December 26, 2025 • 24 mins
Michigan Hires Kyle Whittingham: A New Era or Temporary Fix? | Buckeye Weekly Podcast
Join Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr on this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast as they dive deep into Michigan’s decision to hire Kyle Whittingham as their new head coach. From discussing Whittingham's five-year contract and his background at Utah to analyzing the implications for Michigan’s future, the hosts provide a comprehensive overview of the hire. Will Whittingham be the steady hand Michigan needs to navigate turbulent times, or is he just a temporary solution? Tune in to hear expert insights and predictions on the impact of this significant coaching change in college football.
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Welcome
00:19 Michigan's New Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham
01:33 The Need for a Fresh Start at Michigan
05:30 Comparing Whittingham to Other Coaches
06:21 Challenges and Expectations for Whittingham
15:20 Recruiting and Immediate Concerns
21:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Join Tony Gerdeman and Tom Orr on this episode of the Buckeye Weekly Podcast as they dive deep into Michigan’s decision to hire Kyle Whittingham as their new head coach. From discussing Whittingham's five-year contract and his background at Utah to analyzing the implications for Michigan’s future, the hosts provide a comprehensive overview of the hire. Will Whittingham be the steady hand Michigan needs to navigate turbulent times, or is he just a temporary solution? Tune in to hear expert insights and predictions on the impact of this significant coaching change in college football.
00:00 Introduction and Podcast Welcome
00:19 Michigan's New Head Coach: Kyle Whittingham
01:33 The Need for a Fresh Start at Michigan
05:30 Comparing Whittingham to Other Coaches
06:21 Challenges and Expectations for Whittingham
15:20 Recruiting and Immediate Concerns
21:35 Conclusion and Final Thoughts
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom, I was
going with Tony.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It took Michigan six tries to get its coaching search right.
It's going to take us maybe two tries to get
our Michigan coaching search show right. But we're gonna get
it right eventually. We will probably do it in less
time than it took Michigan. But they do, in fact
have their new head coach.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
They do official Kyle Whitt again for where Utah had,
current Utah has joach also current Michigan head coach, five
year deal, which sounds like a lot that there's a
method behind that madness. That's certainly a need to do
it that way. But Michigan, after striking out, striking out,
(00:45):
striking out Tom, I think they hit a home run
with fall Wit again, but a home run in a
game that's like seven to two in the bottom of
the night, and it's like, you know, a solo or
two run shot where it's like, you know, it's it's good.
It's much better than they've done. I think it's the
right guy they had to get. The right guy was
(01:08):
at that basically for the situation up there, presided with right.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I think this is a home run depending on how
you're defining the search, depending on how what parameters you
want to put around the search, because you know, this
is not Urban Meyer getting hired at Ohio State where
you went. This is a home run higher they are
clearly going to win the national championship for the next
few years. That's not what this is. This is Michigan
(01:33):
needed an adult in the room. Michigan needed to get
away from some of the stuff that has happened around
that program over the last four years or so. This
is an adult in the room. This is someone who
has run a program, a very respected program, a very way,
you know, a winning program over the last twenty years,
(01:53):
has an impeccable record in the in the college football world,
an impeccable reputation in the colleg football world, and is
someone who allows and who has nothing to do with
Jim Harball other than the fact that Jim Harbor was
on the opposing sideline from Kyle Whittingham in his first
game at Michigan. But the game where they Fox did
the Khaki cam and everyone kind of rolled a rise
(02:15):
that was against Utah when Jim Harball took over the
Michigan that's about the extent of the relationship between Jim
Harball and Kyle Whittingham. And with all of the stuff,
and when I say stuff, you know what I mean,
there is stuff encompasses a lot. With all of the
stuff around the end of the Jim Harball era and
(02:36):
the fallout of the Jim Harball era and the fallout
of the Jim Harball assistance and all of that kind
of stuff, it's probably a little bit of a fresh
start is probably exactly what Michigan needs right now.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, it's a gotten all of the living room furniture
just stinks from whatever, and you get everything out, get
the stay with steamer folks. He lean everything out. But
this is what had to happen. And just the talk
of even like bif Pogi himself basically said it where
it's like this is this is such a bad situation
(03:13):
that when we were talking about, you know, the Michigan lineage,
the harbor needs like get him wait from like why
would you want to continue that? And so I think
this is just about the best that they could do
in the circumstance, because that's the thing is relative to
their situation, even missing out on I don't know their
(03:33):
top ten guys. Who even knows? And of course, well
we didn't offer the job to anybody other than colding him, sir.
And that's that's the way it always goes. And the
one person we offered you said yes, I'll take and
he was, I'm I will. We know that he retired
from you, John right, and he didn't. He said, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Retiring from coaching.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, So there was a thought that, well, does that
mean he wants to go do something else, do you know,
go approach somewhere else, And clearly he does. And he's
sixty six, but you look at he's better shape than
the most thirty six year olds, you know. So I
don't think there's any like, oh he's just getting old
or whatever. I do wonder how long you want to
do it. But you can't present this as while everybody
(04:18):
knows it's a bridge, you present it as a bridge
because people don't buy bridges, Tom say, it's the famous
you know, people trying to sell well, people do buy them,
but usually you come up short, no pun intended. But
with the with this a five year deal, it encompasses
an entire recruiting class and a red shirt che so long,
(04:40):
I will be here for your son all five years,
even though he's going to be in the NFL after three.
I will be for your form should something happened. That's
the way the contract has to be. And who knows,
maybe that would put him in what seventy one and
in his final year he's at think he's two years
older than for Signetti. I just want to give idea
(05:00):
of his age. But he has never seened old or
like he's He's always just seemed like the same forty
five year old fifty year old guys from the first
day of the.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Job, right. And we covered him in a rose bowl
a couple of years ago, and I think both came
away super impressed with both witting him and his program
like this is. This is someone who is a really
likable guy, as I said earlier, a very well respected guy,
a guy who has a reputation for doing things the
right way. He reminds me a lot of Matt Campbell,
(05:33):
the Iowa State coach who then was hired at Penn State.
And frankly, I think if this job was open earlier,
I think Matt Campbell might be the head coach at
Michigan because you'd probably rather be the Michigan coach than
the Penn State coach. And also then you have, you know,
then you at least have the plausibility of this guy's
here for twenty years. But you know, same basic, same
basic principle where someone's coming in, going to do things
(05:57):
the right way, going to be well respected. But then
you also sort of have the okay with James Franklin,
the issue was he couldn't get you over the hump,
and you know, they're tired of winning ten games. They
want to win twelve games and then win three more
and that they in the playoff. What is it in
Matt Campbell's history that makes you think that he's the
(06:17):
guy to do that. Maybe he is, maybe he can,
but maybe not. And you're sort of at the same
thing with witting him, where I think witting him if
you look at witting him as here's the guy who's
going to come in for three plus or minus a year,
three years plus or minus a year and sort of
restore the reputation of Michigan and restores the some of
(06:41):
the you know, internal politics of Michigan and all that
kind of stuff, and then set this up to be
a job where you're not taking your tenth choice or
your seventh choice or whatever it is the next time.
Michigan should not be a job where you're getting turned
down seven times or you know, Michigan should be a
job where you can pull team. You know, you're not
(07:01):
gonna pull Ohio State's coach. You're not going to pull,
you know, and they might be able to pull Alabama's coach.
They weren't gonna pull Kirby Smart, they weren't gonna pull
Ryan Day, they weren't going to probably pulled Dan Lanning
in this one. But you could have seen a world where,
if things were a little better in ann Arbor and
it was not quite such a mess right now, that
they could have pulled Alabama's sitting head coach, which that
(07:21):
tells you where they should be in the sport. And
instead they're getting the guy who just stepped down from
Utah and did not step down from Utah with the
idea that he was going to take the Michigan job,
because this was you know, this was in the works
for a while there. I think in terms of if
you view it through that prism that this is the
guy who's going to get you through the turbulent year,
(07:43):
you know, a couple of years, three years, whatever it is,
and then you're gonna come out better on the other side.
Be the Bill O'Brien at Penn State. And you know,
again I said this on the earlier show. I am
not comparing the Jerry Sandusky situation to the seuron More
situation or the Jim Harbaugh situation or the Condesstallia share
any of that, but in terms of just yeah, this
(08:03):
place is not living in the rent district that it
should be based on its place in the sport because
of you know, messy general messiness. Bill O'Brien got them
through that to the point where they then hired a
James Franklin and then you know, they it's easy to
forget now, but he won the Big Ten championship in
a second year, you know, So this is he can
(08:25):
be potentially the Bill O'Brien to sort of get them
through this and get all of that behind them and
then make it a much more appealing job in a
couple of years.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You said, Bill O'Brien, I'll say something more age priate
to this situation Mark Rick going to Miami after being
at Georgia for a long time and wanting to They
went him to get Miami on the up and up,
and he's three years there and it's like, well, you know,
he had two good years and then the third year
was not great and I could see something like that happening.
(08:58):
Now we talked on the earlier live show that did
the internet did not care for me, and so you
have to finish that. In terms of who is he
going to bring a board, it sounds like Jason beck
is o C who was there UOC I think just
this brand new year in twenty twenty five or maybe
came over. He's not been there long. He's only you know,
(09:18):
like he's he's not as tied to the the new
head coach Morgan Scalty as he is to the outgoing
coach Kyle Winningham. So there there's yeah, I can go
with you. I've not been here at Utah for twelve
years or you know, So there's that sounds like maybe
Tony Alfred might be staying because you do want to
(09:41):
keep some of the some of the guys, because especially
if you've got a five star of running back signed
if you probably don't want to lose that guy. Uh,
and if Tony Alfred the running backs coach, can stay
there and keep that guy, all the better you got
if you bring over your OC who has a history
of a good history of quarterbacks, that should help the
(10:02):
price underwent thing. Uh, but you just you just wonder
somebody who has been okay, it's been okay, losing four
or five games any given year and there's no pushback
for it because of the history that you'd build up.
The only history that is built up is at another
school given at this point, So, uh, what kind of patients?
(10:26):
And then it's like what what kind of patience does
he have for risking? What kind of patients does have
for him? It's just an interesting situation because it's like
you brought me here, Yeah, so you better give me
some time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Well you mentioned Mark Rick, and I think that's a
good one because he was he between Randy Shannon and
Manny dz al.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Golden with Al Golden, Al Golden then many data.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, yeah, it has been it has been a it
has been a two decades for this. She's for the
Miami Hurricanes, and we'll be talking about that much more
later the other name that This is not exactly the
same kind of thing, but it's a little bit like
Jim Grove where Jim Grove went from. You know, he
was the head coach at Ohio University and the head
coach at Wake Forest and then after the Art Brile situation,
(11:10):
Jim Grove goes down to Baylor for it was just
one year because they fired Briles at a weird point
in the calendar and that was you know, that was
like very much, this is a one year thing. But
he was, you know, Frank Reich at Stanford this year.
But you know, Jim Grove really is kind of more
more fits the Kyle Whittingham thing, where he's a longtime
head coach, no real ties to Baylor, goes down there
(11:34):
for a year, just kind of steadies the ship as
they sort of get out from under the brills thing
a little bit and then they sort of can take
a breath and figure things out. That was a one
year thing. I don't expect this to be a one
year thing. But I also don't expect this to be
you know, he's got a five year contract. I would
probably not expect him to coach out that full five
(11:54):
year contract. That feels like a you're going to coach
two to three years and then you're going to you know,
but then you have a couple of years on your contract,
so it's not, well, this guy's you know, a dead
man walking and then you just sort of gracefully step
away after three years or whatever it is. Where again,
then Michigan's in a place to make a more long
term higher at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It also depends. Coaching is always about timing, and your
head coach is about timing and finding him at the
right spot who is available. Each year, It's like the
quarterback draft. Is this a good quarterback draft or do
you want to wait till next year? Is next year
a good head coaching draft is two years from now?
If if they're if he's tend to two of these
(12:34):
next two years the regular season, but somebody opens up
after that second year and it's the guy that they've
wanted all the laws, I have no doubt that they
would go ahead and make that change at that point,
with the understanding of Kyle, thank you, you've done everything
we've asked. Here's the rest of the three the three
(12:54):
or eating years on your contract, you can go find
another adventure if you like. Yet, we've got that opportunity
to hire this man. I'm just gonna try to come
up with a day real quickly. PJA flag.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah. Yeah, we had the Michigan people, so so okay
with us And then you said then then you said that, Yeah,
I think and I think that there's a ceiling on
this higher. I don't think this is a higher where
you're going to start bringing in top five recruiting classes.
I don't think this is a higher where you're going
to win a national championship in two years. This is
(13:30):
a hire to steady the ship, and I think it's
can be very efficient and very effective there. He's not
someone who you let through and looked at recruiting class,
so then Utah is not Michigan and I all, we
get that, but you know, he had one top twenty
recruiting class in the previous five cycles and that was
a nineteenth ranked refruition class. So this is not the
world's most dynamic refruiter. And yeah, he's got a better
(13:53):
you know, he's in a better spot now, he's got
a probably better nil now ye all that stuff, Yes,
we get it, but that doesn't put you as a
top five class that which you as a ten to
fifteen kind of class, Like you're probably recruiting, Okay, you're
probably you know, playing reasonably well, you're probably sort of
in the college football playoff conversation most years, and you
(14:15):
know which slide of the line do you fall on? Well,
tell me ask me again after I know how many
teams are going to be in the college Football Playoff
next year, but you know, if they expanded to sixteen,
nine and three, very well, get you in at that point,
and you're probably I think eight to ten wins a
season is a very realistic expectation for him at Michigan
(14:36):
most seasons. So that's fine, You're not a national championship
team at that point. And there are other downsides here
where we're looking at. This is someone who has coached
in the state of Utah at Utah for the last
two decades. And I saw someone say how far east
as he coached and he coached at Eastern Utah one year,
and it's like, well, okay, he went to BYU, Like
(14:58):
this is a Utah guy through This is not a
guy who you know, can has read all of Bosham
Beckler's books and knows you know, we can can tell
you all of Bosham Backroad's greatest wins. This is someone
who's coming in from outside, who doesn't necessarily have a
ton of connection to program, doesn't have any kind of
connection to the boosters, doesn't have any kind of connection
(15:19):
to the players. I saw a headline from one of
the recruiting services whom you know, basically said like, you know,
the recruits react to new head coaching. And the quote
was essentially, I don't know who that is. So you know,
you're going to have a lot of the relationship building
to do and all that kind of stuff. And I
do think there's a ceiling on this, but there's also
a floor on this, and the floor is relatively high
(15:41):
and for you know, for where they were. You know,
if you're three days ago, you know, Biff Pogi is
getting talked about as a serious head coaching candidate. Like
this is a way better outcome information than that.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and you mentioned the recruiting rankings for twenty twenty six.
There are thirty six than thirty nine, fifty nine, nineteen,
thirty seventh, thirty second, thirtieth, forty third, thirty third, and
thirty third in those ten years five top one hundred guys,
and I don't think they saw two at any any year.
But again that's Utah. That's how you exist with your truth.
(16:14):
You develop, you recruit as locally as you can. You go.
If you tuh Michigan, there's a much bigger footprint and
a much larger name. Now it's gonna take some time
apparently for people to know that name even and it
will be interesting to see because I he's got a
game on New Year's Eve, I would imagine he's Donejeez,
(16:36):
it's time to get yes, because yeah, the portal opens
on the second, and you want to everybody on your
gem try to get them to go to to B
as close and to get to know you as well
as they can. And you don't want to do that
in the span of two days.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
No, Well, yeah, now you can just kind of hand
the you know, do the old Urban Meyer to Ryan
day hand the ConTroll war off kind of saying. Because
here's the other thing. Five days from now, the portal
opens after you hire a head coach, a new head coach,
the portal opens for any player on that team. So
five days from now, guess when that is? So, so
he's gonna have he's gonna have a busy few days.
(17:16):
I'm going to guess he's not going to be all
that worried about are they in the Las Vegas Well,
I don't remember which all game it is, honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah. But yeah, once you nade him, yeah you've got you.
Can't we need you.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
The clock starts. Yes, yes, And you've got to start
building relationships to the current guys. I just I saw
want to hit a four star I think wide receiver
who asked out of his letter of intent. So, uh,
you're gonna have there's going to be some churn at
this point. If you're Michigan, you've got to hope that
the churn does not include someone like Bryce Underwood or March,
you know, or Andrew Bavloa, the offensive tackle, the five
(17:48):
star offensive tackle they signed this year who had a
serious knee injury I think missed it, missed the whole season.
You got to hang on to those kind of guys.
The recruiting class was not incredible, but and they've lost
a couple guys from that class already in the wake
of the more thing. So yeah, it's going to be
a little bit of a turnover. Process. But you know
he again, he is someone who I think when people
(18:10):
get to know him, I think he's going to be
a very like, a very likable, very respected guy. I'm
really looking forward to, you know, big media days and
get to go talk to him for has We had
a great time listening to him talk about football when
you're out covering the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago.
Real smart guy, very successful. And you have someone from
the Urban Meyer coaching tree now coaching the Michigan Wolverines.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Well, I mean hand picked by Urban Myra to replace
him at Utah ride Day, hand picked by Urban liratry
replacement at Iris State, and not both of those guys
here will be coaching this rivalry. It's it's an interesting
Now we'll see if this is a a long code
then Urban vibor.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Twenty years of Utah all leading up to this moment.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
The manchurian O Wolverine. But I do think there's a
question in terms of everybody's talking about this as as
though it is temporary. Most jobs are. Yeah, right, Michigan
cannot stick out this in that way, and really in
the media circles probably shouldn't be spoken of in that way.
(19:14):
Because how well can temporary recruit, And so Michigan's gonna
be in this situation where they're going have to be
paying up he perhaps more for for that to like,
you know, to make it a better landing. Oh, don't
worry if it's it's not temporary. But in case you
think it is here, you know, well we can provide more.
(19:36):
I just wonder how well temporary recruits. What kind of
team can they put together immediately as well once that
port opens, and how open is the wallet? Yeah, yeah,
to make this first year a splash right.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well, and that's the thing now you don't have you know,
the twenty twenty three is already a while ago, and
a lot has changed, and there's not a lot of
the folks on this Michigan staff who were there for that.
So you've already got that piece where it's you know, well,
a while ago, some people who lived here won a
national championship. No one, you know, not a lot of
(20:12):
people on the current staff, but some of them were.
And a lot of other stuff has changed, and that's
not what Michigan has been in the news for the
last couple of years. And you know, winning him himself
has not you know they've developed some NFL players, obviously
at Utah, but not you know, that has not exactly
been a first round fastery by any naimes. And he
(20:33):
doesn't have a lot of connections in the local communities.
And I pointed this out earlier. If you want to
look up the Oracle stock price for the last six months,
it is not it is not stunks. As the kids say,
they have some issues with long story short, they have
some issues with lease gaps where they have leased facilities
and they're lessi's have shorter lease drums and they might
(20:56):
get held that he'd get left holding the bag on
some leases. Yeah, h does that matter? Well, Larry Ellison
is only interested in Michigan football because what his wife
is a Michigan graduate. And uh so he's the one
who basically bankrolled the Bryce Underwood signing by all me,
you know, by all reporting. And you know, if you
have a little less disposable income and you have some
(21:17):
other bigger problems than maybe Michigan football becomes a little
less of a concern in your priority. So yeah, I
mean there's a bunch of sort of different, various headwinds,
you know, sort of blowing against them, right, now that
that will potentially impact what that program looks like in
the short to short to medium.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Jen, Yeah, we shoud probably start to wrap up here.
But I just I do wonder if he can turn
it back all after kind of being ready to turn
it off. You know, it's I mean, I'm stepping away
put again. He said he was retiring from from coaching,
so I do believe that he does is ready for
a new challenge. I don't think this is a midlife crisis.
He has owned a motorcycle for a long term event.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
That is true.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
In case you think you get it, yeah, I think
this is just somebody who's interested in what that next
thing is.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah. Yeah, and it's an interesting fit. And I think
in I think, as you said at the beginning, this
is a home run. As long as you're defining the
terms correctly, as long as you're you know, as long
as you're your expectation for what this is are sort
of off field stuff, this is a home run. This
is exactly what Michigan needs. This is not going to
(22:24):
be Michigan is going to win the National championship next year,
which is fine. They've got to get their house in order,
and then you can bring in the guy who could
do that next. But that guy, whoever that guy is
for all, for all values of that guy, that guy
is not interested right now because the program is a disaster.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, we may not even be talking about who that
guy is. We may not even like at this point, Yeah,
nobody's talking about that guy.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Nobody know who. Nobody was talking about Kurt Signetti three
years ago, and Kurt Signetti was just the guy at
James Madison. And you know, now Kurt Signette has got
the number one team in the country and the Heisman
Trophy went or and yeah, so yeah three years isn't
isn't a trinity in college football right now? And so yeah,
we we may not know who that is. I will,
(23:09):
I will for all one name the gentleman who succeeded
for Signetti at yeah, at James Madison, who is now
at uh at U c l A. Bob Chesney, watch
this space, just watch the space.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Another name Mike Hart just because he left got out
of it. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we need the Resch.
That's somewhat of a joke, just because he was pushed
out and it's like you never heard from him again.
But yeah, the Jesney one is kind of the one
I'm thinking as well, So that'll do it that if
(23:46):
you want to go ahead and that comes up, would
appreciate that. Of course, you can continue to find us
at book huddle dot com. So thank you all for
tuning in and we will talk to you all later.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Y
Hello, everybody, Welcome to the Buckeye Weekly Podcast. I'm Tony
Gerdaman here as always with Tom or Tom, I was
going with Tony.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
It took Michigan six tries to get its coaching search right.
It's going to take us maybe two tries to get
our Michigan coaching search show right. But we're gonna get
it right eventually. We will probably do it in less
time than it took Michigan. But they do, in fact
have their new head coach.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
They do official Kyle Whitt again for where Utah had,
current Utah has joach also current Michigan head coach, five
year deal, which sounds like a lot that there's a
method behind that madness. That's certainly a need to do
it that way. But Michigan, after striking out, striking out,
(00:45):
striking out Tom, I think they hit a home run
with fall Wit again, but a home run in a
game that's like seven to two in the bottom of
the night, and it's like, you know, a solo or
two run shot where it's like, you know, it's it's good.
It's much better than they've done. I think it's the
right guy they had to get. The right guy was
(01:08):
at that basically for the situation up there, presided with right.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
I think this is a home run depending on how
you're defining the search, depending on how what parameters you
want to put around the search, because you know, this
is not Urban Meyer getting hired at Ohio State where
you went. This is a home run higher they are
clearly going to win the national championship for the next
few years. That's not what this is. This is Michigan
(01:33):
needed an adult in the room. Michigan needed to get
away from some of the stuff that has happened around
that program over the last four years or so. This
is an adult in the room. This is someone who
has run a program, a very respected program, a very way,
you know, a winning program over the last twenty years,
(01:53):
has an impeccable record in the in the college football world,
an impeccable reputation in the colleg football world, and is
someone who allows and who has nothing to do with
Jim Harball other than the fact that Jim Harbor was
on the opposing sideline from Kyle Whittingham in his first
game at Michigan. But the game where they Fox did
the Khaki cam and everyone kind of rolled a rise
(02:15):
that was against Utah when Jim Harball took over the
Michigan that's about the extent of the relationship between Jim
Harball and Kyle Whittingham. And with all of the stuff,
and when I say stuff, you know what I mean,
there is stuff encompasses a lot. With all of the
stuff around the end of the Jim Harball era and
(02:36):
the fallout of the Jim Harball era and the fallout
of the Jim Harball assistance and all of that kind
of stuff, it's probably a little bit of a fresh
start is probably exactly what Michigan needs right now.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Yeah, it's a gotten all of the living room furniture
just stinks from whatever, and you get everything out, get
the stay with steamer folks. He lean everything out. But
this is what had to happen. And just the talk
of even like bif Pogi himself basically said it where
it's like this is this is such a bad situation
(03:13):
that when we were talking about, you know, the Michigan lineage,
the harbor needs like get him wait from like why
would you want to continue that? And so I think
this is just about the best that they could do
in the circumstance, because that's the thing is relative to
their situation, even missing out on I don't know their
(03:33):
top ten guys. Who even knows? And of course, well
we didn't offer the job to anybody other than colding him, sir.
And that's that's the way it always goes. And the
one person we offered you said yes, I'll take and
he was, I'm I will. We know that he retired
from you, John right, and he didn't. He said, I'm not.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
Retiring from coaching.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Yeah, So there was a thought that, well, does that
mean he wants to go do something else, do you know,
go approach somewhere else, And clearly he does. And he's
sixty six, but you look at he's better shape than
the most thirty six year olds, you know. So I
don't think there's any like, oh he's just getting old
or whatever. I do wonder how long you want to
do it. But you can't present this as while everybody
(04:18):
knows it's a bridge, you present it as a bridge
because people don't buy bridges, Tom say, it's the famous
you know, people trying to sell well, people do buy them,
but usually you come up short, no pun intended. But
with the with this a five year deal, it encompasses
an entire recruiting class and a red shirt che so long,
(04:40):
I will be here for your son all five years,
even though he's going to be in the NFL after three.
I will be for your form should something happened. That's
the way the contract has to be. And who knows,
maybe that would put him in what seventy one and
in his final year he's at think he's two years
older than for Signetti. I just want to give idea
(05:00):
of his age. But he has never seened old or
like he's He's always just seemed like the same forty
five year old fifty year old guys from the first
day of the.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
Job, right. And we covered him in a rose bowl
a couple of years ago, and I think both came
away super impressed with both witting him and his program
like this is. This is someone who is a really
likable guy, as I said earlier, a very well respected guy,
a guy who has a reputation for doing things the
right way. He reminds me a lot of Matt Campbell,
(05:33):
the Iowa State coach who then was hired at Penn State.
And frankly, I think if this job was open earlier,
I think Matt Campbell might be the head coach at
Michigan because you'd probably rather be the Michigan coach than
the Penn State coach. And also then you have, you know,
then you at least have the plausibility of this guy's
here for twenty years. But you know, same basic, same
basic principle where someone's coming in, going to do things
(05:57):
the right way, going to be well respected. But then
you also sort of have the okay with James Franklin,
the issue was he couldn't get you over the hump,
and you know, they're tired of winning ten games. They
want to win twelve games and then win three more
and that they in the playoff. What is it in
Matt Campbell's history that makes you think that he's the
(06:17):
guy to do that. Maybe he is, maybe he can,
but maybe not. And you're sort of at the same
thing with witting him, where I think witting him if
you look at witting him as here's the guy who's
going to come in for three plus or minus a year,
three years plus or minus a year and sort of
restore the reputation of Michigan and restores the some of
(06:41):
the you know, internal politics of Michigan and all that
kind of stuff, and then set this up to be
a job where you're not taking your tenth choice or
your seventh choice or whatever it is the next time.
Michigan should not be a job where you're getting turned
down seven times or you know, Michigan should be a
job where you can pull team. You know, you're not
(07:01):
gonna pull Ohio State's coach. You're not going to pull,
you know, and they might be able to pull Alabama's coach.
They weren't gonna pull Kirby Smart, they weren't gonna pull
Ryan Day, they weren't going to probably pulled Dan Lanning
in this one. But you could have seen a world where,
if things were a little better in ann Arbor and
it was not quite such a mess right now, that
they could have pulled Alabama's sitting head coach, which that
(07:21):
tells you where they should be in the sport. And
instead they're getting the guy who just stepped down from
Utah and did not step down from Utah with the
idea that he was going to take the Michigan job,
because this was you know, this was in the works
for a while there. I think in terms of if
you view it through that prism that this is the
guy who's going to get you through the turbulent year,
(07:43):
you know, a couple of years, three years, whatever it is,
and then you're gonna come out better on the other side.
Be the Bill O'Brien at Penn State. And you know,
again I said this on the earlier show. I am
not comparing the Jerry Sandusky situation to the seuron More
situation or the Jim Harbaugh situation or the Condesstallia share
any of that, but in terms of just yeah, this
(08:03):
place is not living in the rent district that it
should be based on its place in the sport because
of you know, messy general messiness. Bill O'Brien got them
through that to the point where they then hired a
James Franklin and then you know, they it's easy to
forget now, but he won the Big Ten championship in
a second year, you know, So this is he can
(08:25):
be potentially the Bill O'Brien to sort of get them
through this and get all of that behind them and
then make it a much more appealing job in a
couple of years.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
You said, Bill O'Brien, I'll say something more age priate
to this situation Mark Rick going to Miami after being
at Georgia for a long time and wanting to They
went him to get Miami on the up and up,
and he's three years there and it's like, well, you know,
he had two good years and then the third year
was not great and I could see something like that happening.
(08:58):
Now we talked on the earlier live show that did
the internet did not care for me, and so you
have to finish that. In terms of who is he
going to bring a board, it sounds like Jason beck
is o C who was there UOC I think just
this brand new year in twenty twenty five or maybe
came over. He's not been there long. He's only you know,
(09:18):
like he's he's not as tied to the the new
head coach Morgan Scalty as he is to the outgoing
coach Kyle Winningham. So there there's yeah, I can go
with you. I've not been here at Utah for twelve
years or you know, So there's that sounds like maybe
Tony Alfred might be staying because you do want to
(09:41):
keep some of the some of the guys, because especially
if you've got a five star of running back signed
if you probably don't want to lose that guy. Uh,
and if Tony Alfred the running backs coach, can stay
there and keep that guy, all the better you got
if you bring over your OC who has a history
of a good history of quarterbacks, that should help the
(10:02):
price underwent thing. Uh, but you just you just wonder
somebody who has been okay, it's been okay, losing four
or five games any given year and there's no pushback
for it because of the history that you'd build up.
The only history that is built up is at another
school given at this point, So, uh, what kind of patients?
(10:26):
And then it's like what what kind of patience does
he have for risking? What kind of patients does have
for him? It's just an interesting situation because it's like
you brought me here, Yeah, so you better give me
some time. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Well you mentioned Mark Rick, and I think that's a
good one because he was he between Randy Shannon and
Manny dz al.
Speaker 1 (10:46):
Golden with Al Golden, Al Golden then many data.
Speaker 2 (10:49):
Okay, yeah, it has been it has been a it
has been a two decades for this. She's for the
Miami Hurricanes, and we'll be talking about that much more
later the other name that This is not exactly the
same kind of thing, but it's a little bit like
Jim Grove where Jim Grove went from. You know, he
was the head coach at Ohio University and the head
coach at Wake Forest and then after the Art Brile situation,
(11:10):
Jim Grove goes down to Baylor for it was just
one year because they fired Briles at a weird point
in the calendar and that was you know, that was
like very much, this is a one year thing. But
he was, you know, Frank Reich at Stanford this year.
But you know, Jim Grove really is kind of more
more fits the Kyle Whittingham thing, where he's a longtime
head coach, no real ties to Baylor, goes down there
(11:34):
for a year, just kind of steadies the ship as
they sort of get out from under the brills thing
a little bit and then they sort of can take
a breath and figure things out. That was a one
year thing. I don't expect this to be a one
year thing. But I also don't expect this to be
you know, he's got a five year contract. I would
probably not expect him to coach out that full five
(11:54):
year contract. That feels like a you're going to coach
two to three years and then you're going to you know,
but then you have a couple of years on your contract,
so it's not, well, this guy's you know, a dead
man walking and then you just sort of gracefully step
away after three years or whatever it is. Where again,
then Michigan's in a place to make a more long
term higher at that point.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It also depends. Coaching is always about timing, and your
head coach is about timing and finding him at the
right spot who is available. Each year, It's like the
quarterback draft. Is this a good quarterback draft or do
you want to wait till next year? Is next year
a good head coaching draft is two years from now?
If if they're if he's tend to two of these
(12:34):
next two years the regular season, but somebody opens up
after that second year and it's the guy that they've
wanted all the laws, I have no doubt that they
would go ahead and make that change at that point,
with the understanding of Kyle, thank you, you've done everything
we've asked. Here's the rest of the three the three
(12:54):
or eating years on your contract, you can go find
another adventure if you like. Yet, we've got that opportunity
to hire this man. I'm just gonna try to come
up with a day real quickly. PJA flag.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Yeah. Yeah, we had the Michigan people, so so okay
with us And then you said then then you said that, Yeah,
I think and I think that there's a ceiling on
this higher. I don't think this is a higher where
you're going to start bringing in top five recruiting classes.
I don't think this is a higher where you're going
to win a national championship in two years. This is
(13:30):
a hire to steady the ship, and I think it's
can be very efficient and very effective there. He's not
someone who you let through and looked at recruiting class,
so then Utah is not Michigan and I all, we
get that, but you know, he had one top twenty
recruiting class in the previous five cycles and that was
a nineteenth ranked refruition class. So this is not the
world's most dynamic refruiter. And yeah, he's got a better
(13:53):
you know, he's in a better spot now, he's got
a probably better nil now ye all that stuff, Yes,
we get it, but that doesn't put you as a
top five class that which you as a ten to
fifteen kind of class, Like you're probably recruiting, Okay, you're
probably you know, playing reasonably well, you're probably sort of
in the college football playoff conversation most years, and you
(14:15):
know which slide of the line do you fall on? Well,
tell me ask me again after I know how many
teams are going to be in the college Football Playoff
next year, but you know, if they expanded to sixteen,
nine and three, very well, get you in at that point,
and you're probably I think eight to ten wins a
season is a very realistic expectation for him at Michigan
(14:36):
most seasons. So that's fine, You're not a national championship
team at that point. And there are other downsides here
where we're looking at. This is someone who has coached
in the state of Utah at Utah for the last
two decades. And I saw someone say how far east
as he coached and he coached at Eastern Utah one year,
and it's like, well, okay, he went to BYU, Like
(14:58):
this is a Utah guy through This is not a
guy who you know, can has read all of Bosham
Beckler's books and knows you know, we can can tell
you all of Bosham Backroad's greatest wins. This is someone
who's coming in from outside, who doesn't necessarily have a
ton of connection to program, doesn't have any kind of
connection to the boosters, doesn't have any kind of connection
(15:19):
to the players. I saw a headline from one of
the recruiting services whom you know, basically said like, you know,
the recruits react to new head coaching. And the quote
was essentially, I don't know who that is. So you know,
you're going to have a lot of the relationship building
to do and all that kind of stuff. And I
do think there's a ceiling on this, but there's also
a floor on this, and the floor is relatively high
(15:41):
and for you know, for where they were. You know,
if you're three days ago, you know, Biff Pogi is
getting talked about as a serious head coaching candidate. Like
this is a way better outcome information than that.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
Yeah, and you mentioned the recruiting rankings for twenty twenty six.
There are thirty six than thirty nine, fifty nine, nineteen,
thirty seventh, thirty second, thirtieth, forty third, thirty third, and
thirty third in those ten years five top one hundred guys,
and I don't think they saw two at any any year.
But again that's Utah. That's how you exist with your truth.
(16:14):
You develop, you recruit as locally as you can. You go.
If you tuh Michigan, there's a much bigger footprint and
a much larger name. Now it's gonna take some time
apparently for people to know that name even and it
will be interesting to see because I he's got a
game on New Year's Eve, I would imagine he's Donejeez,
(16:36):
it's time to get yes, because yeah, the portal opens
on the second, and you want to everybody on your
gem try to get them to go to to B
as close and to get to know you as well
as they can. And you don't want to do that
in the span of two days.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
No, Well, yeah, now you can just kind of hand
the you know, do the old Urban Meyer to Ryan
day hand the ConTroll war off kind of saying. Because
here's the other thing. Five days from now, the portal
opens after you hire a head coach, a new head coach,
the portal opens for any player on that team. So
five days from now, guess when that is? So, so
he's gonna have he's gonna have a busy few days.
(17:16):
I'm going to guess he's not going to be all
that worried about are they in the Las Vegas Well,
I don't remember which all game it is, honestly.
Speaker 1 (17:22):
Yeah. But yeah, once you nade him, yeah you've got you.
Can't we need you.
Speaker 2 (17:26):
The clock starts. Yes, yes, And you've got to start
building relationships to the current guys. I just I saw
want to hit a four star I think wide receiver
who asked out of his letter of intent. So, uh,
you're gonna have there's going to be some churn at
this point. If you're Michigan, you've got to hope that
the churn does not include someone like Bryce Underwood or March,
you know, or Andrew Bavloa, the offensive tackle, the five
(17:48):
star offensive tackle they signed this year who had a
serious knee injury I think missed it, missed the whole season.
You got to hang on to those kind of guys.
The recruiting class was not incredible, but and they've lost
a couple guys from that class already in the wake
of the more thing. So yeah, it's going to be
a little bit of a turnover. Process. But you know
he again, he is someone who I think when people
(18:10):
get to know him, I think he's going to be
a very like, a very likable, very respected guy. I'm
really looking forward to, you know, big media days and
get to go talk to him for has We had
a great time listening to him talk about football when
you're out covering the Rose Bowl a couple of years ago.
Real smart guy, very successful. And you have someone from
the Urban Meyer coaching tree now coaching the Michigan Wolverines.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Well, I mean hand picked by Urban Myra to replace
him at Utah ride Day, hand picked by Urban liratry
replacement at Iris State, and not both of those guys
here will be coaching this rivalry. It's it's an interesting
Now we'll see if this is a a long code
then Urban vibor.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
Twenty years of Utah all leading up to this moment.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
The manchurian O Wolverine. But I do think there's a
question in terms of everybody's talking about this as as
though it is temporary. Most jobs are. Yeah, right, Michigan
cannot stick out this in that way, and really in
the media circles probably shouldn't be spoken of in that way.
(19:14):
Because how well can temporary recruit, And so Michigan's gonna
be in this situation where they're going have to be
paying up he perhaps more for for that to like,
you know, to make it a better landing. Oh, don't
worry if it's it's not temporary. But in case you
think it is here, you know, well we can provide more.
(19:36):
I just wonder how well temporary recruits. What kind of
team can they put together immediately as well once that
port opens, and how open is the wallet? Yeah, yeah,
to make this first year a splash right.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
Well, and that's the thing now you don't have you know,
the twenty twenty three is already a while ago, and
a lot has changed, and there's not a lot of
the folks on this Michigan staff who were there for that.
So you've already got that piece where it's you know, well,
a while ago, some people who lived here won a
national championship. No one, you know, not a lot of
(20:12):
people on the current staff, but some of them were.
And a lot of other stuff has changed, and that's
not what Michigan has been in the news for the
last couple of years. And you know, winning him himself
has not you know they've developed some NFL players, obviously
at Utah, but not you know, that has not exactly
been a first round fastery by any naimes. And he
(20:33):
doesn't have a lot of connections in the local communities.
And I pointed this out earlier. If you want to
look up the Oracle stock price for the last six months,
it is not it is not stunks. As the kids say,
they have some issues with long story short, they have
some issues with lease gaps where they have leased facilities
and they're lessi's have shorter lease drums and they might
(20:56):
get held that he'd get left holding the bag on
some leases. Yeah, h does that matter? Well, Larry Ellison
is only interested in Michigan football because what his wife
is a Michigan graduate. And uh so he's the one
who basically bankrolled the Bryce Underwood signing by all me,
you know, by all reporting. And you know, if you
have a little less disposable income and you have some
(21:17):
other bigger problems than maybe Michigan football becomes a little
less of a concern in your priority. So yeah, I
mean there's a bunch of sort of different, various headwinds,
you know, sort of blowing against them, right, now that
that will potentially impact what that program looks like in
the short to short to medium.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
Jen, Yeah, we shoud probably start to wrap up here.
But I just I do wonder if he can turn
it back all after kind of being ready to turn
it off. You know, it's I mean, I'm stepping away
put again. He said he was retiring from from coaching,
so I do believe that he does is ready for
a new challenge. I don't think this is a midlife crisis.
He has owned a motorcycle for a long term event.
Speaker 2 (21:57):
That is true.
Speaker 1 (21:58):
In case you think you get it, yeah, I think
this is just somebody who's interested in what that next
thing is.
Speaker 2 (22:04):
Yeah. Yeah, and it's an interesting fit. And I think
in I think, as you said at the beginning, this
is a home run. As long as you're defining the
terms correctly, as long as you're you know, as long
as you're your expectation for what this is are sort
of off field stuff, this is a home run. This
is exactly what Michigan needs. This is not going to
(22:24):
be Michigan is going to win the National championship next year,
which is fine. They've got to get their house in order,
and then you can bring in the guy who could
do that next. But that guy, whoever that guy is
for all, for all values of that guy, that guy
is not interested right now because the program is a disaster.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, we may not even be talking about who that
guy is. We may not even like at this point, Yeah,
nobody's talking about that guy.
Speaker 2 (22:48):
Nobody know who. Nobody was talking about Kurt Signetti three
years ago, and Kurt Signetti was just the guy at
James Madison. And you know, now Kurt Signette has got
the number one team in the country and the Heisman
Trophy went or and yeah, so yeah three years isn't
isn't a trinity in college football right now? And so yeah,
we we may not know who that is. I will,
(23:09):
I will for all one name the gentleman who succeeded
for Signetti at yeah, at James Madison, who is now
at uh at U c l A. Bob Chesney, watch
this space, just watch the space.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Another name Mike Hart just because he left got out
of it. Yeah, it's like, yeah, we need the Resch.
That's somewhat of a joke, just because he was pushed
out and it's like you never heard from him again.
But yeah, the Jesney one is kind of the one
I'm thinking as well, So that'll do it that if
(23:46):
you want to go ahead and that comes up, would
appreciate that. Of course, you can continue to find us
at book huddle dot com. So thank you all for
tuning in and we will talk to you all later.
Speaker 2 (24:15):
Y
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