Happy New Year, everyone!
As we turn the page to 2026, new head coach Kyle Whittingham has started filling out his staff, officially bringing in BYU's Jay Hill as the Wolverines' new defensive coordinator.
Hill spent the last three seasons as BYU's defensive coordinator and associate head coach under Kalani Sitake. The Cougars just wrapped up a 12-2 campaign with a Pop-Tarts Bowl win over Georgia Tech. Over the last two years, BYU ranked #1 in the Big 12 in scoring defense (19.4 points allowed/game), forced a ton of turnovers (including a nation-leading 22 interceptions in 2024), and racked up 50 sacks combined.
Before BYU, Hill was the head coach at FCS Weber State from 2014-2022, where he posted a 68-39 record, won four straight Big Sky titles (2017-2020), and made six playoff appearances. He turned around a program that had gone 4-19 in the two years before he arrived.
Hill played cornerback for the Utes in 1998-99 (when Whittingham was defensive coordinator), earning second-team All-Mountain West and leading the conference with 6 interceptions in 1999. He then coached under Whittingham at Utah from 2001-2013, starting as a graduate assistant and working his way up to special teams coordinator while coaching positions like cornerbacks, tight ends, and even running backs.
Hill steps into a Michigan unit that was solid in 2025 (#30 in scoring defense, #24 in yards allowed/play), but loses some key pieces like Derrick Moore and Jaishawn Barham to the draft. There's young talent slated to return on the back end and in the linebacker corps. If Hill can bring that BYU-level disruption (takeaways and sacks) to the Big Ten, this defense could be excellent.
I like that Hill has experience as a head coach, an offensive position coach, and a special teams coach. In fact, it's very rare that you come across someone with his wide array of experiences. It seems like he's a guy who will end up being a head coach again within a few years.
I always have reservations about coaches who come from "lower levels," just like when Brady Hoke brought in a bunch of smaller conference coaches and when Rich Rodriguez brought everyone from West Virginia. There are two elite conferences in college football, and those are the SEC and the Big Ten. My hope was that Whittingham could poach an SEC/Big Ten defensive coordinator or land someone from the NFL, but the Hill hire was basically expected for the last week.
" It seems like he's a guy who will end up being a head coach again within a few years."
ReplyDeleteIf he does well at Michigan, yes. What are the chances that place that he ends up being a head coach again is at Michigan (after Whittingham retires)?
At this moment in time I think a best case scenario might be Whitt putting together an elite staff (Utah East), getting back most of the promising roster (especially on O), tapping the portal connections to Utah and BYU (especially on D) and creating an immediate playoff contending team. A couple years of success and Whitt can go out rich and content and let his "tree" grow in AA similar to Carr/Moeller after Bo.
I am actually a little worried that 80% of the coaches are coming from BYU/Utah pipeline. How good is Jay Hill? BYU defense did rather badly against Texas Tech 2X. We kept saying the talent level at Michigan is better than BYU. But so is the talent level of our competition.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Thunder. I wished we made some hires from SEC or Big Ten rather than rely solely on the Utah pipeline. Someone like the Iowa linebacker coach who has done it against top tier teams. With Jay Hill and Beck, we have to make a projection that what they do can translate at a higher level.
Here's what I'll say about defense, according to my experience:
DeleteDefense is generally about athletes. If you are bigger and faster on defense than the opponent's offense, then you are likely going to win that matchup. So much of defense is about closing speed, force, the ability to penetrate the offensive line, etc. Watching BYU in two games toward the end of the season, they were outmatched by Texas Tech's offense.
With the staff now complete, I'm mostly satisfied. Hill will be good, and Gilford/Powell help with the transition
ReplyDeleteCould we have gotten a top10 WR coach and LB coach? I would have preferred this, but I think year1 priority has to be establishing culture. And for that, Whittingham needs his guys; dudes he can trust