Koy Detmer, Jr. has been hired as Michigan's quarterbacks coach under Kyle Whittingham.
Detmer is the son of former Colorado and NFL quarterback Koy Detmer and the nephew of former BYU Heisman-winning quarterback Ty Detmer. Koy, Jr. played at BYU and Texas A&M-Kingsville, where he was a record-setting quarterback (records set: 37 completions and 65 attempts in one game) and once threw for 450 yards in a game. Koy, Sr. is now a high school head coach at Somerset (TX) Somerset.
Detmer the Younger became a running backs coach at Texas A&M-Kingsville in 2020-2021 and then moved on to Syracuse as a graduate assistant in 2022-2023. He followed offensive coordinator Jason Beck from Syracuse to New Mexico in 2024 and then to Utah in 2025.
I know some people have wanted a big name as a QB coach for Michigan, but if we're being honest, most "big names" who work with quarterbacks are going to be offensive coordinators or passing game coordinator and not just QB coaches. Detmer is an up-and-comer who has worked with high-powered offenses and who has a couple former NFL quarterbacks in the family, so just on its surface, this seems to be a pretty solid hire. And as far as names go, there really aren't many bigger family names than "Detmer" in the quarterback world.
Does he have arms and a torso in real life?
ReplyDeleteI think if you're hiring a real live QB coach you can question this hire but as an analyst/assistant coach that your OC trusts, there's no concern on my end.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious to see which it is. Detmer has been an analyst/assistant coach while supporting Beck at Utah and New Mexico. NOT a QB coach. As Thunder noted, he was a grad assistant at Syracuse prior to that. So his resume is thin.
Seems like Beck has been the real QB coach and Detmer is his trusted right hand who is there day-to-day working with the QBs. Job duties might not be that different but it would be a substantial promotion to go from an Analyst at Utah to a Position Coach at Michigan.
If Detmer is getting an actual positional coach job that would mean he is out on recruiting trail talking to guys, presumably not just QBs. It also means Michigan is dropping the TE coach (presumably?) because you can only have so many.
I was one who wanted a more experienced QB guru. Not one ascending, but a guy who had a good rep and wants a step back; former QB/OC/HC type
ReplyDeleteBut if he's been with Beck, and Detmer knows exactly what he wants, I can understand the logic
*that mustache needs to go. Only a matter of time before perv memes start going around. Too soon after SM
That mustache belongs at Texas Tech or Oklahoma State.
DeleteThe more I think about the environment and dynamics of Michigan from post-championship in 2024 up through post-OSU in 2025, the image of the 'dysfunction' Biff Poggi spoke of comes more and more into focus. I bring that up in this post because it relates to the QB role at Michigan.
ReplyDeleteHarbaugh stopped focusing on the QB role once he had J.J. McCarthy. That explains the mostly-empty QB room for Moore. By a miracle, they got Underwood for 2025, and in a better-managed team he would have red-shirted. We now understand that 2025 was a year in which Moore was under a cloud of investigation which proved later to be his downfall. The pressure of that couple with being out of his depth as HC at Michigan broke Moore, and my very strong sense is the other coaches did their best to hold things together. The only person paying any attention to Underwood was probably Lindsey, and it appears he was being hand-cuffed by Moore's oversight. As we saw, Lindsey took the first opportunity to bolt from the program, likely sick and tired of all the drama.
I suspect the fans of Michigan owe Biff Poggi a great big "thank you" for holding that team together through the Citrus Bowl, and avoiding a mass exodus of players. We owe him a "thank you" for making the comment about 25 or so players leaving, which short-circuited the foolish "let's wait for DeBoer, no matter how long it takes" thinking in the coach search. The transition to Whittingham, the construction of his coaching staff, and the apparent retention of key players to this point has been a minor miracle, and in many ways Poggi was the glue that held it together until Whittingham was on-board.
What does this have to do with Detmer as QB coach/analyst? Only this: in 2026, Underwood will receive, probably for the first time at Michigan, some focus and development, and that will take place within an environment led by a mature, sensible man in Whittingham, who will knit a sensible, cohesive plan for the team.
Again, we owe Poggi a great big thank you.
I disagree with this narrative about Harbaugh and QBs. With it being evident that McCarthy was threatening to take the starting spot even back on the 2021 big ten champs, it was going to be hard to recruit and elite QB either out of HS or the portal.
DeleteMichigan went with multiple project/backup types that '22 class, just as they went with project/backup types in this '26 class after Bryce's arrival. You can go for blue chippers but a) good freakin luck and b) that's probably not a wise use of NIL relative to programs who will pay them to start.
In 2023 Michigan tried to fix the issue -- but Dante Moore ultimately took the bigger offer from UCLA and then transferred a few months later to get even more (presumably) from Oregon. Mgoblog described Michigan as "putting all their eggs" on Moore. Not sure if they got him away from UCLA things would have been any better if he was just going to be in the portal anyway.
For 2024, Harbaugh had a top 100 recruit lined up and committed -- but Davis ended up being a bust. Which also happened before (e.g., McCaffrey, Peters) when Harbaugh had NOT checked out.
We also have to note that Sherrone Moore took over as OC in 2021. I'm inclined to blame Moore, not Harbaugh, for the cupboard being bare in 2024. Especially since he's the one who elected not to fix the problem via the portal.
https://mgoblog.com/content/2023-recruiting-board
I really don't think we can criticize Harbaugh for not landing a QB-in-waiting in the '22 or '23 class. It wasn't for lack of effort, IMO. And I will assert with no evidence other than general Harbaugh competency/excellence vibes that there is no way Harbaugh would have walked into the '24 season with the Orji/Warren/Tuttle situation.
I am usually against scapegoating one guy but I think 90% of the issues of 2024-2025 were Sherrone Moore's fault -- especially because he was the OC in 3 years leading up to that.
I don't think we can understate the degree to which Moore was just simply not ready for the HC job. Maybe someday he would have gotten there but I doubt it. The man was just flat out not very smart and made far too many incompetent staff decisions, in-game decisions, strategic decisions, etc. That's before you get into the off field stuff.
PS
Agree on Poggi deserving credit.
Agree on Detmer/Beck being good for Bryce, who I thought showed very little development after the first few weeks of on-field training things seemed to stagnate.
I don't agree with this: "We owe him a "thank you" for making the comment about 25 or so players leaving, which short-circuited the foolish "let's wait for DeBoer, no matter how long it takes" thinking in the coach search. The transition to Whittingham, the construction of his coaching staff, and the apparent retention of key players to this point has been a minor miracle, and in many ways Poggi was the glue that held it together until Whittingham was on-board.
DeleteMaking public comments and starting a panic was not Biff's call to make. Maybe it got an okay result but, as you point out, it was a minor miracle that KW was available to take the job. What if KW was not interested or wanted to retire? Maybe the search committee saw Kalen as its best option and was willing to wait a few days to see what happened (which ended in a Bama loss BTW)? I do give him credit for holding things together and his apparent bond with the players. But none of us know all of the inside details enough to conclude we owe him thanks for making those comments.
The team seemed to really appreciate Biff and there was not a mass exodus either before the bowl game or immediately after. I think it's safe to assume Biff did some stuff right.
DeleteThe "panic" based off the podcast comment was among over-interested fans in denial about the uncertainty of the roster. There was over 20 guys who missed the game due to injuries and opt outs and over 20 guys who have jumped in the portal (with more surely coming). Was anything Biff said really out of line? Or is this a case of shooting the messenger.
I personally don't think the comments matter one way or the other. We owe thanks to Biff for handling the situation well, considering he was about to be out of a job and could have spent the time very differently.
This is the internet ... we're meant to wildly speculate.
DeleteI'm fairly convinced there were two factions within the braintrust that was guiding Michigan's post-Moore search: one that wanted to wait for DeBoer, and one that knew Whittingham was available and interested, and did not want to wait. It would not surprise me one bit to learn that Poggi was told to go ahead and make those comments to make things happen sooner rather than later. My guess is Poggi agreed with that because he, more than anyone else, knew how tenuous the hold on the players really was.
It tends to be underestimated how damaging the whole Moore blowup was. The team cohesion was based in large part on the notion of a trustworthy coach who truly cared for and loved the players. That image was *shattered* by not just the affair, but the post-firing events that led to him being arrested and arraigned. Half the team or more leaves if no coach was in place on January 2.
Harbaugh settled for Denegal & Orji, and neither were P4 starters. He then SKIPPED 2o23 (though some here insisted Bell was recruited as a QB)
Deletewith Bryce we took Herbstreet, and followed with Smiegel (4star) and Carr (legacy and probably better than Smiegel)
We can love Harbaugh and acknowledge that 2o22 & 23 were borderline dereliction of duty
I'm fine w/Biff, and very much appreciated that the SM mess didn't snowball . Instead, we seem to be coming out ahead. Besides, everything he said was true. If nothing else, the players appreciate his honesty, and that probably helped unity. I don't really care about internet overreactions, and thankfully neither did The Team
GO BLUE