Kyle Whittingham is not exactly acting like a coach who plans to sit on the sidelines and watch from a distance.
That was the message Trey Pierce brought back from Big Ten Media Days, where he was the only Michigan defensive player to speak with the media. Pierce had a story about his new head coach that painted a pretty clear picture: Whittingham is right there in the weight room with his players, getting after it himself.
"He gets after it," Pierce said."He works out sometimes when we're working out, and he's out there doing his thing, bench pressing, doing suspended crunches, like, you would think a guy his age can't move like that, but he gets after it."
Pierce’s reaction says plenty. It’s one thing for a coach to demand effort.
It’s another to show up and grind alongside the team, especially at 66 years old. For Michigan, that kind of presence seems to be part of how Whittingham is building things in Ann Arbor.
The weight room anecdote also fits a broader pattern. Whittingham has already made an impression at Michigan’s biggest recruiting event, Victors Weekend, when he rolled in on a Michigan helmet-themed motorcycle and drove it around the field. Before that, he got the chance to ride in the lead car for the IndyCar race in Detroit and reached some pretty high speeds.
So while the white hair gives away his age, Whittingham has been making a habit of doing things that make people do a double take. Pierce’s story just adds another one to the list.
At Media Days, Whittingham said the coaching staff had built strong relationships in the seven months they have been in Ann Arbor, and stories like this help explain why. If he wants his players in the weight room, he’s not asking them to do anything he won’t do himself.
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