Michigan football has not been good in 2026, but the loss to Michigan State has been described as 'an eye-opener' for some of the powers that be in Ann Arbor. And thus, despite offensive coordinator Jason Beck being fired over the weekend, it hasn't saved Kyle Whittingham from being on the proverbial hot seat.
Meanwhile, Whittingham is sitting in a chair, surrounded by flames, proclaiming, 'This is fine.'
This week, prominent college football analyst Josh Pate joined famed Michigan alum Rich Eisen on his show, and the two bantered about the state of the program. Pate wouldn't be surprised if Whittingham is brought back, but at the same time, he notes that there isn't support for him behind closed doors the way there is for some other struggling
college coaches.
And that's an indictment on the current tenure.
"If they compete like if they would go up to Oregon and it's a dog fight in the fourth quarter this Saturday, I would look at that as saying good for those players, almost in spite of what's happening around them," Pate said. "And so I keep asking because I don't want that to be true. I can't get a person to back him. I can't find a person that's willing to put their name behind him.
"And the other thing that's rubbed me the wrong way, and I'm not even a Michigan guy; I didn't play there. I didn't go there, and it still rubs me the wrong way that someone could be paid eight million dollars a year and bristle at even trying to embrace the tradition and the specifics of the culture and tradition of that program. Like, that's the job. If that turns you off, if memorizing the names of trophy games turns you off, if you think you're above that, OK. Maybe you're above it, but don't take the job. Once you take the job, you sign up for it. It's like when Lincoln took USC, but then they didn't want to play Notre Dame -- no, if you take the USC job, you're signing up to play Notre Dame. If you take the Michigan job, you're signing up to be part of all that stuff. You don't exist there in spite of it, you exist there with it. That's it, you take it or leave it."
"It's hard to argue with a lot of what you just said," Eisen replied. "For me, the biggest, quizzical aspect of Kyle Whittingham's tenure so far at Michigan has been how he takes a distant approach of being a part of the tradition. I understood it when he was just, 'I'm new here.' But now that he's been through it, having lost the Jug and the Axe to Minnesota and Michigan State, him bristling about, 'I don't think that there is any more trophy games left,' it did land as a thud in the Michigan football world, without a doubt.
"It's just as you point out, you sign up for this sort of stuff. You shouldn't lament having to play it. I just think it's also his frustration in having lost those trophies on top of it. And I wouldn't be surprised if he's still there next year, Josh, because we have to find — I will say 'we' because I'm part of the community — a new athletic director. The new president starts at the end of December, although somebody had to green-light flushing the most expensive offensive coordinator salary down the toilet, right? Somebody had to green- or maize-and-blue-light that one. So I don't know what's going on there, but your comments definitely have been shared. That is for sure."
The Wolverines will be traveling to Oregon this week to face the Ducks in Eugene. With new offensive coordinator Jim Harding leading the charge, could things change for the final three games? It's possible, and perhaps Whittingham is betting on that.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Josh Pate, Rich Eisen question Kyle Whittingham's Michigan future
