Ohio State football fans are struggling with the fact that Michigan’s new head coach isn’t easy to dislike. In fact, many fans of the Scarlet and Gray are befuddled by the fact that if Whittingham were wearing any other colors, they would be wishing him nothing but the best. But he isn’t wearing a shade of red, orange, purple, green, or any other color that’s not maize and blue, and just those colors alone spark negative emotions among this fanbase.
Despite Whittingham’s success as the head man at Utah, there are still some glaring issues he must overcome if he is going to be even more successful at Michigan. Here are five reasons why Kyle Whittingham will not win a National Championship while roaming the sidelines in Ann Arbor.
He Is Too Old
Whittingham is 66 years old. Only three head coaches have ever won a National Championship during the modern era at the age of 66 or older, and all three won their first of multiple national titles before the age of 66. Paul “Bear” Bryant, Bobby Bowden, and Nick Saban are the only three to achieve this feat.
If Whittingham were to lead the Wolverines to the Promised Land of college football, he would be the first ever to do so for the first time at the age of 66 or older. Even Indiana’s Curt Cignetti, who Michigan fans will point to as an argument against this fact, is 64 years old.
Yes, I understand Whittingham is in great shape both physically and mentally for his age. But Father Time is undefeated. Just ask Saban, who is the one person who has defied all odds when equating wins and losses to coaches once they reach 65 years of age. Do you really believe Whittingham is uniquely qualified to be the first to buck this trend?
Unfamiliar Territory
Football is football. That is, until it is no longer football and it is everything other than football, which seems to be the growing trend in college football these days. Whittingham has left the friendly confines of the state of Utah, where he became a legend, and has moved to a completely new region of the country. To say the state of Michigan is culturally different than Utah would be an understatement.
If being the head coach of the football program at a blue-blood school in the Big Ten were just about football, then Whittingham would be ideal. But being the head coach at a school like Michigan, in a state like Michigan, is a whole new animal for Whittingham.
Recruiting, administration, donors, high school coaches, team culture…it’s all different from what Whittingham was familiar with in Utah.
Whittingham, who publicly belongs to the LDS faith (Church of Latter-day Saints — Mormon), is going to find a very different culture has been established on the campus of the University of Michigan. Trying to grow roots quickly, when it is such a different environment than the one he is used to in Utah, would be hard enough for anyone, let alone a man who is in his 60s and has such an established foundation.
I would have to imagine that there will be a clash of cultures for Whittingham, and I’m not even talking about the X’s and O’s between the hedges.
All Former Ties Have Been Removed
The one coach from the previous staff who was going to help Whittingham with his transition from Utah to Michigan, and the culture of being a Michigander was Lou Esposito. The defensive line coach, who was undoubtedly the best recruiter and developer on Sherrone Moore’s staff, bolted for the NFL as soon as Baltimore came calling.
Esposito was the best bridge Whittingham had when developing relationships with the high school coaches of Michigan and understanding what it meant to play Michigan football. Given the results from the past two seasons, however, maybe that wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
This past week, Moore’s GM and former Jim Harbaugh Associate Athletic Director for Football, Sean Magee, along with several other individuals on his staff, were released from their duties. Michigan is saying this is because Whittingham wants to bring in his own guys, and that makes perfect sense. But let’s not pretend that the relationships built with the 2027 and 2026 recruits won’t have to be reestablished by Whittingham, his coaching staff, and new recruiting personnel.
That being said, Whittingham and most of his staff will have to start from scratch when it comes to developing the necessary relationships to win recruiting battles in the Midwest.
I know NIL has become such a big part of recruiting and the transfer portal that there aren’t too many hurdles NIL money can’t overcome. So maybe this isn’t as strong a reason as others, but it is still something Whittingham must overcome.
Michigan’s High Expectations
There will be a honeymoon period for Michigan fans and Whittingham. Following Sherrone Moore’s volatile couple of seasons, Whittingham’s consistency and maturity will be a welcome presence. But that good feeling won’t last too long after Whittingham suffers a couple of losses.
I am a firm believer in the back of a baseball card. In other words, you are what the back of your baseball card says you are. Want some examples? Jim Tressel’s success at Youngstown State was similar to the success he experienced at Ohio State. What Curt Cignetti did at every stop before getting to Indiana is exactly what he was able to accomplish in Bloomington. Why will Whittingham be any different?
In his 21 years as head coach at Utah, he averaged 8.3 wins per season. That is not the win total that Michigan fans have grown to expect. If Whittingham goes 8–4 or 9–3 a couple of seasons in a row, missing the CFP, you would have to imagine that the fanbase will start to get impatient.
Whittingham is a Utah legend. He isn’t used to expectations like this. Like Urban Meyer famously said, “That’s life in the big city.” Is Whittingham ready to level up to these expectations? Will the pressure to win 10 or more games year in and year out be worth it for him?
Or will the thoughts of sitting on a porch playing with grandchildren begin to sneak into his mind after working a 17-hour day, only to turn on the radio in his car on his way home and have to listen to Michigan fans calling into sports talk radio programming and complaining about his inability to beat Ohio State?
New To THE GAME
The Holy War, Utah vs. BYU, is a unique rivalry. It’s heated among both the players and fans alike. But let’s not kid ourselves. The Holy War is in no way, shape, or form comparable to Ohio State vs. Michigan.
Meyer said it best: “That’s the way you respect a rivalry. Then you outwork them, and then you kick that ass like it’s never been kicked before.”
Ohio State vs. Michigan is like no other game played in sports. No game is talked about, worked on, and worried about for an entire year like this game is. Whittingham might think he understands what this game is all about, but until he is in the heat of it and bullets begin to fly, he won’t know if he is truly ready for it or not until that moment.
The last time Michigan chose a coach this far removed from the game was Rich Rodriguez. That decision resulted in zero wins and three devastating losses. Whittingham is much more accomplished than Rodriguez was and is. But just like Rich Rod found out, THE GAME is nothing like the rivalry games he experienced, such as the Backyard Brawl (West Virginia vs. Pitt).
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I like Whittingham. I think he is a good man and a great football coach, but he is now wearing the enemy colors.