At 66, Kyle Whittingham still has plenty to give — and Michigan will benefit from it

ORLANDO, Fla. — Within two days of Michigan firing former coach Sherrone Moore for cause, Kyle Whittingham stepped down after 21 years as the head coach at the University of Utah.

The timing, he admits now, was uncanny. Unexpected, but uncanny.

Since the 66-year-old football coach was 7 years old and first saw the iconic winged helmets running out of the tunnel at the Big House, Whittingham has been fascinated by the Wolverines.

Not a fan, per se. But definitely fascinated.

So when the chance to coach in that same Big House — the one that Bo Schembechler built all those years ago — he couldn't say no.

Whittingham has been open that he didn't retire from coaching after 34 years at the same institution. But in his first public comments since accepting the Michigan job Sunday morning, he said the Wolverines were one of 4-5 openings to which he was willing to listen.

The process was quick, uncannily so.

"It very, very uncanny," he said, "how the circumstances worked out."

He reiterated that he left Utah on his own terms, striking a deal to step down with the program in "a good place" for his successor and long-time defensive coordinator Morgan Scalley, and had offered nothing but praise for Utah officials for how his exit played out.

"The administration, the university, for my entire time there has been very supportive," Whittingham said. "They treated me well. It was my decision to step down; I just felt, again, that the time was right.

"I've seen too many coaches hang on too long, and they get frustrated," he added. "In fact, I contemplated stepping down before last season, but we had such a frustrating season that I could not end on that note. So I came back, righted the ship … and the university treated me nothing but good."

Whittingham won't coach the 18th-ranked Wolverines in Orlando, where they are scheduled to play No. 13 Texas in Wednesday's Citrus Bowl (1 p.m. MST, ESPN). But athletic director Warde Manuel brought the second-longest tenure active coach in the Football Bowl Subdivision to central Florida to get right to work, meeting his current players, contacting committed recruits, and setting a coaching staff in place.

To that last point, Whittingham didn't announce any new hires Sunday, though he acknowledged he was still "working through" several decisions. But both Utah offensive quarterback Jason Beck and BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill are expected to be his top targets.

Several sources confirmed Sunday to KSL.com that Hill and Michigan were approaching an agreement for him to take over the defense in Ann Arbor, though no deal had been finalized as of Sunday afternoon. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they aren't privy to discuss the deal publicly.

Asked directly if he had any thoughts of potential Utah or BYU players joining him at Michigan, Whittingham strongly denied approaching any players before the Jan. 2 transfer portal opens.

"That's not my style," he said, while also acknowledging the realities of modern college football.

"If a player that we have interest in enters the portal, that's a whole different ball game," he added. "Now he's in the portal, he's going somewhere — so why not Michigan? if it's a good fit."

But as for the cultural fit of Whittingham's program — which he described as "family," while his wife, Jamie, sat in the front row of the conference room while the self-described "bleary-eyed" coach addressed media from Connecticut, Florida, Michigan and a couple of scribes from Utah a day after BYU's 25-21 win over Georgia Tech in the Pop-Tarts Bowl — there's little reason why Utah players and coaches shouldn't fit in.

Yes, Salt Lake City and Ann Arbor are 1,622 miles apart, but Michigan is a national brand, a top-five job in college football, and Whittingham said he plans to bring a coaching staff with experience from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the west coast with him to recruit coast-to-coast.

"College football is all about players," he said. "If you've got good players, then you've got a chance."

Where will those players come from? Well, just about anywhere; Whittingham noted Florida and Texas, but the former Provo High star and All-WAC linebacker at BYU knows the Beehive State as well as anybody, too.

The state of Utah will have a profound effect on Whittingham's Michigan tenure — at the very least, because Utah left a profound impact on the coach who was a top-level defensive coordinator under Urban Meyer and first-time head coach in Salt Lake City during his 34 years on the Hill.

Did he learn enough to tackle the challenge at Michigan, which is currently under university investigation following scandals under both former coach Moore and Jim Harbaugh before him?

"I hope so," Whittingham quipped. "I definitely learned a lot, with my first head coaching job; the learning curve early on was pretty steep for me.

"College football has certainly changed," he later added. "It's a whole different world, with the transfer portal, NIL and rev-share. And it's not done changing. The next 3-5 years, there is going to be significant more change as we head towards an NFL minor league; that's my personal opinion. But I've been through the cycle 21 times now, and I feel like I'm completely equipped to take over this position here."

After leading the Utes to a 10-2 record in their second year in the Big 12 — and eighth double-digit win total in his tenure — the part-time biker, skier, golfer and self-proclaimed gym rat still has plenty of gas in the tank as he begins a five-year contract reportedly averaging $8.2 million per year for his "final challenge."

"I still have a lot of energy, and felt like if the right opportunity came, I would be all over that," he said. "That's what Michigan afforded."

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