ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- On Saturday night, Michigan football head coach Kyle Whittingham was adamant: he would reassess offensive coordinator Jason Beck's standing with the team and future after the season. Despite the offense continuing to drop like a stone, he was stalwart in his support, even though his weekly postgame pressers often featured some kind of rebuke of the offense.
However, on Sunday, Whittingham changed course, ultimately deciding to oust Beck from the program after having had him as his OC for the past 21 games.
Whittingham insisted on Monday that it was his own decision to fire Beck.
"Zero," Whittingham said. "Zero outside influence. It was just my own analysis, my own feel, my own gut instinct."
He laid out his decision, and he says
it ultimately came down to watching the offense flounder against rival MSU that helped him make up his mind. Given how moribund the outfit had become, Whittingham insists that a change was necessary.
"Well, watching the film really was the deciding factor, and I had the intention of waiting until after the season, as I mentioned," Whittingham said. "But when I turned the film on and really dove into it, it just became apparent to me that you need to make the change now. And there's just too much regression in the offense in that particular game. And that's what led to the decision."
But it was obvious to bystanders that a change was necessary well before the Michigan State game. So why did it take so long for Whittingham to pull the trigger?
Whittingham says that, though fans and analysts had come to the conclusion that Beck wasn't long for the Michigan OC job, he isn't making decisions based on sentiment from outside of the program.
"If you listen to the fans, you're going to be sitting with them," Whittingham said. "It's the old adage. And so I've got to do what's best for the program without trying to please anybody. I'm trying to get the program in the best position and the best possible way to be successful. And I can't take a poll of the fans or whatever else is out there. We respect our fans, and they've been supportive all year, and grateful they come out and cheer our players on. And so that's all great. But as far as in-house decisions and decisions I've got to make, I don't really think that that's part of the equation."
Michigan is turning to offensive line coach Jim Harding to oversee the offense in the interim. He's got a tough first task, as the Wolverines' next opponent is Oregon in Eugene.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kyle Whittingham explains why Michigan football fired Jason Beck
