Was Biff Poggi a real candidate for Michigan football's head coach opening last season? He seems to think so.
Poggi, who went 2-1 as the Wolverines' interim coach last season after Sherrone Moore was fired
, said he and current Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham were the two finalists for the opening last offseason. The 66-year-old coach said he was interviewed multiple times and received positive feedback during the process.“It was hard because I really thought I was going to get it,” Poggi told "Blue By Ninety" on Wednesday, Nov. 4. “I had four interviews, they all went really well, I was getting really positive feedback from the search guy. It was all going very well. We were also the players’ favorite, and that doesn’t always mean that that’s
the right thing. But what was disappointing was that I wasn’t going to be around those kids anymore."
Poggi led the Wolverines to wins over Central Michigan and Nebraska last season while he was filling in for Moore, who was suspended. He also served as the interim head coach for Michigan's 41-27 Citrus Bowl loss to Texas.
The 2025 season was Poggi's third stint at Michigan, having previously served as an analyst in 2016, associate head coach from 2021-22 and again as associate head coach in 2025. After his second stint he was hired as the head coach at Charlotte, where he went 6-16 in two seasons before he was fired midseason in 2024.
Poggi said after he learned of Whittingham landing the job, he quickly got over the loss to support the program.
“And then you quickly transition to, ‘Well, too bad. Who cares?" he said. "You’re an old fart, who cares about what you think? You’ve got to support this program now because these are the kids you care about and you can’t be, like, putting a divorce into the family. You’ve got to jump all in and support this guy. And that’s what I tried to do.”
Poggi clearly wants to be in coaching, having already expressed his interest in the head coach vacancy at Maryland after it fired Mike Locksley. Poggi was born and raised in Baltimore.
Whittingham, who briefly retired after the 2025 season before being hired at Michigan, was previously at Utah from 1994-25, including a run as head coach from 2005-25. He won a Mountain West title, two Pac-12 titles and finished his tenure at Utah with a 177-88 record that includes eight seasons with 10 or more wins.
His first season at Michigan hasn't gone to plan, as the Wolverines boast one of the worst offenses in Power Four. Whittingham has led the program to a 5-3 start in 2026 with a 2-3 mark in conference play.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Biff Poggi thought Michigan football was about to hire him. It didn’t
