Michigan is 5-4, and the Kyle Whittingham era has felt out of touch and inept. After a loss to Michigan State, Michigan should strongly consider firing Kyle Whittingham.
Here are five major reasons Whittingham should no longer be Michigan’s head coach.
Whittingham hasn’t fired Jason Beck
Michigan offensive coordinator Jason Beck is putting together one of the most putrid offensive schemes in the nation, yet Whittingham is reluctant to send Beck packing.
“We’ll evaluate everything after the season and determine what the best course of
action is,” Whittingham said after the loss to Michigan State. “But not right here, right now.”
There’s no reason to wait until after the season. Michigan ranks No. 132 in total offense and No. 126 in scoring offense. Michigan has been shut out three times in the first half this season and simply isn’t functional. Beck has shown no willingness to tweak his scheme in any manner, and he’s clearly not cut out for the Big Ten level of talent. Whittingham’s reluctance to fire Beck shows that he can’t be trusted to make other major decisions for the program.
Whittingham defers key decisions to his staff
Whittingham has said multiple times this year that he isn’t a micro-manager, but isn’t that what a head coach should be? Whittingham said when contemplating a change back to quarterback Bryce Underwood over Tommy Carr against Michigan State, that “offensive coaches thought to stick with Tommy.”
“That was, I can’t give you any other reason other than that was the way they felt that given the circumstances and the practice reps during the week and all that,” Whittingham said.
Whittingham says he has the power to overrule anything in the program, yet he isn’t the one being proactive and trusting his instincts — he’s just letting things roll in whatever way his assistants see fit. Could you imagine Nick Saban having this kind of mindset? It’s weak.
Whittingham is a poor communicator and motivator
Whittingham usually has his headset microphone pulled up, and he’s not consistently engaged in discussions during games. When a television camera is put on Whittingham, he’s usually not speaking to anyone, and he has a confused and befuddled look on his face. Whittingham isn’t bringing the juice on a play-to-play basis, and how he’s carrying himself is bound to rub off negatively on players.
Whittingham isn’t a good communicator during games with his players either. Whittingham said earlier this season that quarterback Bryce Underwood hears from him “very little” during the course of a game, and he leaves it to Jason Beck and quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer. This is a trend from Whittingham beyond the quarterback position — he isn’t one to rally the troops and head to the bench area to deliver fiery words of motivation. It’s to the point where it’s beyond fair to say — what exactly does Kyle Whittingham do during the course of four quarters? He seems confused and lacks confidence or energy in his demeanor.
Whittingham has no sense of urgency
Whittingham is 66 but acts like he has all the time in the world as Michigan’s head coach to get things turned around.
“Losing the locker room, I mean, all these dramatic things. Must-win games, inexplicable situations, embattled coach. All that stuff is just dramatic,” Whittingham said.
It’s not dramatic. Michigan is losing rivalry games, the situations are inexplicable, and he is an embattled coach who should be on the hot seat.
Whittingham said in October that this season is the biggest challenge he’s had in over 40 years of coaching and promised to figure it out. Whittingham’s figured nothing out.
“Right now, I can’t explain it,” Whittingham said about the loss to MSU. “We’ll go and watch the film tomorrow.”
Watching film isn’t necessary to explain what happened in the loss to Michigan State — Michigan is a reflection of its head coach. They’re an uninspiring team that lacks aggression and attention to detail.
Whittingham keeps saying things that convey he has more time to turn things around at Michigan — he mentions 2027 as if it’s a guarantee he will be coaching the team then.
“When you look down the road, the recruiting class we put together for the ’27 class, we feel really good about. We’ve got a Portal season coming up in a month and a half, two months, and just continuing to build the depth and the talent level, just continuing to add to what we’ve got,” Whittingham said.
Not only is talking about portal players and an upcoming recruiting class disrespectful to the current team, but Whittingham’s main focus should also be on not embarrassing himself in the last three games against Oregon, UCLA, and Ohio State. As it stands, Michigan is likely to finish the season at 5-7.
Whittingham doesn’t understand Michigan’s rivalry games
Whittingham called the Michigan-MSU rivalry Michigan State’s Super Bowl and said that it makes or breaks their season. He isn’t wrong, but that’s something you simply don’t say. And now, in retrospect, those comments look even worse with Michigan losing and Michigan State playing with more inspiration and energy.
In 2022, Michigan players were attacked in the Michigan Stadium tunnel by Michigan State players, leading to multiple arrests of MSU players, but Whittingham said “I guess there was a fight in the tunnel a couple years ago.” It wasn’t a fight, and that lack of awareness should be startling to anyone who remembers that horrible night and the dark cloud of the aftermath that ensued.
Whittingham also said this off-season that “hate is a strong word” in regard to the Ohio State rivalry. He doesn’t understand the venomous hate that Ohio State fans and Michigan State fans have about Michigan — this isn’t a friendly rivalry — they hate Michigan each and every day of their lives. Whittingham said he doesn’t think there’s a place for hatred in the rivalry — well, too bad. The hate has been there over a century, and it’ll be there 100 years from now if the planet Earth is still around.
Conclusion
I’ve outlined a multitude of reasons Whittingham should be fired. It isn’t just one thing; it’s a plethora of issues with no indication that anything can improve. He is who he is, and he isn’t cut out for the Michigan job. Whittingham may be a good man who won a lot of games at Utah, but he’s failing miserably at Michigan, and it doesn’t matter how many times he promises he’s going to fix what’s clearly broken — he doesn’t even have a clue how to turn things around.
If Michigan keeps Whittingham beyond this season, they’re only setting themselves up for future failure, not success. One-and-done is extremely rare in college football, but in an era of quick turnaround at Indiana, UCLA and beyond, there should be more of a willingness to make a course correction and admit that Kyle Whittingham is a failed experiment. As weeks and games continue to roll on, this will only become more evident. Haven’t we seen enough to know how this story ends? It won’t end well, which is why Michigan should fire Kyle Whittingham and try to land a premier head coach in the next month. If not, the 2027 season is bound to be as ugly as this one.
