On Sunday, we wrote that it was time for Michigan football to move on from Kyle Whittingham, and we certainly were the first in the local media to do so, and may have been among the first regionally or nationally. Now, others are echoing our sentiment for the same reasons.
On Tuesday on the ESPN College GameDay podcast, Dan Wetzel proclaimed that he would be surprised if Whittingham was coaching the Wolverines next year
. Ralph D. Russo reportedly said the same on The Audible. Now the mothership here at USA TODAY Sports has the same take.In a long, must-read column (in addition to our own), Blake Toppmeyer says it's time for the maize and blue to cut ties, because the coupling just is not working. And there's no reason at this juncture to believe
it magically will.
You could fit all of the people who believe Kyle Whittingham will reignite Michigan football inside of a thimble.
Michigan is running out of reasons to give Whittingham a second season.
He hasn’t fixed anything and somehow managed to make a bad offense worse.
No matter how many scapegoats Whittingham benches or fires, he’s provided no evidence he’ll spur improvement. (...)
Whittingham was supposed to be a bridge to whomever comes next. Well, the Wolverines need to get on with whatever comes next, because the bridge is buckling, and Michigan is slipping toward irrelevance. The one thing Michigan cannot afford to be is irrelevant.
Ask Nebraska or Florida State about that.
Toppmeyer continues, noting that it wasn't a bad hire on paper for the Wolverines to get Whittingham from Utah. But if it continues to keep him, the program will continue to falter, relatively irrecovably, and if Michigan is serious, it will rip the Band-Aid off with full prejudice.
I don't blame Michigan for hiring Whittingham when Moore's tenure ended in disgrace. It needed to hire someone who wouldn't embarrass the university off the field.
I would blame Michigan if it wasted another season with a sunken coach.
If Michigan talks itself into retaining Whittingham, it'll be because the timing of a coaching change wouldn't be ideal.
In the meantime, Michigan will continue to idle, and nobody will believe the coach at the wheel is the answer to the problems.
As we noted, it's one thing to embarrass the program off the field, but Whittingham is embarrassing the team on the field. Moore's tenure was rocky on both counts, but both of his seasons were better than the one the Wolverines are currently suffering through. Sure, three wins in a row would get the maize and blue back on the right track, but given the dysfunction on the field, the likelihood of Michigan staring down three ranked teams, the three best on the schedule, and winning feels slim, at best.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: USA TODAY calls for Michigan football to fire Kyle Whittingham
