Between upgrades on the coaching staff, new players added to the roster, and rejuvenation inside Schembechler Hall, it’s safe to say the returns have been great so far for Kyle Whittingham a few months on the job.
The hype and honeymoon phase will surely continue until the Wolverines take the field for the 2026 season. And with the bitter taste left in the mouths of fans following the last two games of the season — as well as the off-field issues that always seem to be going on — fans are hoping Whittingham
and company can flip the script quickly.
Michigan found itself in a bit of an odd position this offseason. It’s not often a team goes 9-3 in the regular season and finds itself looking for a new head coach. While it could be argued the quality of the product on the field wasn’t up to standard anyway, Michigan wasn’t nearly as down in the dumps as most programs are when replacing its head coach.
In fact, several good pieces were already in place — quarterback Bryce Underwood, a highly-ranked recruiting class, and the allure of the Michigan brand to help attract more talent via the transfer portal. As such, it’s hard to deny the optimism that comes from combining all those things with an experienced and successful head coach like Whittingham.
It’s also reasonable for fans to expect big things right away. But just how grand should the vision be?
Well for starters, when looking at Michigan’s upcoming schedule, you don’t exactly see a slate full of cupcakes. The Wolverines host Oklahoma in Week 2 while also getting matchups with Indiana, Iowa, Oregon, Ohio State, and a Penn State team that’s similarly under new management.
A difficult schedule is cause for some grace and patience for most programs, but the expectations are always greater in places like Ann Arbor and likely won’t factor much into the opinions of the fan base. Even looking back to 2015, Michigan had a challenging schedule for Jim Harbaugh’s first year at the helm, with matchups against Utah, BYU, then top-10 Michigan State, Penn State, Ohio State and Florida. That resulted in a 10-3 season, a five-win improvement from the year prior, resulting in immediate National Championship expectations for 2016.
Let’s add in some recent comparisons to other coaches that have taken over blue blood programs that hadn’t exactly been left for dead when they arrived.
In 2022, Dan Lanning took over Oregon after Mario Cristobal left for Miami. The Ducks went 10-2 in Cristobal’s final season and made the Pac-12 Championship, while Lanning went 9-3 in 2022, setting up an 11-1 season in 2023. Despite the initial step back, Lanning has kept the Ducks among college football’s elite and is in the good graces of his fan base.
Nick Saban went 11-1 in the regular season at Alabama while also winning the SEC and making the College Football Playoff during his final season in 2023. Kalen DeBoer took over and missed the College Football Playoff in 2024 after a 9-3 regular season. Even after making the playoffs in 2025, his fan base is iffy on his prospects to say the least.
Those programs are doing an admirable job from a wins and losses standpoint. But Sherrone Moore was doing the same with his 9-3 record this year. But if you’ve followed college football for any length of time, you’d know a team’s record is often deceiving, and both their quality of play on a weekly basis and their efforts against high-caliber opponents is what shapes the opinions of fans.
For better or worse, Whittingham and Michigan will be tested right away in the department of high-caliber opponents with the strong schedule. This will give fans the chance to judge the Wolverines early and often on their quality of play and how much they return to the standard of disciplined and fundamentally sound football.
Does Michigan continue to start games slow, turn the ball over and draw mindless penalties that had been characteristic in the Moore era? Or does it return to the ways of clinical execution and minimal self-inflicted errors that Harbaugh’s teams had been known for? If it’s the latter, fans will likely be pleased.
When looking back to that 2015 season, a 10-3 record that included a bad loss to Ohio State isn’t what today’s Michigan fans might view as a success. But what had people believing and made it seem successful was the much-improved quality of play the team displayed.
The Wolverines competed with Michigan State for the first time in years, proved to be fundamentally sound, and improved throughout the year, all while players that would play bigger roles in 2016 got valuable experience. Running into a Buckeye buzzsaw late in the year, losing to Michigan State on a freak play and getting Utah on the road in Week 1 were the lone blemishes on the record. Despite the losses, you could clearly see the arrow pointing up for the program.
As such, Whittingham’s version of success might look something similar to Harbaugh’s 2015 season. Even if it’s another 9-3 regular season, that might be perfectly fine with the fan base depending on the quality of play and considering the tough schedule. Even in a world where the CFP is 12 teams, that could be good enough to sneak in. Right now, most fans might even settle for being in the debate late in the year based on how the last two seasons have gone.
More important than the wins and losses, though, will be the development of the players. With back-to-back strong recruiting classes, most of Michigan’s key contributors will once again be young and have big roles in 2027. If guys like Underwood, Andrew Marsh and pretty much the entirety of the offensive and defensive lines show improvement throughout the year, that will be a sign the program is having success and positioned to win big in the future.
While overall quality of play might not be something that always translates to wins and losses and can’t always be judged objectively, that’s what fans should be watching the most in 2026 as the barometer of successful Whittingham and the Wolverines are.
Do you agree? What would you define as a successful first year for Whittingham? Let’s hear your thoughts down below in the comments section.
