December 29, 2025 • 50 mins
Lost in all the news of college bowl games and Ohio State's CFP run is the team up north has a new head coach after the departure of Sherrone Moore and subsequent mess that followed. Enter former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham. What does he bring to the table after 20-plus years with the Utes? Is he the right fit? The right now fit? Neither? We talk to Alex Markham of UteNation.com, someone who knows Whittingham well and he is bullish on the move, even if that brings bad news to Ohio State fans. But we are here to tell all sides of the story. So sit down and join us here on The Big Me Kickoff and learn more about the new Michigan head coach.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Big MET kickoff. I am your host,
Kevin Noon, and as you see, of course, I have
a special guest. I want to wish everybody happy holidays.
I hope everybody has had their fill of holiday meals.
I know that I was invited to Christmas dinner and
I'm still going through leftovers and all this. But joined
by Alex Markham of Ute Nation And if you haven't
been able to put it all together, we're talking a
(00:22):
little bit about Michigan's new head coach, Kyle Whittingham. But
first and foremost, Alex, how are you doing, man?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm good man. It's always good seeing you, dude, always
good talking with you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely, It's kind of shocking to me that it took
me as long to do the mental gymnastics of hey,
I should probably reach out to Alex. I've known Alex
for years and years and years and years, and you've
always done such a great job of covering the utes,
and you know, it was one of these things of
(00:55):
it was leaning toward Kyle getting the job when we
first start started talking about doing this, and within six
hours of our first conversation about it. Pete Thedamil of
ESPN was confirming it was a done deal. So I mean,
kind of explain things from your side of the equation,
from from what's happening in Utah. Did this come together quickly?
(01:19):
I mean, did you know? How did how did you know?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
How?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
How was the whole genesis of this? From your side
of things, I mean, obviously Kyle was no longer no
longer the head coach of the Utes, and we'll talk
about that here in a second, But you know, how
did this all come together?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, when when he ended up stepping down, call
it whatever you want, Like, there's a million different stories
to a million different sites, he still had that spark,
he still had that fire, right, and so it was
just one of those where a situation like this goes
down where he still has that competitive juice and even
(01:55):
though it was maybe time at Utah, you know, he's
still he's competitive to the point where he still wants
to prove himself right. And then all of a sudden,
the Michigan stuff goes down and here's this program that
is just Kyle's the perfect fit for it right now,
right like it makes too much sense. You had the
Shenanigans of Jim Harbaugh. You had the craziness of more right,
(02:20):
both great coaches, but debatable on how you'd want to
run a program. Okay, Now you get somebody in there
like Whittingham, who, in twenty one years of coaching the
University of Utah and thirty two as a coach there
in general, Okay, has never had a scandal. He's ran
(02:41):
clean program, He's done it the right way everybody. That's
that's what he's respected for, right and the focus needs
for Michigan right now needs to be on the team. Okay.
Whittingham has always had that team and family mentality approach,
and so all these things I'm maybe going scroll a
(03:02):
little bit, but there's reasons I'm saying this stuff right.
It just it all lines up. It all made too
much sense, to the point where when this went down
and the Michigan stuff was open, me and a lot
of people around Utah watch this, watch this, and you
know I started hearing that his campid, you know, put
(03:23):
out fillers to Michigan saying like, look, this is the
situation on this. He still has the fire, he's interested,
this is the perfect fit for you guys. I know
at one point early on, there was at least a
phone call. I'm not sure how the interview process fully went. Okay,
but when it comes to somebody like Kyle Whittingham, the
track record speaks for itself, right, the respect factor speaks
(03:47):
for itself. You don't need to do a full scale
interview with him, right. And so, really, from the get go,
even though all those other names were being talked about,
I had this sense just from talk to everybody that
it was always going to come down to Michigan and Kyle.
It just it just made too much sense. I had
been pretty much told almost going like between the last
(04:10):
ten to fourteen days. Okay, I was slat out told,
Kyle's going to Michigan. There's you know, there's a reason
things are unfolding behind the scenes to the way that
they are with them right now, look for it to
go down. The process got sped up, but it was
look for it to go down right after Utah's Bowl
(04:30):
games so that he can finish the process with the guys.
And I think that really just and it just it
needed to be sped up because you know, Michigan needed
a plan, They needed some stability going in right before
the transfer portal. But yeah, man, it it really was
no surprise to me the last the last few days
(04:52):
that it was coming. It was really just a matter
of time to me.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean a lot of different ways I can go
with this next question, because I I wrote out a
list of questions and we're going to kind of jump
around on them. But no, what what People who have
not maybe followed Kyle Whittingham and now obviously Ohio State
fans loved Utah because Utah has been able to has
(05:17):
helped Ohio State in terms of the national picture, clearing
teams out of the way, things like that. There was
obviously the Great Rose Bowl game between Ohio State and Utah.
But people maybe don't watch Utah on the regular I mean, what,
what what what makes Kyle Whittingham tick? What are you know,
what are some of the things that that he may
be able to carry over from program to program? I
(05:40):
mean for a coach that obviously has you know, not
coached east of Utah or Idaho for his career.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, the beauty of it is is Kyle Whittingham Like,
if you ask anybody what Utah football resembles, it resembles
a big, big ten type program. Okay, so the toughness,
the physicality, very defensive oriented. Okay, the one thing that
Michigan fans might go nuts with on occasion is Whittingham's
(06:12):
propensity to run the football, but he does it in
a very strategic way. To he he strongly believes and
I'm a believer too, defense wins championships and that's what
he hangs his hat on. And so Michigan needs to
get ready for a very sound, solid defensive team. If
(06:32):
Jason Beck heads over with him for the offensive side,
which it does sound like that is about to happen,
then Utah's got a really really Utah. See, Michigan's got
a I'm so used to that, right, because it's like
Utah has not had a change head coach twenty one years. Man.
(06:54):
But uh yeah, you know, then Michigan has a very
very capable, competent offensive mind that I'm really kind of
curious to see what he will be able to do
with the type of athletes that Michigan has. And I know,
you know, Utah was well known for running the football
this year as one of the top in the country.
(07:16):
But at the same time, too, Beck wants to throw
the football if he can, just to keep the teams
honest and so I don't think mute fans were even
able to see the best of what Jason Beck can
bring as an offensive coordinator. But yeah, I mean, really,
just when it comes down to it, you know, they're
they're gonna have a team that you know, everybody respects.
(07:39):
You know, it's uh, it's gonna be a team that
pisses everybody off because they're just gonna, you know, Hamri
and Hamri and Hamria and you know, do it in
a way that might not always be flashy, but they're
gonna win football games. Whittingham's gonna have them on the
right track. I don't think Whittingham's gonna fit five years.
(08:02):
I think you're probably looking at three to four. But
I think that this is really one of those where
Michigan needed stability, and that's what Kyle brings. His stability,
you know what you're getting with them. And Kyle doesn't
care about you know, just any of the theatrics, any
of that stuff. He wants to win football games. That's
(08:22):
that's what he's there for. That man hates losing worse
than anybody I've ever been around. And that's that's one
of the key themes with him that anybody you talk
to that has known that man for years or you know,
worked alongside him. He hates losing, absolutely hates losing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You you kind of got to my question about it
being a five year deal. He's sixty six, that would
get him to seventy one. I was highly skeptical that
he might get to, you know, coach out the five
year deal. I mean, maybe he's somebody who you know,
you create the new coaching tree. I mean, obviously a
lot of the Jim Harbaugh tree has been able to
(09:07):
bear poisonous fruit. Yeah, they got their natty, but there
been there there have been a lot of been a
lot of issues and everything else, now, you know, but
to dovetail into something else, obviously, Kyle Whittingham and Urban
Meyer have history together. Does does Urban completely cut Kyle off?
I mean, because you know, Urban certainly has no love
(09:27):
for what is effectually known and I use the term
affectionately in the loosest of terms, the team up North
and you know, obviously they have a you know, a
solid working relationship, and now you know are very different
sides of this rivalry.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I mean, you guys might need to get used to
uh Ohio State fans might need to get used to
U Kyle not using the name either, so that that
might be a fun little back and forth that everybody
gets going. So you know what I mean, really like
when it comes down to it, that's gonna be interesting
(10:04):
because those two highly respect each other. They talk to
each other on a constant basis. Friendship exceeds. You know
what colors you're wearing and what schools you represent. It
just does. Right. The one comfort I can give Ohio
State fans is a comfort that I can also give
Utah fans, though, is that Urban Meyer is going to
(10:27):
be spending a lot more time energy helping Morgan Scaley
now at the University of Utah then Kyle right, because
Morgan was one of his team captains. Morgan is beloved
by Urban. When Urban was at Florida, Morgan had the
choice to go and be a graduate assistant at Florida
(10:48):
or a graduate assistant at Utah. And that man has
been born and raised a Youte that is in his blood.
He's the ultimate Utah man. So it was it was
a difficult decision for him not to go with somebody
like Urban because he knew the fast track he'd be
on he probably would have been a head coach ten
years ago, right, but he knew the path and uh
(11:09):
and him and him and Urban have stayed close ever since.
So yeah, it's Irvan. Urban will spend a lot more
time focusing with Scally now than wooding him.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And we'll get back to Morgan here in a in
a second. For Ohio State fans that don't remember the
name from the Rose Bowl, he is the one stepping
into the Utah head coaching position with the departure of
of Kyle. Now, you know, we talked about and he's
talked about. You know, he was in the transfer portal.
I mean, you know, coach there twenty one years things
(11:41):
didn't come together. There are going to be people who
are gonna say that, you know, had he lost his fastball.
But you seem to think that he's still every every
bit the competitor and wants to you know, once you know,
once it as badly as he did five years ago,
ten years ago, twenty one years ago. I mean, you know,
go into a little more depth on that one.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, you know, here's the interesting thing with Kyle and
this is also why the Utah situation led to this
situation that it did okay is back around twenty nineteen.
That's when everybody started hearing like, you know, okay, Kyle's
close to retiring. And then for different reasons each time,
you know, the goal line kept getting moved, ball kept
(12:25):
getting punted down the road. And so last year, for instance,
about four games into the season, he had told the
team that that was going to be his last year.
The Wills fell off, right, And because I talked about
how that man just absolutely hates losing, he couldn't leave
the program and the team in a situation like that,
and so he came back for this year, and again
(12:48):
I talked about his competitiveness NonStop, right, And man, the
guy's a football life. For his love for football knows
no bounds. Like you know, everybody talks about family, faith
in football. You know, he'll say it, and you know
in that order probably, but at the same time too,
I mean, it's football is number one for that man.
(13:12):
It's just what it is. That's what his life is,
and that's what a lot of people will tell you
as well. Right, And so you know, he goes ten
to two at Utah and the juices get going. He
sees what he's able to do with this type of offense.
And you know, again, you know they did this without
being able to have a quarterback that really had a
(13:33):
good consistent deep ball, right, and they were still able
to put up ten wins. And so you know that's
where he started to have this having this internal battle
and stuff like that. And you know, I'll I can
get into everything, like the nitty gritty on how everything
went down from Utah's perspective, probably on a on another thing,
(13:56):
but uh, you know, it's just the dominoes that led
to Kyle still wanted to coach another five to six years,
but at the same time too, like you know, Utah
was ready for that other direction because they've been so
close to knowing that it needed to happen for so long.
(14:17):
That change is good for everybody in this situation. It's
only gonna it's it's going. It's gonna better Utah. You know,
Will it happen immediately, I don't know, but there's a
lot of positive from Utah's perspective on this. Will it
better Michigan immediately, absolutely absolutely, it's they're they're gonna have
a much better foundation. And again it's just because the
(14:41):
guy lives and breeze football like it will rub off
on people and again Michigan fans. Michigan fans are gonna
love it. It's it's gonna create, man, it's going to
create a fun rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Ohio State fans don't want fun and they just want
it to be one sided in their direct You gotta
you got a tremendous You got a tremendous rivalry out
there with the Holy war, you know, between b y
U and Utah. So I mean, I'm not telling you
anything you don't know about rivalry or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, which is which is another crazy thing we'll
be able to talk about, right But but no, what
was crazy to me is the last few days seeing
a bunch of tweets out there and talking about what
Ohio State did you know? To to Utah's defense, I
need to remind Ohio State fans, Okay one, you guys
(15:33):
had a generational receiving corps. Okay two, Utah was playing
their fourth and fifth string defensive backs and are running
back was playing defensive back that it only practiced defensive
back for like three weeks. Right, So it's uh, details
(15:56):
detailed false confidence a little bit. I'll just I'll say
that for the Buckeyes fans. But man, I love the
Buck Eyes fans. Man, all all the interactions I've had
with them, especially ever since the Rose bull. It's just
you guys are a good group. Man, It's a fun
fan base.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Let's kind of talk about the position itself. Now, other
names had been mentioned, you know, whether or not they
were realistic, you know, the Kaitlin de Boor being the
unrealistic one in my opinion, Kenny Dillingham, Jed Fish among
some of the other names. I mean, I think if
you talked to Michigan fans they thought that, like, you know,
(16:34):
resurrected Vince Lombardi should have gotten the job or something
like that. But you know, obviously you have so much
proximity to having covered Kyle Whittingham teams for years. So
it's a big enough name to make a splash. I mean,
you know, I sent you there's a great Twitter account
out there called message board Geniuses, and there were some
(16:54):
shocking overreactions about fans that were not very happy with
name of Kyle Whittingham. But you know, is this is
this a big enough higher I mean and I'm not
talking of is he capable of doing the job. That's
not the that's not the question. The question is is
this going to be splashy enough to keep you know,
some of the you know, the peanut gallery happy.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean, look, even though Utah has been on the
rise for a lot of years, and the last you know,
five years or so of the PAC twelve was right
at the top of that, there's a lot of places
that still look at Utah and respect them, but viewed
them as as a peg down right, And so I
(17:38):
don't know how splashy of a hired it's going to be. Look,
Kyle's not the type that's gonna go Eric, Eric Whittel
and I were talking about this the other night. You know,
played for the Chargers Ravens for years, you know, twenty tens,
all decades. Team he played at Utah and he was
he was one of Whittingham's most legendary recruiting stories too,
(17:59):
because Urban didn't want it and then you know, the
rest is history. But anyways, with that, we were just talking.
You know, Kyle's not the type that's gonna go and
try to win over the fan base with you know,
flashy news conferences, going above and beyond making everybody happy
(18:20):
and so on and so forth, you know, just kissing babies,
you know, whining and dying and all that stuff. That's
the thing that Michigan fans got to get used to.
What they gotta what they got to understand is Kyle
wants to win football games. And so to me, it's
not I don't know that it's a flashy higher, but
it's a higher that's gonna win them a lot of
(18:41):
games and it's going to make them extremely difficult to beat.
And you're also going to find out that Kyle Whittingham
coach teams usually after a team has played them, even
if they have won that week, Okay, Kyle Whittingham teams
have beaten and battered them so bad during that game
(19:04):
that usually the week and two after, records of those
teams that would have played Utah and beat them it's
not very good. So yeah, I mean, it's just again
it's it's the results, not not flashy, but he's he's
gonna win games. And so that's I just I just
(19:24):
asked Michigan fans to have the confidence in knowing that,
you know, you have a guy that's going to be
in the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach.
Sit back and realize that and know that quite frankly,
the program had turned into a shit show, you know,
with some of the antics that had gone on, right,
(19:45):
and now you have a guy that is going to
bring the respect factor back to that program and it's
going to be fun for that fan base.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Mentioned names of a couple of coaches that could go along,
you know, and not necessarily all of them from Utah.
I mean obviously we you know, we talked about j
Hill out of BYU, Jason Beck potentially as as as
an O C. I mean, if if he has a
tandem of Hill and Beck as his coordinators, you know,
(20:17):
on the national I mean on the national scale, I mean,
where do you know where does that coordinator tandem kind
of rank. And I'm not saying, you know what well,
I mean obviously like the fourth best in the country.
I mean, you know, there's no way to really quantify that,
but you know what I mean, what type of you know,
brain trust does he have? If it if it's that duo.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You're landing the one of the probably top five defensive
coordinators in the country to go along with Whittingham's defensive
mindset as well. It's one of his greatest progis that
he's adding coaching and so you've got the coumbo of
those two when it comes to defense, and that's that's
a huge, huge deal. Okay, you give Jason Beck a
(20:59):
quarterback that in offense to Devin Danpier. I mean, he
was playing the season hurt ever since pretty much the
UCLA game and fought through it, right, but there's no secret.
I mean he's five ten and doesn't can't throw a
deep ball. So you give Jason Beck that type of
offense that he was able to have and then have
(21:20):
a quarterback that can hit those deep balls or even
intermediate routes consistently. Just to keep the guys honest, that
is going to be probably a top five, top ten
duo in the entire country. That's that's how good those
two will be together.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
What's going through Morgan Scalley's mind right now? You sit there,
you get elevated, you get your shot, you're there. Kyle
Whittingham rides off into the sunset, apparently, so you think,
and then Kyle comes gets a you know, a powerful
type of job at you know, I'm not I'm not
here to praise Michigan. I'm here to bury them. But
(21:59):
you know, at a prestigious school or infamous, it depends
on your point of view. What's going through his mind
now that he's has to sit there and be on
defense to try and keep what he can of his
staff together and the portals opening as well, and what
that could mean.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You know, I love that question because that's something that
we talked about on my EU Nation podcast that we
actually just released Sunday, And so you know, change isn't
always bad, right, And it's one of those things for
you fans that you know, I'm trying to tell them that,
like it seems bad right now, but just breathe, because
(22:38):
there's a plan for everything. There's a pivot for everything. Right.
Jason Beck was phenomenal this last year, okay. But what
I can tell everybody is, and it's something that I've
talked about, is last year when everything was going on,
there was for instance, Ben Arba at Oklahoma, Okay, he
(23:02):
was Morgan's top choice because everybody knew the transition that
was going to be coming, and there was more even
being said those coaches behind the scenes, so they understood
everything that was going on. Okay, our Buckle wanted to
coach for Morgan. He didn't want to coach for whitting him. Okay,
for numerous different reasons. He respected Whittingham, right, but you know,
(23:24):
everybody has their certain different levels of reason. I mean,
the one thing that Michigan will find out is before Beck,
I didn't have a long track record with offensive coordinators
sticking around under Kyle Whittingham. You know, so Andy Ludwig
was somebody that he had the utmost trust in, Okay,
and Ludwig was more of a yes man that that
(23:46):
was one of the things. Okay, and then they bring
Hi Beck, and Beck was phenomenal and that also kind
of helped breathe new life into Kyle. Okay. And so
the reason I say some of these things, man, and
I know I'm giving you longer answers on this, I
just I love going in depth sometimes, right. You know,
as good as Beck was for Utah, Scali has a
(24:09):
lot of respect from around the coaching circles and he
has a good idea of what he wants, and so
it's not necessarily an awful thing for Scali as long
as he can get his preference within this process too, right,
and so defensive coordinator wise Utah, was I should I
(24:33):
was gonna say, was I know what's going on behind
the scenes right now? The plan is that Colton Swan
is the new defensive coordinator. It's not been announced yet,
but that was always going to be a smooth, Yeah,
that was always going to be a smooth, seamless transition. Right. Offensively,
just because the staff had been around for one year,
(24:55):
like it was nice the progress that they had. But
at the same time, too, it allows more We're going
to get his guys in because Morgan has always believed
that at Utah he can have an Urban Meyer style
offense again his protege, the type of offense he loves,
combined with that really hard nosed, physical Kyle Whittingham defense.
(25:19):
And so you fans are about to find out. You know,
it might not it might not come to fruition this
first year, but year two, year three, it's going to
potentially speed up the process on you know, just kind
of the vision that Morgan has.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Not asking you to preach any trust because you do
such a great job of covering Utah, you probably know
stuff that you can't talk about or whatever. But we
saw Kurt Signetty leave James Madison and bring a handful
of players with him to Indiana. In Indiana in two years,
you know, pair of CFP birth wins the Big Ten
this year over Ohio State in the in the in
(25:53):
the conference championship game. Do you expect Kyle to maybe
try and bring a handful of players, maybe a couple
of key players, because I think that anybody that watched
Michigan this year knows that they did not have enough
of the Jimmys and Joe's to get it done. So,
(26:14):
I mean, obviously we've kind of touched upon the portal earlier,
but specifically bringing players from Utah, players that he trusts,
players that he's seen, players that he's not going to
have to evaluate quickly for the first time that he's
been around for one, two, three, four years, you know, whatever,
what have you.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You know, this whole time, I'd kind of and this
was before he had even accepted the job, and I'd
known what was likely going down, right like I had
said earlier, but I was always told that, you know,
he was gonna avoid really pulling from Utah's defensive staff
and try to dig into by us and then player wise,
he was going to really try to respect Morgan on
(26:56):
that aspect. It's easier said than done, though, right, you
just don't know what's gonna happen when somebody actually gets
into that situation and they have that opportunity, and it's
going to depend on the players too, you know. That's
that's the that's the thing. I mean, there's probably gonna
be a player too that go into the portal, go
to Michigan, and everybody's gonna want to cry foul on Kyle.
(27:18):
But I honestly do believe the Kyle's that type that
he is really respectful and not trying to bury Morgan.
I mean, he can have his certain feelings towards certain
people with the you heading out the door and everything.
Morgan's his guy, right And this still, like even this transition,
it's still will be a portion of Kyle's legacy with Utah.
(27:44):
And so yeah, I if a player goes in the portal,
if the player is the one pro proactive on that stuff,
then I can see that happening. I'll tell you this.
There's been people there's like, oh, well, Devin Dampier, I
I love guy. He's a great leader. I don't see
him as a fit at quarterback at Michigan. And Underwood's
(28:05):
not even in the portal yet, right, you know, and
so I I don't see that happening way Shawn Parker
Utah is running back. People are worried about that, but
it sounds like, uh, now you told me, I think
Alford is one of the coaches that's going to stay
at Michigan, correct, the running back coach.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
That I mean, if you listening to their people up there,
I mean I think that there's belief that they would
like him to stay. I mean, I'll tell you where.
He's not welcome in Columbus right now, but yeah, I
think that they're going to try to keep him.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You try to he coached up there. Huh.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
He coached at Ohio State Michigan. So we could do
a whole nother show on that one. But I mean,
I like, I likesly.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We need to do a bunch more shows regardless. Anyways, man,
I mean, look at all the Michigan contacts I have.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Right well, people watching.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
This, but yeah, so like when it comes down to that,
like wis Shaun Parker's is an absolute stud but his
coach that he followed from Washington State to Utah is
most likely staying at Utah. Marcott to why right from there? Yeah,
I mean, look, there's guys. There's a freshman JJ Buchanon.
(29:20):
He's listed as a tight end. He was gonna stay
a wide receiver at Utah. They actually moved him early
in the season and just decided not to tell anybody
so that it could throw off defensive schemes with him
thinking Utah was in certain formations, right, and so he's
a stud. He's somebody that you could worry about defensively.
(29:40):
There's a few, but I just again, I don't see
Utah's defense is so rock solid that those guys know
that the development track record they have there, they're better
off sticking there. You know, That's that's the one thing.
And I get Michigan great, right, and and Kyle being
there and Jay Hill it was a great defensive mind.
(30:01):
But still you know that's that's gonna be the one
side of the ball that will be a little bit
more difficult to pull from. I feel like I feel
like right, and then from b y U standpoint, because
of j Hill, there's a kid that I I anticipate
being like their prime target Uh and Michigan fans would
(30:21):
love him. Ohio State fans would hate him. Thought to
Uh fell into his last name anyway.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
The names I mean, yeah, yeah, it's not phonetics. I'll
tell you that. You see certain letters, doesn't mean that's
why it's pronounced. I've got a good friend and she
always just cringes when I try to make pronunciations.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I'm relatively good. I just I can't remember his exact
first name. It's I want to say it's ballat Valte.
But but yeah, that kid, he's a he's a big, physical,
rangey safety that in high school he had pretty much
he was leaning Utah and then and he did a
coin flip to see if he wanted to go to
(31:07):
Utah or by and I think, if I remember correctly,
it was because Jay Hill had just gone over to
BYU and b Yu and the coin flip. I'll tell
you if that if that kid would have been at
Utah this year, Utah might have even won at least
one more game. So he's a difference maker. That's somebody
that Michigan fans should should focus on. If he were
(31:30):
to hit the portal, which i'd anticipate now with with
Hill being gone.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Which is going to be more difficult for Kyle Whittingham
to overcome in terms of recruiting. And let me let
me preface that by saying the head coach is generally
not the guy putting on all the road miles and
everything else. He's the closer coffees for closers. You know,
you go out, I mean, yeah, you're doing some stuff,
but you go out and you shake hands and kiss
babies at the end and to get the signature or whatever.
(32:01):
But his you know, general you know, coaching in the
Rockies and West of the Rockies, or the fact that
he's sixty six years old. I mean, you know, I've
I've had the chance at that Rose Bowl to listen
to a couple of press conferences of Kyle. You know,
granted that was a couple of years ago, but let's
not make it sound like it was twenty years ago.
(32:22):
Very spry guy, very energetic guy. But which is gonna
which is gonna be more difficult because Michigan does have
a more national recruiting footprint than the Utah does. I mean,
let's let's just be honest. I mean, it's just how
it is. So which is going to be more of
a challenge for him.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
What was the first part of that question again.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Whether or not it's it's the location that he's only
I mean that he's been a coach at Utah for
one hundred and four years. And then was that you know,
whatever was Eastern Idaho or wherever it was, or or
the age thing.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I'd say maybe the age, but more more so like
set in his ways, you know, like I said, he's
not the type that's gonna go kiss babies and wine
and dying. But you bring people to him and he's
very he's very convincing, just because the confidence level that
he has, the track record that he has, and the
(33:20):
weight that his name carries in college football, you know,
I mean what you go and you listen to all
the national guys and they just sit back and lat
out say he's one of their favorite coaches that they've
ever covered, you know, just because what he's been able
to do at the University of Utah and and the
(33:41):
level that he's brought them up to, you know, And
so yeah, it's that's That's what I would say. With that,
It's gonna be interesting to see what he's able to do.
And you know, I would say, I think there's good
recruiters coming with them of the names that I've heard mentioned,
(34:04):
but they could probably do a better job of getting
somebody that is just one of those like Tosh Lapoy
level assistance that just is so magnetic to everybody and
so convincing from a recruiting standpoint.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I went through and we're wrapping up here, So thanks
for joining us here on the Big me kickoff. I'm
Kevin and joined by Ounce Markham of of Ute Nation,
Great Utah site, so check it out. I was looking
for what maybe that career defining moment was for Kyle
and I keep I kept going back to that two
(34:44):
thousand and eight season, when the undefeated season, when their
first win of the season was at Michigan of all places.
So I was like, well, you know, it's circle comes
all the way around or whatever? Is is that the
high water mark of his of his Utah career or
what what do you think is kind of the thing
that you know up until this point and you know
(35:05):
you're you're only as good as until your next game
or whatever. I you know, I understand that, but you know, what,
what do you think is the thing that you could
circle and say that that right there, that's Kyle Whittingham
that you know, whether it was a moment to just
a moment or a season or a game or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You know, to me, I'd say, and some people might
think I'm crazy on this, I'd say that's top three
or top five. I think the big thing was is
that was able to get them on, that was able
to solidify their standing on being the main team that
was going to be the ones breaking into the power
(35:45):
conferences right from from the from the G five, G
six eras and uh, you know, so that that was big.
But you know, you take a look at some of
stuff with you know, just the build up to Utah
coming of power in the PAC twelve. Right, they had
that twenty nineteen season that they were sitting there at
(36:06):
number five and all they needed to do was beat
over again. They had one of their key guys get
hurt the second play of the game and all Wills
fell off, right, So that was so close to being
one of those. But you know, the Rose Bowl seasons
were huge. I know, this year was one of his
favorite teams and favorite seasons of all time, considered one
of his best coaching jobs. But the number one I
(36:29):
would say, I would say is the twenty twenty two season,
And the reason for that is because you know they're
overcoming was it or what was it twenty twenty two
or twenty twenty one? Sorry, uh no, the twenty twenty
one season, I apologize. So the first rose ball getting
(36:53):
getting to play Ohio State. And the reason I say
that is because, you know, and the off season they
had just lost Ty Jordan generational running back to that
gunshot wound right, accidental, self afflicted, just like I think
about it and I can start choking up, so I
(37:14):
don't want to do that. But and then his best
friend that got into Utah of all people, okay, wearing
that same number to honor him, was murdered at a
party only a few games into that season, okay, And
(37:35):
next thing you know, Utah just rallies and gets going
and turns it around. And just to see like the
level of renew and excitement and Kyle and stuff like that,
and to see where that season was in the adversity
that they were hitting all they were doing and fighting
together and coming together as a team, and then to
(37:56):
see that go that way. And then the next year,
those those two combined, I would say, but that year
especially that that trumps even even though they didn't win
it against Ohio State. Okay, that absolutely trumps the two
thousand and eight season if you ask me, you know.
And what's funny to me too, is you know, to
(38:19):
kind of address something that BYU fans love bringing up.
They're like, oh, Utah fans love talking about that that
twenty twenty one year of the Rose Bowl against Ohio
State twenty twenty two Rose Bowl, but twenty twenty one season, right,
and they're like, they're like, why why are you guys
so proud of you know, being in a Rose Bowl
(38:43):
that you lost, And like the thing is is like
what nobody understands is you know again, you know the
adversity Utah went through that year, right, and to be
able to get to that point and be on that
stage and also know like, look, Ohio State was missing
guys sitting out right, Utah was missing guys sitting out
(39:04):
and to see Utah go toe to toe with one
of the premier programs in college football and know that
much more that the program had arrived on the scene
and know that Utah was gonna beat you guys. If
Cam Rasen didn't get knocked out with that concussion, but
I know, I know, but uh but yeah, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Don't know why they kept kicking to that little kickoff
return on a covey for you guys, because that was
just that was just stupid. That was just Ohio State.
You know, Ohio State has not had a good special
teams planned since then.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah, what what people don't understand is just how competitive
and fun that game was. It was. It was probably
one of the most exciting Rose bulls there's there's been,
you know, And so yeah, I mean, definitely long answer
for you. I know, I can give you plenty of
long winded answers, but yeah, I just love talking with
you man and going through these things. But yeah, that
was that That would have definitely been the defining moment.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Last question, And appreciate you taking the time to talk
with us without looking at the schedule, without looking at
any of that. I mean, and everything is, everything is scheduled,
So asking you for like a prediction of what twenty
twenty six looks like is difficult. So I'm not going
to ask for like a record prediction because that's that's unfair.
But you know, Michigan is a national program. Where does
(40:22):
Michigan take the largest step forward under Kyle Whittingham, Like
you know, and and that's such an open ended question,
but you know, you're you're creative enough. I think I
don't have to give you. I don't have to give
you major parameters to get a good answer. So where
do where does Michigan make its biggest step forward? Just
so Ohio State fans can start rooting against it.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I mean, let's talk about the obvious. And it's not
even necessarily an on the field thing. Respectability as a
program that is going to do things the right way,
and you know, just be competitive and be hard and
know right, that's that's the big thing, because I mean,
look like I've always respected Michigan. But at the same
(41:07):
time too, I'm everybody else in the entire country where
I sit back, and the Jim Harbaugh stuff was a joke. Okay, uh,
the shrown more stuff was a complete joke. I never
took that guy serious whatsoever, and I know a lot
of people in the country didn't take it serious. You know,
now you've got this guy that is going to bring
(41:29):
a respect factor to this program instantly when you needed
it the most because, like, let's face it, like all
those dominoes unfolded. It was unfortunate for Michigan, but it
was it was brutal, but at the same time too,
they helped cover it up, you know, they they hit
(41:49):
it for that long. Now you've got a guy that
you don't need to worry about that with, so that
respect factor is there, you know. Outside of that, I
have to see and I wasn't paying it enough attention
to Michigan this year, So I apologize on that. But
regardless of we're honest, regardless of how good that defense
(42:12):
was last year, it's gonna be it'll be a top five,
top ten defense this year. And this is just Kyle
Whittingham with you know, look, Utah has aloys had really
good guys on defense, but at some time too, Kyle
gets his guys, excuse me, to perform past their abilities
(42:35):
or get get the most out of their abilities, right,
And imagine Kyle doing that with a whole bunch of
four and five star guys, which you're probably gonna sit
back and watch that defense go up next year. And
the guys that are gonna be the main guys, the
superstars on that defense are probably gonna be guys that
(42:56):
were like low level three star guys in high school. Right.
That's Kyle to a t. It's just that's his development
that he does with his guys, and Jay Hill does
it the same way, you know. And so definitely the defense,
the defense is going to be dominant, and that's going
to put them in the national conversation and and uh,
(43:18):
you know, keep them squarely. I'm sorry Buckeyes fans, but
keep Michigan squarely in the you know, in the sites
for a playoff spot next year.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, I was going to say, you talked about want
to do more shows. I think they're going to run
you out of town with pitchforks. They don't want to
hear any of this. They want to hear that I texted.
I texted this to Alex when we were talking about
doing the show. It's like, now they want to hear
you say that he's lost his fastball and that the
water is too deep and he's not going to be
able to survive it. And you're you're like, I can't
(43:48):
do that, my guy.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I can't say that because that's not the case. You know,
we want to bring you, you know, the best possible
information out there, even if it isn't necessarily the best
possible information. But things are gonna get little with Dicey
now that Forny More is out of there and they
brought in. The grown ups are back in charge.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
The grown ups are back in charge, man, And I'll
tell you this, it's gonna be It's gonna be fun
watching that rivalry game next year. I and I'm I'm
I love watching Ohio State from the side. I'm a
I'm a big fan of you guys, and just you
know how you guys go about things, and it's it's
been it's been fun to see Ohio State doing so well,
(44:26):
you know so and just the amount of wide receivers
you guys just keep churning and churning and churning. Oh
my goodness, it's it's wild. So tons of respect for
that program. I'm just I'm blunt man, I'm a straight shooter.
And you know, if if Ohio State beats Michigan next year,
then you know, Ohio State is sitting there nice and
(44:50):
pretty for a very high level CFP ranking, so they
can do it.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You know, Ohio State sched next year is a is
a beast. They go to Texas, among other places they go,
It's gonna be It's gonna be Texas.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Is you never know what you're gonna get with you.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Never you never never know what you're gonna get there.
And I'm sitting there, I'm filibustering as I pull up
the schedule. You'd think that I but have it memorized
by now.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
But the big ten now consistent, man, Ohio State is
always consistent. Then you got somebody like Texas the oh
they're the greatest thing, like best team ever is gonna
be this year and they're like not even top twenty
five like Texas. You just you never know what Texas man.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Well, well, Ohio State's road schedule next year they go
to Texas, to Indiana, to Iowa, to Nebraska and to
us C.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
So, oh, you guys got USC man.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
But again again, it would be like, you know, if
if Utah had to go out to I don't know,
I mean Uga or something like that. I mean, and now,
Uga is a hell of a lot better than USC.
And I'm sure I'm gonna hear about it from that
arrogant Nation account or somebody one of one of the
big USC mouthpieces out there that I talked to from
time to time, It's like, how dare you say we're
(46:07):
not as good as uga? Well, I'm just telling you,
but they're not.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
They're not. No, they're not. But having being in the
big ten might run out Lincoln Riley, There you go.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
We were always looking for a little soundbites. So we
got our We got our SoundBite. It only took us
forty six minutes, so we got our SoundBite. Here at
the very end, I will have to mark that one
and uh and and and and send send that one
on for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
But in any any.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Final passing thoughts, I, oh, we're going to do thirty minutes,
you know, thirty minutes and out and here we are.
We're not going to an hour. I promise you that
I want to watch.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
We can go an hour. I don't care. What else
do you want?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
I got laundry to fold, I got I've got, I've
got I've got domestic chores. But in any other thoughts
on this that maybe I've missed on, or if just
anything else, as you're as, you're not endearing yourself to
Ohio State fans by being very in favor of this
coaching move.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Hey, Ohio State's still the better program and better team. Man,
I've said that, right, And look, here's here's the thing,
And this is something I've told everybody with Utah and
BYU because that rivalry I mean held you know Klonie Sataki,
their head coach, being a beloved former Utah assistant and
then getting a whole bunch of ex Utah assistants on
his staff down there. Right, it's you know, BYU's done
(47:23):
so well the last few years, and it's only elevated
both teams, right, And so it's a good that's a
good healthy rivalry. This is going to maintain and stay
a good, healthy rivalry. You know, Ohio State is in
there done that. They're not going anywhere. They're staying at
the top. Right. It's only gonna make it more fun
(47:45):
for the fans and more fun for the programs, and
more fun for everybody nationally seeing both of these teams
do extremely well, you know. And uh so, yeah, it's again,
healthy rivalries are only going to better each team. So
that's that's the main thing with that. And I'm not
slamming Ohio State at all, man, because you know, I
(48:08):
love Ohio State. I'm just again I'm blunt, like I
am a huge Kyle Whittingham fan. You know, I can
I can get you, guys, Zach moss On on the
show at one point, if you guys want to, you
guys can get a little bit more insight into Kyle
Whittingham the man, Kyle Whittingham the coach, and just kind
(48:28):
of what to expect, you know, especially from one of
the recent goats of all goats of Utah football. Right,
but with Zach obviously Kyle too, right, but Zach, Zach was,
Zach was awesome at Utah and he's he's a great interview.
So you guys want to talk to him, I'll I'll
make that happen for you too.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
I'm gonna quote I'm gonna quote Ryan Day though, and
then we're gonna say good night. You know what's fun?
Kicking ass? Kicking ass is fun. So you can talk
about healthy relations, healthy rivalries and everything else. But you know,
there were there was a point where Ohio State was
very dominant in the rivalry against Michigan, and there was
a very vocal minority out there. It's like, well, I
(49:08):
wish Michigan were more competitive because that would be more
fun and then Michigan ran off a couple of wins.
The legitimacy of those winds remains to be seen. But
I'm not a wind denier. But I'm also here. You know,
I also have two eyes or four eyes to.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I didn't, did I deny those two? Hey? And apparently
Michigan had a whole bunch of eyes right.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, you know they I digress, I digress. I'm gonna
I've made it this long without getting myself in trouble.
I don't intend to getting myself in trouble here.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
But I'll give myself in trouble. There you go, There
you go.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
But Alex, I want to thank you for being part
of the show and you know, all the all the
insight there, and I'm sure we'll have you back on
if not on the Big me kickoff, but maybe on
Buckeye Weeklight, Buckeye Weekly, or buck Eye tomorrow morning once
we get through the business of Ohio State's college football
playoff run. But you know, we'll see as the names
come together here as Kyle Whittingham starts to lock in
(50:08):
his staff. But until the next time, I want to
thank everybody for watching here on Buckeyehuddle Dot com and
I'll talk to y'all very soon.
Welcome to the Big MET kickoff. I am your host,
Kevin Noon, and as you see, of course, I have
a special guest. I want to wish everybody happy holidays.
I hope everybody has had their fill of holiday meals.
I know that I was invited to Christmas dinner and
I'm still going through leftovers and all this. But joined
by Alex Markham of Ute Nation And if you haven't
been able to put it all together, we're talking a
(00:22):
little bit about Michigan's new head coach, Kyle Whittingham. But
first and foremost, Alex, how are you doing, man?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm good man. It's always good seeing you, dude, always
good talking with you.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Absolutely, It's kind of shocking to me that it took
me as long to do the mental gymnastics of hey,
I should probably reach out to Alex. I've known Alex
for years and years and years and years, and you've
always done such a great job of covering the utes,
and you know, it was one of these things of
(00:55):
it was leaning toward Kyle getting the job when we
first start started talking about doing this, and within six
hours of our first conversation about it. Pete Thedamil of
ESPN was confirming it was a done deal. So I mean,
kind of explain things from your side of the equation,
from from what's happening in Utah. Did this come together quickly?
(01:19):
I mean, did you know? How did how did you know?
Speaker 2 (01:21):
How?
Speaker 1 (01:22):
How was the whole genesis of this? From your side
of things, I mean, obviously Kyle was no longer no
longer the head coach of the Utes, and we'll talk
about that here in a second, But you know, how
did this all come together?
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, when when he ended up stepping down, call
it whatever you want, Like, there's a million different stories
to a million different sites, he still had that spark,
he still had that fire, right, and so it was
just one of those where a situation like this goes
down where he still has that competitive juice and even
(01:55):
though it was maybe time at Utah, you know, he's
still he's competitive to the point where he still wants
to prove himself right. And then all of a sudden,
the Michigan stuff goes down and here's this program that
is just Kyle's the perfect fit for it right now,
right like it makes too much sense. You had the
Shenanigans of Jim Harbaugh. You had the craziness of more right,
(02:20):
both great coaches, but debatable on how you'd want to
run a program. Okay, Now you get somebody in there
like Whittingham, who, in twenty one years of coaching the
University of Utah and thirty two as a coach there
in general, Okay, has never had a scandal. He's ran
(02:41):
clean program, He's done it the right way everybody. That's
that's what he's respected for, right and the focus needs
for Michigan right now needs to be on the team. Okay.
Whittingham has always had that team and family mentality approach,
and so all these things I'm maybe going scroll a
(03:02):
little bit, but there's reasons I'm saying this stuff right.
It just it all lines up. It all made too
much sense, to the point where when this went down
and the Michigan stuff was open, me and a lot
of people around Utah watch this, watch this, and you
know I started hearing that his campid, you know, put
(03:23):
out fillers to Michigan saying like, look, this is the
situation on this. He still has the fire, he's interested,
this is the perfect fit for you guys. I know
at one point early on, there was at least a
phone call. I'm not sure how the interview process fully went. Okay,
but when it comes to somebody like Kyle Whittingham, the
track record speaks for itself, right, the respect factor speaks
(03:47):
for itself. You don't need to do a full scale
interview with him, right. And so, really, from the get go,
even though all those other names were being talked about,
I had this sense just from talk to everybody that
it was always going to come down to Michigan and Kyle.
It just it just made too much sense. I had
been pretty much told almost going like between the last
(04:10):
ten to fourteen days. Okay, I was slat out told,
Kyle's going to Michigan. There's you know, there's a reason
things are unfolding behind the scenes to the way that
they are with them right now, look for it to
go down. The process got sped up, but it was
look for it to go down right after Utah's Bowl
(04:30):
games so that he can finish the process with the guys.
And I think that really just and it just it
needed to be sped up because you know, Michigan needed
a plan, They needed some stability going in right before
the transfer portal. But yeah, man, it it really was
no surprise to me the last the last few days
(04:52):
that it was coming. It was really just a matter
of time to me.
Speaker 1 (04:56):
I mean a lot of different ways I can go
with this next question, because I I wrote out a
list of questions and we're going to kind of jump
around on them. But no, what what People who have
not maybe followed Kyle Whittingham and now obviously Ohio State
fans loved Utah because Utah has been able to has
(05:17):
helped Ohio State in terms of the national picture, clearing
teams out of the way, things like that. There was
obviously the Great Rose Bowl game between Ohio State and Utah.
But people maybe don't watch Utah on the regular I mean, what,
what what what makes Kyle Whittingham tick? What are you know,
what are some of the things that that he may
be able to carry over from program to program? I
(05:40):
mean for a coach that obviously has you know, not
coached east of Utah or Idaho for his career.
Speaker 2 (05:48):
Yeah, the beauty of it is is Kyle Whittingham Like,
if you ask anybody what Utah football resembles, it resembles
a big, big ten type program. Okay, so the toughness,
the physicality, very defensive oriented. Okay, the one thing that
Michigan fans might go nuts with on occasion is Whittingham's
(06:12):
propensity to run the football, but he does it in
a very strategic way. To he he strongly believes and
I'm a believer too, defense wins championships and that's what
he hangs his hat on. And so Michigan needs to
get ready for a very sound, solid defensive team. If
(06:32):
Jason Beck heads over with him for the offensive side,
which it does sound like that is about to happen,
then Utah's got a really really Utah. See, Michigan's got
a I'm so used to that, right, because it's like
Utah has not had a change head coach twenty one years. Man.
(06:54):
But uh yeah, you know, then Michigan has a very
very capable, competent offensive mind that I'm really kind of
curious to see what he will be able to do
with the type of athletes that Michigan has. And I know,
you know, Utah was well known for running the football
this year as one of the top in the country.
(07:16):
But at the same time, too, Beck wants to throw
the football if he can, just to keep the teams
honest and so I don't think mute fans were even
able to see the best of what Jason Beck can
bring as an offensive coordinator. But yeah, I mean, really,
just when it comes down to it, you know, they're
they're gonna have a team that you know, everybody respects.
(07:39):
You know, it's uh, it's gonna be a team that
pisses everybody off because they're just gonna, you know, Hamri
and Hamri and Hamria and you know, do it in
a way that might not always be flashy, but they're
gonna win football games. Whittingham's gonna have them on the
right track. I don't think Whittingham's gonna fit five years.
(08:02):
I think you're probably looking at three to four. But
I think that this is really one of those where
Michigan needed stability, and that's what Kyle brings. His stability,
you know what you're getting with them. And Kyle doesn't
care about you know, just any of the theatrics, any
of that stuff. He wants to win football games. That's
(08:22):
that's what he's there for. That man hates losing worse
than anybody I've ever been around. And that's that's one
of the key themes with him that anybody you talk
to that has known that man for years or you know,
worked alongside him. He hates losing, absolutely hates losing.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
You you kind of got to my question about it
being a five year deal. He's sixty six, that would
get him to seventy one. I was highly skeptical that
he might get to, you know, coach out the five
year deal. I mean, maybe he's somebody who you know,
you create the new coaching tree. I mean, obviously a
lot of the Jim Harbaugh tree has been able to
(09:07):
bear poisonous fruit. Yeah, they got their natty, but there
been there there have been a lot of been a
lot of issues and everything else, now, you know, but
to dovetail into something else, obviously, Kyle Whittingham and Urban
Meyer have history together. Does does Urban completely cut Kyle off?
I mean, because you know, Urban certainly has no love
(09:27):
for what is effectually known and I use the term
affectionately in the loosest of terms, the team up North
and you know, obviously they have a you know, a
solid working relationship, and now you know are very different
sides of this rivalry.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
I mean, you guys might need to get used to
uh Ohio State fans might need to get used to
U Kyle not using the name either, so that that
might be a fun little back and forth that everybody
gets going. So you know what I mean, really like
when it comes down to it, that's gonna be interesting
(10:04):
because those two highly respect each other. They talk to
each other on a constant basis. Friendship exceeds. You know
what colors you're wearing and what schools you represent. It
just does. Right. The one comfort I can give Ohio
State fans is a comfort that I can also give
Utah fans, though, is that Urban Meyer is going to
(10:27):
be spending a lot more time energy helping Morgan Scaley
now at the University of Utah then Kyle right, because
Morgan was one of his team captains. Morgan is beloved
by Urban. When Urban was at Florida, Morgan had the
choice to go and be a graduate assistant at Florida
(10:48):
or a graduate assistant at Utah. And that man has
been born and raised a Youte that is in his blood.
He's the ultimate Utah man. So it was it was
a difficult decision for him not to go with somebody
like Urban because he knew the fast track he'd be
on he probably would have been a head coach ten
years ago, right, but he knew the path and uh
(11:09):
and him and him and Urban have stayed close ever since.
So yeah, it's Irvan. Urban will spend a lot more
time focusing with Scally now than wooding him.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And we'll get back to Morgan here in a in
a second. For Ohio State fans that don't remember the
name from the Rose Bowl, he is the one stepping
into the Utah head coaching position with the departure of
of Kyle. Now, you know, we talked about and he's
talked about. You know, he was in the transfer portal.
I mean, you know, coach there twenty one years things
(11:41):
didn't come together. There are going to be people who
are gonna say that, you know, had he lost his fastball.
But you seem to think that he's still every every
bit the competitor and wants to you know, once you know,
once it as badly as he did five years ago,
ten years ago, twenty one years ago. I mean, you know,
go into a little more depth on that one.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Yeah, you know, here's the interesting thing with Kyle and
this is also why the Utah situation led to this
situation that it did okay is back around twenty nineteen.
That's when everybody started hearing like, you know, okay, Kyle's
close to retiring. And then for different reasons each time,
you know, the goal line kept getting moved, ball kept
(12:25):
getting punted down the road. And so last year, for instance,
about four games into the season, he had told the
team that that was going to be his last year.
The Wills fell off, right, And because I talked about
how that man just absolutely hates losing, he couldn't leave
the program and the team in a situation like that,
and so he came back for this year, and again
(12:48):
I talked about his competitiveness NonStop, right, And man, the
guy's a football life. For his love for football knows
no bounds. Like you know, everybody talks about family, faith
in football. You know, he'll say it, and you know
in that order probably, but at the same time too,
I mean, it's football is number one for that man.
(13:12):
It's just what it is. That's what his life is,
and that's what a lot of people will tell you
as well. Right, And so you know, he goes ten
to two at Utah and the juices get going. He
sees what he's able to do with this type of offense.
And you know, again, you know they did this without
being able to have a quarterback that really had a
(13:33):
good consistent deep ball, right, and they were still able
to put up ten wins. And so you know that's
where he started to have this having this internal battle
and stuff like that. And you know, I'll I can
get into everything, like the nitty gritty on how everything
went down from Utah's perspective, probably on a on another thing,
(13:56):
but uh, you know, it's just the dominoes that led
to Kyle still wanted to coach another five to six years,
but at the same time too, like you know, Utah
was ready for that other direction because they've been so
close to knowing that it needed to happen for so long.
(14:17):
That change is good for everybody in this situation. It's
only gonna it's it's going. It's gonna better Utah. You know,
Will it happen immediately, I don't know, but there's a
lot of positive from Utah's perspective on this. Will it
better Michigan immediately, absolutely absolutely, it's they're they're gonna have
a much better foundation. And again it's just because the
(14:41):
guy lives and breeze football like it will rub off
on people and again Michigan fans. Michigan fans are gonna
love it. It's it's gonna create, man, it's going to
create a fun rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
Ohio State fans don't want fun and they just want
it to be one sided in their direct You gotta
you got a tremendous You got a tremendous rivalry out
there with the Holy war, you know, between b y
U and Utah. So I mean, I'm not telling you
anything you don't know about rivalry or anything like that.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Yeah, yeah, which is which is another crazy thing we'll
be able to talk about, right But but no, what
was crazy to me is the last few days seeing
a bunch of tweets out there and talking about what
Ohio State did you know? To to Utah's defense, I
need to remind Ohio State fans, Okay one, you guys
(15:33):
had a generational receiving corps. Okay two, Utah was playing
their fourth and fifth string defensive backs and are running
back was playing defensive back that it only practiced defensive
back for like three weeks. Right, So it's uh, details
(15:56):
detailed false confidence a little bit. I'll just I'll say
that for the Buckeyes fans. But man, I love the
Buck Eyes fans. Man, all all the interactions I've had
with them, especially ever since the Rose bull. It's just
you guys are a good group. Man, It's a fun
fan base.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Let's kind of talk about the position itself. Now, other
names had been mentioned, you know, whether or not they
were realistic, you know, the Kaitlin de Boor being the
unrealistic one in my opinion, Kenny Dillingham, Jed Fish among
some of the other names. I mean, I think if
you talked to Michigan fans they thought that, like, you know,
(16:34):
resurrected Vince Lombardi should have gotten the job or something
like that. But you know, obviously you have so much
proximity to having covered Kyle Whittingham teams for years. So
it's a big enough name to make a splash. I mean,
you know, I sent you there's a great Twitter account
out there called message board Geniuses, and there were some
(16:54):
shocking overreactions about fans that were not very happy with
name of Kyle Whittingham. But you know, is this is
this a big enough higher I mean and I'm not
talking of is he capable of doing the job. That's
not the that's not the question. The question is is
this going to be splashy enough to keep you know,
some of the you know, the peanut gallery happy.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
I mean, look, even though Utah has been on the
rise for a lot of years, and the last you know,
five years or so of the PAC twelve was right
at the top of that, there's a lot of places
that still look at Utah and respect them, but viewed
them as as a peg down right, And so I
(17:38):
don't know how splashy of a hired it's going to be. Look,
Kyle's not the type that's gonna go Eric, Eric Whittel
and I were talking about this the other night. You know,
played for the Chargers Ravens for years, you know, twenty tens,
all decades. Team he played at Utah and he was
he was one of Whittingham's most legendary recruiting stories too,
(17:59):
because Urban didn't want it and then you know, the
rest is history. But anyways, with that, we were just talking.
You know, Kyle's not the type that's gonna go and
try to win over the fan base with you know,
flashy news conferences, going above and beyond making everybody happy
(18:20):
and so on and so forth, you know, just kissing babies,
you know, whining and dying and all that stuff. That's
the thing that Michigan fans got to get used to.
What they gotta what they got to understand is Kyle
wants to win football games. And so to me, it's
not I don't know that it's a flashy higher, but
it's a higher that's gonna win them a lot of
(18:41):
games and it's going to make them extremely difficult to beat.
And you're also going to find out that Kyle Whittingham
coach teams usually after a team has played them, even
if they have won that week, Okay, Kyle Whittingham teams
have beaten and battered them so bad during that game
(19:04):
that usually the week and two after, records of those
teams that would have played Utah and beat them it's
not very good. So yeah, I mean, it's just again
it's it's the results, not not flashy, but he's he's
gonna win games. And so that's I just I just
(19:24):
asked Michigan fans to have the confidence in knowing that,
you know, you have a guy that's going to be
in the College Football Hall of Fame as a coach.
Sit back and realize that and know that quite frankly,
the program had turned into a shit show, you know,
with some of the antics that had gone on, right,
(19:45):
and now you have a guy that is going to
bring the respect factor back to that program and it's
going to be fun for that fan base.
Speaker 1 (19:57):
Mentioned names of a couple of coaches that could go along,
you know, and not necessarily all of them from Utah.
I mean obviously we you know, we talked about j
Hill out of BYU, Jason Beck potentially as as as
an O C. I mean, if if he has a
tandem of Hill and Beck as his coordinators, you know,
(20:17):
on the national I mean on the national scale, I mean,
where do you know where does that coordinator tandem kind
of rank. And I'm not saying, you know what well,
I mean obviously like the fourth best in the country.
I mean, you know, there's no way to really quantify that,
but you know what I mean, what type of you know,
brain trust does he have? If it if it's that duo.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
You're landing the one of the probably top five defensive
coordinators in the country to go along with Whittingham's defensive
mindset as well. It's one of his greatest progis that
he's adding coaching and so you've got the coumbo of
those two when it comes to defense, and that's that's
a huge, huge deal. Okay, you give Jason Beck a
(20:59):
quarterback that in offense to Devin Danpier. I mean, he
was playing the season hurt ever since pretty much the
UCLA game and fought through it, right, but there's no secret.
I mean he's five ten and doesn't can't throw a
deep ball. So you give Jason Beck that type of
offense that he was able to have and then have
(21:20):
a quarterback that can hit those deep balls or even
intermediate routes consistently. Just to keep the guys honest, that
is going to be probably a top five, top ten
duo in the entire country. That's that's how good those
two will be together.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
What's going through Morgan Scalley's mind right now? You sit there,
you get elevated, you get your shot, you're there. Kyle
Whittingham rides off into the sunset, apparently, so you think,
and then Kyle comes gets a you know, a powerful
type of job at you know, I'm not I'm not
here to praise Michigan. I'm here to bury them. But
(21:59):
you know, at a prestigious school or infamous, it depends
on your point of view. What's going through his mind
now that he's has to sit there and be on
defense to try and keep what he can of his
staff together and the portals opening as well, and what
that could mean.
Speaker 2 (22:17):
You know, I love that question because that's something that
we talked about on my EU Nation podcast that we
actually just released Sunday, And so you know, change isn't
always bad, right, And it's one of those things for
you fans that you know, I'm trying to tell them that,
like it seems bad right now, but just breathe, because
(22:38):
there's a plan for everything. There's a pivot for everything. Right.
Jason Beck was phenomenal this last year, okay. But what
I can tell everybody is, and it's something that I've
talked about, is last year when everything was going on,
there was for instance, Ben Arba at Oklahoma, Okay, he
(23:02):
was Morgan's top choice because everybody knew the transition that
was going to be coming, and there was more even
being said those coaches behind the scenes, so they understood
everything that was going on. Okay, our Buckle wanted to
coach for Morgan. He didn't want to coach for whitting him. Okay,
for numerous different reasons. He respected Whittingham, right, but you know,
(23:24):
everybody has their certain different levels of reason. I mean,
the one thing that Michigan will find out is before Beck,
I didn't have a long track record with offensive coordinators
sticking around under Kyle Whittingham. You know, so Andy Ludwig
was somebody that he had the utmost trust in, Okay,
and Ludwig was more of a yes man that that
(23:46):
was one of the things. Okay, and then they bring
Hi Beck, and Beck was phenomenal and that also kind
of helped breathe new life into Kyle. Okay. And so
the reason I say some of these things, man, and
I know I'm giving you longer answers on this, I
just I love going in depth sometimes, right. You know,
as good as Beck was for Utah, Scali has a
(24:09):
lot of respect from around the coaching circles and he
has a good idea of what he wants, and so
it's not necessarily an awful thing for Scali as long
as he can get his preference within this process too, right,
and so defensive coordinator wise Utah, was I should I
(24:33):
was gonna say, was I know what's going on behind
the scenes right now? The plan is that Colton Swan
is the new defensive coordinator. It's not been announced yet,
but that was always going to be a smooth, Yeah,
that was always going to be a smooth, seamless transition. Right. Offensively,
just because the staff had been around for one year,
(24:55):
like it was nice the progress that they had. But
at the same time, too, it allows more We're going
to get his guys in because Morgan has always believed
that at Utah he can have an Urban Meyer style
offense again his protege, the type of offense he loves,
combined with that really hard nosed, physical Kyle Whittingham defense.
(25:19):
And so you fans are about to find out. You know,
it might not it might not come to fruition this
first year, but year two, year three, it's going to
potentially speed up the process on you know, just kind
of the vision that Morgan has.
Speaker 1 (25:33):
Not asking you to preach any trust because you do
such a great job of covering Utah, you probably know
stuff that you can't talk about or whatever. But we
saw Kurt Signetty leave James Madison and bring a handful
of players with him to Indiana. In Indiana in two years,
you know, pair of CFP birth wins the Big Ten
this year over Ohio State in the in the in
(25:53):
the conference championship game. Do you expect Kyle to maybe
try and bring a handful of players, maybe a couple
of key players, because I think that anybody that watched
Michigan this year knows that they did not have enough
of the Jimmys and Joe's to get it done. So,
(26:14):
I mean, obviously we've kind of touched upon the portal earlier,
but specifically bringing players from Utah, players that he trusts,
players that he's seen, players that he's not going to
have to evaluate quickly for the first time that he's
been around for one, two, three, four years, you know, whatever,
what have you.
Speaker 2 (26:33):
You know, this whole time, I'd kind of and this
was before he had even accepted the job, and I'd
known what was likely going down, right like I had
said earlier, but I was always told that, you know,
he was gonna avoid really pulling from Utah's defensive staff
and try to dig into by us and then player wise,
he was going to really try to respect Morgan on
(26:56):
that aspect. It's easier said than done, though, right, you
just don't know what's gonna happen when somebody actually gets
into that situation and they have that opportunity, and it's
going to depend on the players too, you know. That's
that's the that's the thing. I mean, there's probably gonna
be a player too that go into the portal, go
to Michigan, and everybody's gonna want to cry foul on Kyle.
(27:18):
But I honestly do believe the Kyle's that type that
he is really respectful and not trying to bury Morgan.
I mean, he can have his certain feelings towards certain
people with the you heading out the door and everything.
Morgan's his guy, right And this still, like even this transition,
it's still will be a portion of Kyle's legacy with Utah.
(27:44):
And so yeah, I if a player goes in the portal,
if the player is the one pro proactive on that stuff,
then I can see that happening. I'll tell you this.
There's been people there's like, oh, well, Devin Dampier, I
I love guy. He's a great leader. I don't see
him as a fit at quarterback at Michigan. And Underwood's
(28:05):
not even in the portal yet, right, you know, and
so I I don't see that happening way Shawn Parker
Utah is running back. People are worried about that, but
it sounds like, uh, now you told me, I think
Alford is one of the coaches that's going to stay
at Michigan, correct, the running back coach.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
That I mean, if you listening to their people up there,
I mean I think that there's belief that they would
like him to stay. I mean, I'll tell you where.
He's not welcome in Columbus right now, but yeah, I
think that they're going to try to keep him.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
You try to he coached up there. Huh.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
He coached at Ohio State Michigan. So we could do
a whole nother show on that one. But I mean,
I like, I likesly.
Speaker 2 (28:48):
We need to do a bunch more shows regardless. Anyways, man,
I mean, look at all the Michigan contacts I have.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
Right well, people watching.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
This, but yeah, so like when it comes down to that,
like wis Shaun Parker's is an absolute stud but his
coach that he followed from Washington State to Utah is
most likely staying at Utah. Marcott to why right from there? Yeah,
I mean, look, there's guys. There's a freshman JJ Buchanon.
(29:20):
He's listed as a tight end. He was gonna stay
a wide receiver at Utah. They actually moved him early
in the season and just decided not to tell anybody
so that it could throw off defensive schemes with him
thinking Utah was in certain formations, right, and so he's
a stud. He's somebody that you could worry about defensively.
(29:40):
There's a few, but I just again, I don't see
Utah's defense is so rock solid that those guys know
that the development track record they have there, they're better
off sticking there. You know, That's that's the one thing.
And I get Michigan great, right, and and Kyle being
there and Jay Hill it was a great defensive mind.
(30:01):
But still you know that's that's gonna be the one
side of the ball that will be a little bit
more difficult to pull from. I feel like I feel
like right, and then from b y U standpoint, because
of j Hill, there's a kid that I I anticipate
being like their prime target Uh and Michigan fans would
(30:21):
love him. Ohio State fans would hate him. Thought to
Uh fell into his last name anyway.
Speaker 1 (30:31):
The names I mean, yeah, yeah, it's not phonetics. I'll
tell you that. You see certain letters, doesn't mean that's
why it's pronounced. I've got a good friend and she
always just cringes when I try to make pronunciations.
Speaker 2 (30:47):
I'm relatively good. I just I can't remember his exact
first name. It's I want to say it's ballat Valte.
But but yeah, that kid, he's a he's a big, physical,
rangey safety that in high school he had pretty much
he was leaning Utah and then and he did a
coin flip to see if he wanted to go to
(31:07):
Utah or by and I think, if I remember correctly,
it was because Jay Hill had just gone over to
BYU and b Yu and the coin flip. I'll tell
you if that if that kid would have been at
Utah this year, Utah might have even won at least
one more game. So he's a difference maker. That's somebody
that Michigan fans should should focus on. If he were
(31:30):
to hit the portal, which i'd anticipate now with with
Hill being gone.
Speaker 1 (31:38):
Which is going to be more difficult for Kyle Whittingham
to overcome in terms of recruiting. And let me let
me preface that by saying the head coach is generally
not the guy putting on all the road miles and
everything else. He's the closer coffees for closers. You know,
you go out, I mean, yeah, you're doing some stuff,
but you go out and you shake hands and kiss
babies at the end and to get the signature or whatever.
(32:01):
But his you know, general you know, coaching in the
Rockies and West of the Rockies, or the fact that
he's sixty six years old. I mean, you know, I've
I've had the chance at that Rose Bowl to listen
to a couple of press conferences of Kyle. You know,
granted that was a couple of years ago, but let's
not make it sound like it was twenty years ago.
(32:22):
Very spry guy, very energetic guy. But which is gonna
which is gonna be more difficult because Michigan does have
a more national recruiting footprint than the Utah does. I mean,
let's let's just be honest. I mean, it's just how
it is. So which is going to be more of
a challenge for him.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
What was the first part of that question again.
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Whether or not it's it's the location that he's only
I mean that he's been a coach at Utah for
one hundred and four years. And then was that you know,
whatever was Eastern Idaho or wherever it was, or or
the age thing.
Speaker 2 (32:58):
I'd say maybe the age, but more more so like
set in his ways, you know, like I said, he's
not the type that's gonna go kiss babies and wine
and dying. But you bring people to him and he's
very he's very convincing, just because the confidence level that
he has, the track record that he has, and the
(33:20):
weight that his name carries in college football, you know,
I mean what you go and you listen to all
the national guys and they just sit back and lat
out say he's one of their favorite coaches that they've
ever covered, you know, just because what he's been able
to do at the University of Utah and and the
(33:41):
level that he's brought them up to, you know, And
so yeah, it's that's That's what I would say. With that,
It's gonna be interesting to see what he's able to do.
And you know, I would say, I think there's good
recruiters coming with them of the names that I've heard mentioned,
(34:04):
but they could probably do a better job of getting
somebody that is just one of those like Tosh Lapoy
level assistance that just is so magnetic to everybody and
so convincing from a recruiting standpoint.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
I went through and we're wrapping up here, So thanks
for joining us here on the Big me kickoff. I'm
Kevin and joined by Ounce Markham of of Ute Nation,
Great Utah site, so check it out. I was looking
for what maybe that career defining moment was for Kyle
and I keep I kept going back to that two
(34:44):
thousand and eight season, when the undefeated season, when their
first win of the season was at Michigan of all places.
So I was like, well, you know, it's circle comes
all the way around or whatever? Is is that the
high water mark of his of his Utah career or
what what do you think is kind of the thing
that you know up until this point and you know
(35:05):
you're you're only as good as until your next game
or whatever. I you know, I understand that, but you know, what,
what do you think is the thing that you could
circle and say that that right there, that's Kyle Whittingham
that you know, whether it was a moment to just
a moment or a season or a game or whatever.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
You know, to me, I'd say, and some people might
think I'm crazy on this, I'd say that's top three
or top five. I think the big thing was is
that was able to get them on, that was able
to solidify their standing on being the main team that
was going to be the ones breaking into the power
(35:45):
conferences right from from the from the G five, G
six eras and uh, you know, so that that was big.
But you know, you take a look at some of
stuff with you know, just the build up to Utah
coming of power in the PAC twelve. Right, they had
that twenty nineteen season that they were sitting there at
(36:06):
number five and all they needed to do was beat
over again. They had one of their key guys get
hurt the second play of the game and all Wills
fell off, right, So that was so close to being
one of those. But you know, the Rose Bowl seasons
were huge. I know, this year was one of his
favorite teams and favorite seasons of all time, considered one
of his best coaching jobs. But the number one I
(36:29):
would say, I would say is the twenty twenty two season,
And the reason for that is because you know they're
overcoming was it or what was it twenty twenty two
or twenty twenty one? Sorry, uh no, the twenty twenty
one season, I apologize. So the first rose ball getting
(36:53):
getting to play Ohio State. And the reason I say
that is because, you know, and the off season they
had just lost Ty Jordan generational running back to that
gunshot wound right, accidental, self afflicted, just like I think
about it and I can start choking up, so I
(37:14):
don't want to do that. But and then his best
friend that got into Utah of all people, okay, wearing
that same number to honor him, was murdered at a
party only a few games into that season, okay, And
(37:35):
next thing you know, Utah just rallies and gets going
and turns it around. And just to see like the
level of renew and excitement and Kyle and stuff like that,
and to see where that season was in the adversity
that they were hitting all they were doing and fighting
together and coming together as a team, and then to
(37:56):
see that go that way. And then the next year,
those those two combined, I would say, but that year
especially that that trumps even even though they didn't win
it against Ohio State. Okay, that absolutely trumps the two
thousand and eight season if you ask me, you know.
And what's funny to me too, is you know, to
(38:19):
kind of address something that BYU fans love bringing up.
They're like, oh, Utah fans love talking about that that
twenty twenty one year of the Rose Bowl against Ohio
State twenty twenty two Rose Bowl, but twenty twenty one season, right,
and they're like, they're like, why why are you guys
so proud of you know, being in a Rose Bowl
(38:43):
that you lost, And like the thing is is like
what nobody understands is you know again, you know the
adversity Utah went through that year, right, and to be
able to get to that point and be on that
stage and also know like, look, Ohio State was missing
guys sitting out right, Utah was missing guys sitting out
(39:04):
and to see Utah go toe to toe with one
of the premier programs in college football and know that
much more that the program had arrived on the scene
and know that Utah was gonna beat you guys. If
Cam Rasen didn't get knocked out with that concussion, but
I know, I know, but uh but yeah, you know, I.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
Don't know why they kept kicking to that little kickoff
return on a covey for you guys, because that was
just that was just stupid. That was just Ohio State.
You know, Ohio State has not had a good special
teams planned since then.
Speaker 2 (39:37):
Yeah, what what people don't understand is just how competitive
and fun that game was. It was. It was probably
one of the most exciting Rose bulls there's there's been,
you know, And so yeah, I mean, definitely long answer
for you. I know, I can give you plenty of
long winded answers, but yeah, I just love talking with
you man and going through these things. But yeah, that
was that That would have definitely been the defining moment.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
Last question, And appreciate you taking the time to talk
with us without looking at the schedule, without looking at
any of that. I mean, and everything is, everything is scheduled,
So asking you for like a prediction of what twenty
twenty six looks like is difficult. So I'm not going
to ask for like a record prediction because that's that's unfair.
But you know, Michigan is a national program. Where does
(40:22):
Michigan take the largest step forward under Kyle Whittingham, Like
you know, and and that's such an open ended question,
but you know, you're you're creative enough. I think I
don't have to give you. I don't have to give
you major parameters to get a good answer. So where
do where does Michigan make its biggest step forward? Just
so Ohio State fans can start rooting against it.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
I mean, let's talk about the obvious. And it's not
even necessarily an on the field thing. Respectability as a
program that is going to do things the right way,
and you know, just be competitive and be hard and
know right, that's that's the big thing, because I mean,
look like I've always respected Michigan. But at the same
(41:07):
time too, I'm everybody else in the entire country where
I sit back, and the Jim Harbaugh stuff was a joke. Okay, uh,
the shrown more stuff was a complete joke. I never
took that guy serious whatsoever, and I know a lot
of people in the country didn't take it serious. You know,
now you've got this guy that is going to bring
(41:29):
a respect factor to this program instantly when you needed
it the most because, like, let's face it, like all
those dominoes unfolded. It was unfortunate for Michigan, but it
was it was brutal, but at the same time too,
they helped cover it up, you know, they they hit
(41:49):
it for that long. Now you've got a guy that
you don't need to worry about that with, so that
respect factor is there, you know. Outside of that, I
have to see and I wasn't paying it enough attention
to Michigan this year, So I apologize on that. But
regardless of we're honest, regardless of how good that defense
(42:12):
was last year, it's gonna be it'll be a top five,
top ten defense this year. And this is just Kyle
Whittingham with you know, look, Utah has aloys had really
good guys on defense, but at some time too, Kyle
gets his guys, excuse me, to perform past their abilities
(42:35):
or get get the most out of their abilities, right,
And imagine Kyle doing that with a whole bunch of
four and five star guys, which you're probably gonna sit
back and watch that defense go up next year. And
the guys that are gonna be the main guys, the
superstars on that defense are probably gonna be guys that
(42:56):
were like low level three star guys in high school. Right.
That's Kyle to a t. It's just that's his development
that he does with his guys, and Jay Hill does
it the same way, you know. And so definitely the defense,
the defense is going to be dominant, and that's going
to put them in the national conversation and and uh,
(43:18):
you know, keep them squarely. I'm sorry Buckeyes fans, but
keep Michigan squarely in the you know, in the sites
for a playoff spot next year.
Speaker 1 (43:27):
Yeah, I was going to say, you talked about want
to do more shows. I think they're going to run
you out of town with pitchforks. They don't want to
hear any of this. They want to hear that I texted.
I texted this to Alex when we were talking about
doing the show. It's like, now they want to hear
you say that he's lost his fastball and that the
water is too deep and he's not going to be
able to survive it. And you're you're like, I can't
(43:48):
do that, my guy.
Speaker 2 (43:48):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
I can't say that because that's not the case. You know,
we want to bring you, you know, the best possible
information out there, even if it isn't necessarily the best
possible information. But things are gonna get little with Dicey
now that Forny More is out of there and they
brought in. The grown ups are back in charge.
Speaker 2 (44:05):
The grown ups are back in charge, man, And I'll
tell you this, it's gonna be It's gonna be fun
watching that rivalry game next year. I and I'm I'm
I love watching Ohio State from the side. I'm a
I'm a big fan of you guys, and just you
know how you guys go about things, and it's it's
been it's been fun to see Ohio State doing so well,
(44:26):
you know so and just the amount of wide receivers
you guys just keep churning and churning and churning. Oh
my goodness, it's it's wild. So tons of respect for
that program. I'm just I'm blunt man, I'm a straight shooter.
And you know, if if Ohio State beats Michigan next year,
then you know, Ohio State is sitting there nice and
(44:50):
pretty for a very high level CFP ranking, so they
can do it.
Speaker 1 (44:57):
You know, Ohio State sched next year is a is
a beast. They go to Texas, among other places they go,
It's gonna be It's gonna be Texas.
Speaker 2 (45:06):
Is you never know what you're gonna get with you.
Speaker 1 (45:08):
Never you never never know what you're gonna get there.
And I'm sitting there, I'm filibustering as I pull up
the schedule. You'd think that I but have it memorized
by now.
Speaker 2 (45:16):
But the big ten now consistent, man, Ohio State is
always consistent. Then you got somebody like Texas the oh
they're the greatest thing, like best team ever is gonna
be this year and they're like not even top twenty
five like Texas. You just you never know what Texas man.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Well, well, Ohio State's road schedule next year they go
to Texas, to Indiana, to Iowa, to Nebraska and to
us C.
Speaker 2 (45:42):
So, oh, you guys got USC man.
Speaker 1 (45:45):
But again again, it would be like, you know, if
if Utah had to go out to I don't know,
I mean Uga or something like that. I mean, and now,
Uga is a hell of a lot better than USC.
And I'm sure I'm gonna hear about it from that
arrogant Nation account or somebody one of one of the
big USC mouthpieces out there that I talked to from
time to time, It's like, how dare you say we're
(46:07):
not as good as uga? Well, I'm just telling you,
but they're not.
Speaker 2 (46:10):
They're not. No, they're not. But having being in the
big ten might run out Lincoln Riley, There you go.
Speaker 1 (46:18):
We were always looking for a little soundbites. So we
got our We got our SoundBite. It only took us
forty six minutes, so we got our SoundBite. Here at
the very end, I will have to mark that one
and uh and and and and send send that one
on for sure.
Speaker 2 (46:31):
But in any any.
Speaker 1 (46:33):
Final passing thoughts, I, oh, we're going to do thirty minutes,
you know, thirty minutes and out and here we are.
We're not going to an hour. I promise you that
I want to watch.
Speaker 2 (46:41):
We can go an hour. I don't care. What else
do you want?
Speaker 1 (46:44):
I got laundry to fold, I got I've got, I've
got I've got domestic chores. But in any other thoughts
on this that maybe I've missed on, or if just
anything else, as you're as, you're not endearing yourself to
Ohio State fans by being very in favor of this
coaching move.
Speaker 2 (47:01):
Hey, Ohio State's still the better program and better team. Man,
I've said that, right, And look, here's here's the thing,
And this is something I've told everybody with Utah and
BYU because that rivalry I mean held you know Klonie Sataki,
their head coach, being a beloved former Utah assistant and
then getting a whole bunch of ex Utah assistants on
his staff down there. Right, it's you know, BYU's done
(47:23):
so well the last few years, and it's only elevated
both teams, right, And so it's a good that's a
good healthy rivalry. This is going to maintain and stay
a good, healthy rivalry. You know, Ohio State is in
there done that. They're not going anywhere. They're staying at
the top. Right. It's only gonna make it more fun
(47:45):
for the fans and more fun for the programs, and
more fun for everybody nationally seeing both of these teams
do extremely well, you know. And uh so, yeah, it's again,
healthy rivalries are only going to better each team. So
that's that's the main thing with that. And I'm not
slamming Ohio State at all, man, because you know, I
(48:08):
love Ohio State. I'm just again I'm blunt, like I
am a huge Kyle Whittingham fan. You know, I can
I can get you, guys, Zach moss On on the
show at one point, if you guys want to, you
guys can get a little bit more insight into Kyle
Whittingham the man, Kyle Whittingham the coach, and just kind
(48:28):
of what to expect, you know, especially from one of
the recent goats of all goats of Utah football. Right,
but with Zach obviously Kyle too, right, but Zach, Zach was,
Zach was awesome at Utah and he's he's a great interview.
So you guys want to talk to him, I'll I'll
make that happen for you too.
Speaker 1 (48:47):
I'm gonna quote I'm gonna quote Ryan Day though, and
then we're gonna say good night. You know what's fun?
Kicking ass? Kicking ass is fun. So you can talk
about healthy relations, healthy rivalries and everything else. But you know,
there were there was a point where Ohio State was
very dominant in the rivalry against Michigan, and there was
a very vocal minority out there. It's like, well, I
(49:08):
wish Michigan were more competitive because that would be more
fun and then Michigan ran off a couple of wins.
The legitimacy of those winds remains to be seen. But
I'm not a wind denier. But I'm also here. You know,
I also have two eyes or four eyes to.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
I didn't, did I deny those two? Hey? And apparently
Michigan had a whole bunch of eyes right.
Speaker 1 (49:32):
Well, you know they I digress, I digress. I'm gonna
I've made it this long without getting myself in trouble.
I don't intend to getting myself in trouble here.
Speaker 2 (49:41):
But I'll give myself in trouble. There you go, There
you go.
Speaker 1 (49:45):
But Alex, I want to thank you for being part
of the show and you know, all the all the
insight there, and I'm sure we'll have you back on
if not on the Big me kickoff, but maybe on
Buckeye Weeklight, Buckeye Weekly, or buck Eye tomorrow morning once
we get through the business of Ohio State's college football
playoff run. But you know, we'll see as the names
come together here as Kyle Whittingham starts to lock in
(50:08):
his staff. But until the next time, I want to
thank everybody for watching here on Buckeyehuddle Dot com and
I'll talk to y'all very soon.
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