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.
