
2. Whittingham is 66 years old. Only Bill Belichick (UNC, 73 years old), Kirk Ferentz (Iowa, 70), and K.C. Keeler (Temple, 66) are older. I get that some of Michigan's best years have been under old white guys (Lloyd Carr, Jim Harbaugh, etc.), but I don't think Whittingham brings a ton of juice on the recruiting trail except for the fact that he'll be wearing a block M on his chest. There are ways to mitigate that with putting good recruiters on the trail, but there's no fixing Whittingham's age or the fact that he's probably not going to be much of a long-term solution. I was hoping Michigan could land a coach who was 50-ish and who could legitimately spend a decade with the program, but most coaches are out of the game by the age of 70, so Whittingham has maybe three or four years until he's gone. (Even though he signed a 5-year contract, everyone knows you either retire early, get fired early, or you sign an extension. Whittingham isn't going to stay for five years and then ride into the sunset.)

We'll see how things play out. I will obviously support Michigan and Whittingham for the duration of his career in Ann Arbor, but I'm slightly disappointed that Wolverines fans will be almost guaranteed to be doing this coaching search in just a few years.