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.
Detmer is listed as an analyst. He will not be on the road recruiting and does not take the spot of a coach that can be (i.e., F-Whitt at TE). I think we can safely assume Beck is the primary coach of the QBs and Detmer is his assistant. It seems there is deliberately vague language, but he has the same job he has had for Beck at Utah and UNM.
Deletehttps://mgoblue.com/news/2026/1/7/football-whittingham-announces-offensive-coaching-staff
It's splitting hairs to some degree but it's notable when a guy is an analyst/assistant instead of a position coach.
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
Harbaugh didn't skip '23. He recruited Dante Moore very hard. I think we are conflating intention and outcomes.
Delete"Plan A was Dante Moore, a top-five overall player in the 2023 class from just down the road in Detroit. Michigan put everything in this recruitment, seeing Moore as the perfect successor to McCarthy, and even offering a higher ceiling than the future top-10 NFL draft pick. Despite putting every egg in this basket, Moore headed out west, shockingly choosing UCLA before later transferring to Oregon."
https://www.maizenbrew.com/2025/5/30/24439348/michigan-football-recruiting-bryce-underwood-dante-moore-notre-dame-cj-carr-2025-football-season
Moreover, I'm not sure why we are contrasting Denegal/Orji from Smiegel/Carr.
Herbstreit is not worth mentioning as he came in in the same class as Bryce and would have been a walk-on before the scholarship expansion era. Note: Herbs was the 161st rated QB in the composite.
Smiegel ranking according to 247 composite is the #24 in his class and Carr is even lower at #45. As a point of comparison; Denegal was 28 and Orji was 30. So these are very comparable situations.
What you're seeing is the exact same thing as you saw then. Michigan has shot it's shot but it's not realistic to recruit an heir to Bryce within the first class or two after Bryce hits campus. Instead, they are getting guys who are projects, that they hope to develop to be viable backups.
I wouldn't consider 2 playoff seasons dereliction of duty in any way, but if you feel that QB recruiting was bad you gotta look at the context of a near 5-star QB being hard to recruit around.
Let's look at a peer school like PSU. They took Drew Allar a 5 star in 2022. He was a backup as a freshman but clearly coming. How did PSU recruit with a comparable situation as Michigan (but 1 year off). Their '23 recruit was a 3 star ranked 36th. Now, TBF PSU did recruit a solid option in the '24 class (4 star / 8th ranked QB). How'd that work out? He's...no longer with the team, just like Dante Moore is no longer with the team that recruited him out of high school.
So even if Harbaugh had knocked the recruiting out of the park you are likely facing the same situation. In fact, if you look at the QBs in the top 20 in the '23 class where Harbaugh was supposedly at fault, hardly any of them are at their current schools. So even if Harbaugh had won the high school recruiting battle to come in and be JJ McCarthy's backup on a national champ squad -- odds are that dude would likely have jumped ship anyway.
https://247sports.com/season/2023-football/CompositeRecruitRankings/?InstitutionGroup=HighSchool&PositionGroup=QB
The reality of today is instant gratification. Most QBs are coming from the portal or they are blue chippers who want an opportunity to start within a year or two at most.
Harbaugh built a national champion and left Sherrone Moore a loaded roster. If Sherrone Moore wanted a ready-to-start QB heir in '24 he should have developed that in his role as OC. It was by no means a foregone conclusion that JJ was going to leave after the '23 season but the natty surely helped nudge him in that direction. That's not a harbaugh problem in any way shape or form. It's a feature, not a bug.
"It tends to be underestimated how damaging the whole Moore blowup was"
DeleteI tend to think the exact opposite. It's a blessing in disguise that saved the program from what would probably have been a disastrous season or two that still resulted in the need for a coaching change either way. It just would have been dragged out and more painful and thus, ultimately more damaging to the M football brand a lot more than Moore's burst of stupidity.
Honestly this went about as well as it could have gone (other than Moore flipping out after being fired). Maybe you could argue a post-portal firing would have been better....but Whittingham might have been off the market by then. Minimal losses in the recruiting class so far, so that part was not bad. Hopefully having Coach Whitt in place for the portal hunt pays dividends.
If it had happened earlier in the year the team might have fallen apart far worse than anything you saw in the runup to the Citrus Bowl. Or maybe they rally together and beat OSU and it's ... Biff Poggi as your permanent head coach.
The bad stuff here is pretty limited to PR otherwise it's pretty optimal IMO.
Dante Moore's first commitment was in JUNE. This gave the staff SIX MONTHS to find a QB. Not doing so = skipped. Pretending Kendrick Bell is a QB was both foolish & misinformed
DeleteThey skipped the most important position on the field a year after Denegal (rankings slip, but not far enough) whose CEILING was (lol) Wilton Speight, and Orji (the SECOND option for both us & VaTech). His HS scouting reports read something like "may end up playing another position"
*lowly Davis Warren beat both these guys out, and has transferred to Stanford, signed & paid for by Andrew Luck, who knows a little somethin about QBs. CFB is chaos, and teams are desperate. Warren gets a spot, but no P4 program wants anything to do with our 2o22 QBs
I don't understand the PennSt reference. The same year they signed 5star Allar, they signed 4star Pribula; both were/are P4 starting caliber. That's not the same as skipping a year after two obviously bad QBs who either struggled or couldn't even start in G6
"likely facing the same situation" ... apply this logic across every position and we might as well not recruit at all. Silly and unrealistic
Agree on 2o24, but never forget: you spent MONTHS defending the gimmick. You & SM were on the same page
Let me get this straight -- are you assuming recruiting stops once someone makes a commitment?
DeleteIf so -- it may be informative to know that he flipped to UCLA in December, indicating the recruitment was not remotely done in June.
Nobody needs any clarification on your dislike of Denegal and Orji -- both of whom became starters in college BTW. The point here is that from a recruiting perspective the guys they are getting post-Bryce are not much different than the guys they got post-JJ.
I'm not sure why there is an argument here. It's hard to recruit a position if it looks like there is an entrenched starter in place for the next 2, 3, or 4 years. Little to no opportunity to start for multiple years is a big hinderance in recruiting and in a world where top QB recruits are getting millions in NIL it's also a massive financial sacrifice.
We have people out here arguing Michigan can't recruit good WRs because of volume of catches (despite Michigan's track record of recruiting highly ranked guys and sending WRs to the NFL without big volume of catches) but somehow the presence of an entrenched starter is supposed to be ignored as a recruiting obstacle. That's a head-scratcher.
https://247sports.com/Player/dante-moore-46084709/TimelineEvents/
Moore chose a place where he could start right away. He took his lumps but learned some things. Now he's on track to be a top 5 NFL choice.
DeleteYou gotta remember also that back in '22 it was not remotely obvious that JJ wouldn't be back in '24, so Moore was facing a potential 2 year wait on the bench. Perhaps that would have been best for him but that's a lot of NIL to spend on a backup developmental option for 2 years from Michigan's side, relative to UCLA hoping they caught an instant impact starter.
How it played out makes out for both sides except for one thing. Michigan needed to bring someone in from the Portal in '24 and failed to do so. Which is on Moore.