Kyle Whittingham was brought in to steady the ship, but 11 months into the job, the fit looks increasingly off.
Michigan entered this season with room to fall short of last year’s 9-3 record, but the expectation was that the product would at least look cleaner. The Wolverines were supposed to have a clearer identity, and maybe even position themselves as a championship contender in 2027. Even with a brutal schedule, there was a path where fans could live with fewer wins if Bryce Underwood looked better, the team looked competent in all three phases, and the overall operation showed progress.
That hasn’t happened. After eight games, Michigan sits at 5-3, and disappointing feels like the only fair word for it.
Part of the frustration is that the schedule has softened around them. Oregon, which was supposed to be one of the season’s toughest road trips, has cratered.
Ohio State will be without its starting quarterback for the rest of the regular season. Indiana has struggled to score, Oklahoma hasn’t lived up to its billing, and Penn State has fallen apart too.
The Big Ten has opened up enough that Michigan still had a real chance to get into the conference title race if it could simply get its own house in order.
Instead, the best result on the ledger so far, at least in Whittingham’s eyes, is a 13-6 overtime loss to Indiana.
After that game, he tried to frame the defeat as a sign of progress.
“If that’s a number six team in the country, then we’re a pretty good football team even though we’re sitting at 4-3,” Whittingham said.
That wasn’t the only eyebrow-raising moment. On his weekly radio appearance, Whittingham also described Michigan’s 28-21 escape against Rutgers as enjoyable to watch.
"Yeah, I come in early Sunday and watch it all by myself.," Whittingham told Jon Jansen. "The entire game, offense, defense, special teams, back to back to back and it was a pleasurable game to watch on Sunday morning. So yeah, I give myself a couple of hours after that and then on to the next.”
The problem is not that a coach has to be angry every week. It’s that Whittingham keeps talking like someone who doesn’t fully grasp the expectations attached to this job.
At Utah, a win over a bottom-tier conference team might have been enough to satisfy the moment. At Michigan, it isn’t.
Beating Rutgers is supposed to be routine. Beating Rutgers by double digits is supposed to be routine.
Jim Harbaugh looked visibly annoyed during a 78-0 rout of the Scarlet Knights in October of 2016, and that reaction says plenty about the standard.
This was supposed to be a game Michigan controlled. The Wolverines were favored by double digits, Rutgers was working with a backup quarterback, and the Scarlet Knights completed only four passes if you count the two-point conversion that tied the game in the fourth quarter. Michigan still let it become a close one, and the same issues that have followed the team all season were still there.
Tommy Carr’s heroics ended up sparing Whittingham from even more uncomfortable questions about how the team played.
The bigger issue is that the early hope around this hire has faded fast. Michigan fans were willing to believe a disciplined coach with a strong track record could keep the program closer to the Jim Harbaugh era than the Brady Hoke era. But that’s not how it looks right now.
Being the coach at Michigan is not for everybody, and Whittingham is starting to look like someone who has not adjusted to what comes with the job. Brady Hoke wanted the job and still failed.
Rich Rodriguez never fit. Sherrone Moore was a disaster for multiple reasons, and the hope was that Whittingham would be different.
Instead, the comparison that keeps coming up is not Harbaugh. It’s Hoke.
And if Michigan loses to Michigan State on Saturday, Whittingham may find that there’s very little future left to talk about.
In Other News...
Jazz Frontcourt Problem Just Got More Complicated Without Nurkic
Jusuf Nurkics absence is already forcing the Jazz to sort through a frontcourt rotation that was supposed to lean on his size and experience. The veteran center is recovering from a second toe injury suffered in a preseason game, and the team says he has been re-evaluated by its medical staff while making progress and beginning to take part in on-court activities.
For Utah, the immediate concern is less about the injury itself than the timeline around it, because the Jazz now have to cover his minutes and responsibilities without a clear short-term return date. The frontcourt has become a deeper puzzle with Nurkic sidelined, and the next update will matter just as much as the first as the team waits to see how much more progress he can make over the next stretch. [Read more 🡒]
Jazz Fans Have A Real Debate About This 1-7 Start
The early-season frustration around the Jazz has not been hard to spot. A 1-7 start, paired with injuries to Jaren Jackson Jr. and Jusuf Nurkic, has left the team searching for traction while fans try to make sense of what they are watching. The offense has been the biggest source of concern, especially for a roster that has enough shooting on paper to expect a cleaner product than this.
Under Will Hardy, Utah is leaning into an unorthodox approach that the organization believes is sound, but the results have not followed yet. That is where the real debate has taken shape: whether the slow start is a temporary byproduct of health and timing, or a sign that the current formula needs more than patience to work. For now, the Jazz are still waiting for the court to match the plan. [Read more 🡒]
Utah Just Landed A Coveted Guard Recruit Fans Should Notice
Utah added a notable piece to its future backcourt when four-star point guard Jamaal McKnight Jr. committed to the Utes. The Maryland native, now a senior at Iowa United Prep, has spent his prep career building a rsum that includes stops at DeMatha Catholic and Long Island Lutheran, and he arrived on the recruiting radar of several major programs along the way.
McKnight said the coaching staff and the campus atmosphere stood out most as he weighed his options, a sign that Utah made a strong impression in a crowded recruiting race. For a program looking to keep upgrading its guard play, landing a player with his pedigree and national attention is the kind of move that can ripple well beyond one signing day. [Read more 🡒]