Kyle Whittingham Named Michigan's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach

 Kyle Whittingham Named Michigan's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach

Kyle Whittingham Named Michigan's J. Ira and Nicki Harris Family Head Football Coach I hope you enjoy Friday night. There's a lot going on here with the Michigan football program. I thought I'd whip out the laptop

and talk about some of the things we've been hearing, some rumors, some confirmed things, and things that are trading in the right direction. I have at least one source

that's telling me to keep an eye on it, but nothing confirmed. So, we're going to talk about Kyle Whittingham, the offensive and defensive coordinator, the rumors,

what I think about them, some confirmed things about tomorrow and this weekend, and who's staying, who's not on Shrewmore's staff,

and then some of the weird things I'm finding out about, aday game, and you know, less than five days at this point.

What's the outcome for Buff Poji with this program?

But if you like Kyle Whittingham being hired as the new Michigan football head coach, like me on the video and we'll get the ball rolling.

So, like today's video if you like Kyle Whittingham becoming the new Michigan football head coach after 21 years at Utah. So, Whittingham will be traveling, it seems,

It's confirmed at this point, but he'll be traveling to Orlando on Saturday and staying at least the weekend, but there are also rumors that there might be a press conference in Ann Arbor on Sunday.

So, we'll see how it goes with some of the key people in the Michigan football program. Oh is going to meet with the coaching staff, but most importantly, he's trying to keep that roster

Because Michigan players are back from a two-day Christmas yuh break before the bowl game, travel today Their new head coach will meet with them on Saturday. And who else is he going to bring with him? It looks like he's going to bring current Utah offensive coordinator Jason Beck to Orlando with him to talk to Michigan's top offensive linemen about what their role might be in a new offense under Kyle Whittingham. So Jason Beck runs, you know, 

I didn't really know much about him six hours ago. And I read a lot on him in the last three, four hours. Watched a bunch of videos. I looked at Utah's stats, looked at his first stop, right? A longtime quarterbacks coach is taking his first shot at being an offensive coordinator with Utah this year. And frankly, he's turned it around. You're going to be surprised when I say young, right? Six-figure total offense in college football this year. Number six total offense at 478.6 yards per game. Um, North Texas won,

Miss., South Florida, Tennessee, Texas Tech, Utah, you know, over Ohio State, over Oregon, and many, many others. But I'll talk more about Beck here in a moment.

But here's what you can expect from these meetings. It's going to be very focused on Bryce Underwood. Michigan is going to re-offer Underwood his NIL contract.

If he, you know, not just for 2026, but for 2027 as well. Also, it's going to happen with Jordan Marshall. You know, Marshall doesn't seem like someone who's looking around,

But you have to put him on this list. It's absolutely necessary if you're going to have success in 2026. You don't make me depend on Sawan Haider or walk-on Brian Kizdahl or anyone like that.

More on that in a second, but if you're enjoying the Michigan Football Report this December and throughout the season, be sure to

He's going to talk about their success with wide receivers. And just look at it, it's not that special, right? From the wide receiver group, they had one receiver for 659 yards,

the other one for 514 yards. I'm sorry, it was actually a tight end. Uh, another tight end, another one, the other one, the other tight end is their third leading wide receiver. So, it's receivers,

tight end, tight end, and then another wide receiver. Uh, that's just 271 yards, running back, wide receiver, wide receiver. Of their top five pass catchers, only two are wide receivers

when it comes to yards. So, not really a ton to hang your head about, hey, we're going to get you the ball more than you did in the Shoremoor offense, which frankly, I'm not sure why Marsh would be so upset

that the focus of this offense was more than he did in the last six or seven games of the season. I mean, if you look at this offense, though, I really like what you call it, statusless, then, I'll talk more about that in a second.

They're going to meet too, at least Whittingham will, I'm sure Beck will be in those meetings, but he won't necessarily talk about it. Who are they? Geir Hill, right? Um, quite a few others, of course, he'll probably be back in 2026

and be the centerpiece of Michigan's resurgent defense, right? I'm not sure if that's going to happen with Wink Martindale. I'm obviously skeptical at this point, but Michigan wants to keep a lot of them potentially, right?

I'm not sure if it's going to be a group of returning players, a group of transferring players. I think it's up to these guys to do their job as coaches to convince these players

that they won't go anywhere else. You've spent two or three or four years in this program with multiple defensive coordinators who have been there for more than two years, and to be a Michigan guy,

whatever that means, and give this new defensive coordinator a chance. If it doesn't work out. You know, I know the transfer portal is only in January,

but I know that people can make coaching changes, they have another 30 days to transfer. So, people can commit, see what happens.

They could also transfer in a month from now, if that's how things shake out and they're going to move a little bit more than the normal window for you. There's going to be a handful of recruits that are traveling,

I think, on their own money, but my mission could probably pay for them through the NIL fund. At least eight, nine, 10, 12 recruits. You know, you know,

As fans, look at some different rosters traveling for the game. I'm sure they'll be on the sidelines. They changed the rule, though,

because the last couple of years, recruits were able to practice with the team during the bowl season that was in 2024. If you remember, you know,

guys like Jaden Davis and so on were transferring or practicing with the Michigan team that went to the Rose Bowl and the 2023 national game. Bryce Underwood was practicing with the Michigan team

that was getting ready for the bowl game against Alabama last year. They cut him off. You're not allowed to do that anymore, apparently. But I think, you know,

I compete in circles, paying for plane tickets for them, family members, whatever. It shouldn't cost more than a,000 or $2,000 for the player to go down.

So maybe I've been treated more like the 8n10 players that I've seen traveling down there. But Whittingham is expected, Beck is expected to meet with those players.

I think you have to close Underwood first. Then, Marshall and Marsh are the guys you need to keep as part of this program. They can play together for another three years,

Okay? They are all true freshmen in Underwood and Marsh and Thena in Jordan Marshall is technically a redshirt freshman who could come back and play together as deep as the 2028 season. So, it’s very important for Kyle Whittingham to get off on the right foot.

So, I ask you guys this question. Will Bryce Underwood play for Michigan next season in 2026? Give me a yes or no in the comments. I’m going to go yes for now.

We’ll see how things shake out. I’m sure we’re going to learn a lot, directly or indirectly, Saturday and Sunday as Kyle Whittingham gets to meet the Michigan football team for the first time.

Now, let’s get back to offensive coordinator Jason Beck. Um, the thing that I find most interesting about his offense, if he turns out to be the offensive coordinator, which it certainly seems

like he will, and if he travels with Whittingham, I'm guessing there's no question that he's going to go and it's going to be announced soon, you know, Whittingham goes through with the deal

and everything. By the way, I heard it's a 5-year deal, but I've heard $45 million, $49 million, $5 million, $9 million per year. I'm not sure if that's accurate yet, but that's the only number that's out there. Positionless

The offense I think has worked really well with Michigan over the last few years for Sage Morgan or Donovan Edwards or a handful of other players.

I don't know if it works with the current personnel, at least the way I've seen them play. But think about DeboSamuel with the 49ers three or four years ago

Where a guy is outside wide receiver, he can catch a few passes, then transition back, take a snap, you know, get his hands out of the backfield.

So he sometimes lines up two or three different guys as blockers in his offense,

Sometimes they line up defensively and sometimes they stay behind defensively. It's hard to tell which one is the most obvious one for Michigan offensively in Shore Moore's last two years.