Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck and defensive coordinator Jay Hill are heading into their first season with the program, but they are more than familiar with one another after facing off against each other last year.
Beck was the offensive coordinator under head coach Kyle Whittingham at Utah last year, while Hill was the defensive coordinator at BYU. Now, Beck and Hill are on the same sideline at Michigan. Hill’s defense got the best of Beck’s offense a year ago, as BYU defeated Utah, 24-21.
Utah racked up more yards and first downs than BYU, but a pair of critical turnovers allowed Hill’s unit to pull out a narrow win in the rivalry game.
Beck and Hill reflected on the matchup from last season as Michigan began fall camp on Wednesday.
“What stands out with coach Hill’s defense is they’re very sound,” Beck said. “They do an excellent job with technique and you won’t play anybody that does more variation with defensive fronts and disguising the coverages.”
“The offense is extremely creative and it just keeps you on your toes,” Hill said. “It’s very explosive and probably the best thing about it is they do a great job of getting the ball to players in space with the opportunity to make plays.”
A year later, Beck and Hill are no longer on the opposite sides of a heated rivalry. They are on the same coaching staff, collaborating with each other and working towards a common goal of helping Michigan become the best it can be.
“Their defense gives us a lot of great work in practice,” Beck said. “We’re having to face multiple fronts and multiple coverages. It’s a complex defense. They give us great looks and a lot of great work to go up against every day.”
Hill echoed Beck’s sentiment that both units create challenges for one another that make them better in the long run.
“They do a good job of finding mismatches and trying to get you out-leveraged in different ways,” Hill said. “When you think they’re going to run it, they throw it, and when you think they’re going to throw it, they run it.”
It certainly wasn’t a surprise Whittingham wanted both coordinators to join his coaching staff at Michigan; Beck turned Utah into one of the nation’s most prolific offenses, and Hill helped BYU become a defensive force. Additionally, Whittingham and Hill have a lengthy history that stretches nearly three decades. Hill played at Utah in 1999 before being a part of his coaching staff for 13 years, and eventually coaching against him.
“This one is pretty personal to me,” Hill said. “Coach Whitt has always had a very special place in my heart, just who he is as a person and the relationship we had as coach-player. And then it grew. I was with him 13 years as an assistant coach.”
Rather than standard coaching adversaries, Whittingham and Hill’s history is more of a mentor-protégé relationship. Since first meeting on opposite sidelines in 2018, Whittingham and Hill have coached against each other four times.
“He is a phenomenal X’s and O’s coach,” Hill said. “He really establishes great culture throughout his programs and they have always been tough. His teams have always been disciplined and they don’t do the things that cost you games.”
During his head coaching stint at Weber State from 2014-22, Hill lost to Utah and Whittingham in 2018 and 2021. However, Hill got some revenge when he was at BYU, beating the Utes in 2024 and 2025.
“When you play a coach Whitt team, you’re going to have to fight and claw and dig to beat him,” Hill said. “That’s what we hope we are. We hope the team takes on the personality of the head coach because if we do, we’re going to be really good.”
The understanding of each other’s schemes and the familiarity between Beck and Hill — going from competitors to collaborators in a year — alongside Whittingham should be beneficial as they look to find success at Michigan this season.
