Kyle Whittingham took Michigan sight unseen — to turn Sherrone Moore mess into his next great win
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It doesn’t make sense, none of it. Not the new job halfway across the continent. Not the strange fit. Not leaving behind decades of the carefully orchestrated at Utah for the sheer unknown of it all at Michigan.
Until you understand who you’re dealing with.
“I’d have been pissed off at myself down the road had I not taken the job,” Kyle Whittingham says.
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But he has never chosen easy over difficult, and he sure as hell wasn’t starting now. So he’s not a Michigan Man, so what? The guy who last fit that mold won a national title, and left two NCAA investigations in his wake before escaping for the NFL.
Make no mistake, Michigan needs a no-frills sheriff as much as it needs a balls-to-the-wall football coach. And before you believe Whittingham, 66, was brought in to do the dirty work to set up the next guy, think about his obsessive workout routine.
The weightlifting isn’t as prevalent as it once was, but the cardio and core work of sit-ups and pushups is still going strong. Everything, he says — while staring deep into another potential soul to convert — revolves around core strength and stretching
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That’s why Whittingham was holed up in an Orlando hotel for three days last December, conducting 1-on-1 interviews with every Michigan player during Citrus Bowl preparations. He had to know what he was walking into.
So much can shape today’s player, and not only had this team dealt with the very public undoing of its head coach off the field, some also endured the wild national championship ride of 2023. The NCAA investigations, the suspension of coach Jim Harbaugh for six games, and the drama of the illegal future scouting scheme.
“These guys have been through a lot, and I didn’t know if I was going to get a bunch of entitled players,” Whittingham said. “I was really impressed with their character, their priorities. These guys know where they’re going in life after football. They get it. Good players, good people. That’s a dangerous combination.”
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“I loved my time at Utah, and I won’t say anything bad about it," Whittingham said. "But there were certain things we just didn’t have.”
When he’s asked how many times he was told “no” at Utah, Whittingham doesn’t blink and says matter-of-factly, “Hundreds.”
Michigan makes double what Utah makes within the Big Ten media rights deal. Michigan has a deep alumni base of committed donors. Michigan has the new ace in the hole of college football: the engaged and committed billionaire.
And just to be clear, Cody Campbell (Texas Tech), Todd Graves (LSU), Lex Wexner (Ohio State) and Mark Cuban (Indiana) aren’t getting into a who’s got more argument with Larry Ellison.
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Within the first month of his arrival at Michigan, Whittingham and strength and conditioning coach Doug Elisaia — Whittingham’s right-hand man at Utah for all 21 seasons — walked into the recently renovated weight room in Schembechler Hall. The largest and most impressive training center in all of college football.
And the damn thing didn’t fit.
Not the bones of it, but the way it was laid out within the cavernous 32,000 square feet. Elisaia uses metabolic, trench-specific strength training, and he’s the most important piece to the program returning to winning through strength and toughness. Or as Harbaugh routinely declared: with character and cruelty.
…“It didn’t fit and it wasn’t going to be cheap to make it work for us,” Elisaia said. “I told Kyle what it would take, he says let me get back to you. And I’m thinking, here we go.”
Elisaia had been down this road for two decades, the path of wish we could but we just can’t — even though the proof was in the annual performance. It’s what so many programs outside the revenue rich Big Ten and SEC go through every single season.
A day later, Elisaia got his answer: Whatever it takes.
….“Kyle comes back and gives me the yes, and I’m thinking, OK, we’ve made the right move,” Elisaia said. “This is going to work.”