As first reported by 247Sports’ Matt Zenitz on Saturday afternoon, Kyle Whittingham is set to hire another former BYU assistant coach to his inaugural Michigan football staff — cornerbacks coach and defensive
passing game coordinator Jernaro Gilford.
A former BYU football player, Gilford has been coaching since 2012 and has been with the Cougars’ coaching staff since 2016. He began his career at as a graduate assistant at Whittier College before being promoted to coach the cornerbacks and special teams. He then went to Southern Utah in 2014 to be the secondary coach there.
After two seasons at Southern Utah, Gilford went back to his alma mater in 2016 to coach the cornerbacks. He got the fancy new title of defensive passing game coordinator — while still coaching the cornerbacks — ahead of the 2025 season.
Some of his coaching highlights at BYU, according to his coaching profile, include:
- The Cougars had 12 different players record interceptions in 2024, more than any other team in the FBS, with seven of them being from cornerbacks. Also helped BYU rank No. 19 in passes defended with 68 (PBU + INT) in 2024.
- BYU’s defense had a pass efficiency rating of just 105.91, the lowest in the Big 12 and No. 3 nationally, in 2024. The pass defense also surrendered just 182.5 yards per game (No. 20 nationally and the best in the Big 12).
- In BYU’s first year in the Big 12 in 2023, Gilford helped the Cougars finish the year ranked No. 20 in interceptions with 14. Additionally two players ranked in the top-20 in interceptions, with cornerback Eddie Heckard leading the team with five (No. 6 nationally) while his teammate in the secondary Jakob Robinson had four.
- Robinson earned Freshman All-America (2021), was a Jim Thorpe Award semifinalist (2023), an All-Big 12 honorable mention (2023) and named to the second-team All-Big 12 (2024) at BYU.
Whittingham has filled out nearly his entire coaching staff. Here is what things look like as of now:
- Offensive coordinator: Jason Beck
- Defensive coordinator: Jay Hill
- QB coach: Koy Detmer Jr.
- RB coach: Tony Alford
- WR coach: Micah Simon
- TE coach: Freddie Whittingham
- OL coach: Jim Harding
- DL/edge coach: Lou Esposito and Lewis Powell
- LB coach: TBD
- Defensive backs coach: Jernaro Gilford
- Special teams coach: Kerry Coombs
