When Michigan football landed Kyle Whittingham last offseason, it almost seemed like a coup. He was thought to be retiring, but after going 10-2 last season, it seemed he still had some gas left in the tank. And the move by the Wolverines to bring him in to replace embattled former coach Sherrone Moore was lauded by just about everyone with a pen or a microphone.
Nine games into his tenure, the opposite is happening.
Michigan is 5-4 and looks worse than Moore's teams, despite having a head coach with 21 years of experience. On the latest ESPN College GameDay podcast, Rece Davis gave his mea culpa, given that he was one who gave high praise to the maize and blue for bringing in Whittingham. And he asks Dan Wetzel if Michigan can just move on or does
it wait things out to see if Whittingham can fix the mess?
"Look, chief among sinners right here, I thought it was a wonderful idea to bring Kyle Whittingham to Michigan given what Michigan was dealing with," Davis said. "And it has been a near disaster up to this point, which has come as a shock to me watching it. Now, the question becomes, is this something that needs to end quickly?
"Look, Kyle Whittingham's a terrific coach. Nothing is going to change the resume and what he built at Utah and the success that he had at Utah over the years, and why it's not working at Michigan right now. There are a lot of actual tangible reasons, but I suspect, and it feels like more intangible ones, that it just doesn't seem to fit, and there's a lack of direction. And Jason Beck gets all this money; he's the hottest coordinator in the world, and then all of a sudden he's got to be fired because they can't get a first down, he said, with just slight hyperbole.
"And now, I think it becomes the question is, was this, as it turns out, was this the wrong idea, Dan? Is this fixable? Is this something you've got to just live with for another year or two and then try to break it down to the studs and start again? Because I don't know that you see, other than Kyle's resume, which is excellent, and his reputation, which is also excellent, there's nothing that's happened this year that really makes you feel great about it."
Wetzel doesn't believe that patience will reign supreme here. He believes that Michigan will find a way to move on from Whittingham, because there are no indications that this is a salvageable marriage.
"I think my guess -- this is my prediction, but just my feeling is that Kyle Whittingham's not coaching there next year," Wetzel said. "I mean, whether that is a mutual thing or there's a firing or a retirement, I don't know. It could, but why would anyone want to run this back?
"Now, Michigan has no president in place that shouldn't come in until December 1st. The AD, Warde Manuel, is on his way out. Warde Manuel made this call. The decision, kind of last year with Michigan after the Sherrone Moore fire, remember, is a little late in the cycle. And so, a lot of the main people had gone. Could they get Kalen DeBoer?And instead, Oklahoma melted down in that first-round playoff game, or Kalen DeBoer might be at Michigan and this whole thing."
Whittingham was brought in to be the adult in the room, but also to take what was and elevate it. A coach known for doing more with less, many wondered: what if he had more to work with from a talent perspective?
Yet, now Whittingham is openly saying he needs the current recruiting class to sign and the transfer portal in order to build out the team -- regardless of having significantly more talent than he ever had at Utah. Wetzel points to the running back room, where he has a four-star, former Mr. Ohio, Jordan Marshall, and a five-star in Savion Hiter, and yet, the two have combined for just 654 yards between them. Last year, Marshall, who was a backup to Justice Haynes for much of the year, and was injured for a third of the season, had 932 yards.
Wetzel goes there first, before noting just how checked out Whittingham appears to be and how he just doesn't seem to get Michigan.
"I'm not a Michigan football historian, but when was the last time the University of Michigan didn't have a 400-yard running back at this point in the season?" Wetzel said. "It's just so bad. And it doesn't -- look, the problem Whittingham is having besides the just, you cannot just lose to a really -- like all credit to Michigan State, they came in, rivalry game, big thing. But some of it is his comments, and it's just Whittingham. He's just a matter-of-fact, low-key speaker. But it's a little jarring when you're at a program of this nature. I mean, he talked about going into the Michigan State game, he says, this game is the Super Bowl, particularly for them, in my opinion, right? Over the summer, he downplayed the Ohio State rivalry. Wasn't, I don't think any of these games should be -- you know, I can't remember the exact quote. And then after the game, he said, they asked him about how do you keep your guys motivated? Because they had lost to, they already lost the -- you know, they don't like losing these rivalry. They lost the Paul Bunyan trophy and the Little Brown Jug, whatever, to Minnesota.
"He said, it's my job to rally them back and compete in these last three games. I don't know, are there any more trophies in these last three games? I don't think there are any more trophies. They don't give a trophy in Columbus at the end of the season, but believe me, they don't need one. And so he just seems out of touch. He's standing there on the sideline, and this is how he always looked. They could be killing it at Utah, and he just kind of stands there, but he just, he doesn't look engaged. He's just kind of growing his hair out on the sideline. And the team just is listless, and I don't know how you run it back. You can try, but what have we seen? And at this point, if you're Michigan, they got away with a coaching firing without having to pay a buyout, and Sherrone Moore, he bought himself out. I don't know, maybe you just spend the money now and say, look, we're going to be in this market, and nobody else is going to open that's a better job than us. We're going to get the pick of the litter. That, to me, is where an aggressive Michigan goes. But AD's on his way out, no school president, really tricky."
Up next, Michigan will travel to Oregon, with Jim Harding replacing Beck as the interim offensive coordinator. The Ducks had languished until they fired their OC, but have surged in recent weeks, and just dominated Ohio State in Columbus.
This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: ESPN's Dan Wetzel predicts Kyle Whittingham won't return to Michigan
