The University of Michigan has officially hired Kyle Whittingham as the 22nd coach of Michigan Football. Whittingham signed a five-year contract estimated to be worth about 8.2 million dollars a year. Whittingham was previously head coach of the University of Utah football team for 20 years from 2005 to 2025 and is the all-time leader in wins for the program. At Utah, he had 17 winning seasons, including a 13-0 season in 2008. He also had an 11-6 record in bowl games during his tenure as head coach.
Kyle Whittingham’s teams have all been very similar in terms of play style to Michigan’s. They both focus on dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and successfully running the football. This past year, Whittingham’s 10-2 Utah team finished second in the country in total rushing offense, averaging 269.8 yards per game, trailing only service academy Navy. In Whittingham’s introductory press conference on Dec. 28, he noted that “Physicality will be our calling card.”
Whittingham is also constructing a staff that has previously been very successful. On the offensive staff, he brought five coaches from staff at Utah: offensive coordinator Jason Beck, offensive line coach Jim Harding, wide receivers coach Micah Simon, tight ends coach Freddie Whittingham, and quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer. Tony Alford, the running backs coach under Sherrone Moore, will remain on the staff.
On the defensive side, Whittingham hired BYU (Brigham Young University) defensive coordinator Jay Hill to join him at Michigan. Michigan is retaining defensive line coach Lou Esposito but is bringing new coaches for the linebackers and the secondary. These coaches include Jernaro Gilford as cornerbacks coach who was previously at BYU with Jay Hill, former Kansas City Chiefs defensive coach Alex Whittingham, and defensive ends coach Lewis Powell who was previously at Utah. Michigan is also keeping special teams coordinator Kerry Coombs on staff, who was hired by previous coach Sherrone Moore four days before his dismissal as head coach. These primary position coaches as well as many other assistant coaches and analysts are very promising in terms of projected ability to develop the players.
Kyle Whittingham brings a lot of experience and knowledge about coaching college football to Michigan, but that comes with his age. One of the main concerns about Whittingham is that he is 66 years old. This is a challenge because he likely will not be a longtime coach for Michigan and will most likely retire in the next five to ten years. Although Whittingham isn’t a coach that will be able to be a coach that stays with Michigan for a significant amount of time, he is still a very solid hire that gives stability to a program that has been in many ways dysfunctional since the 2023 national championship season.
