Michigan could be close to finding its next head coach.
According to ESPN, Utah coach Kyle Whittingham is “the focus” of the Wolverines’ coaching search and “Whittingham’s candidacy is expected to be shared with top Michigan officials on Friday, per sources, and a deal could come together in the near future if they approve.”
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Whittingham recently announced he was stepping down after 21 years in charge of the Utes, though he’d made clear he wasn’t necessarily retiring from coaching.
Whittingham, 66, is 177-88 at Utah after taking over for Urban Meyer at the end of the 2004 season. The Utes have won at least 10 games in eight seasons during Whittingham’s tenure and have had just three losing seasons. None of those seasons have featured fewer than five wins.
Hiring Whittingham — or someone else — would bring a sudden December coaching search to a close just over two weeks following the dismissal of Sherrone Moore. The second-year coach was fired with cause on Dec. 10 after Michigan found evidence of an inappropriate relationship with a staffer.
Moore then allegedly went to that staffer’s residence and allegedly threatened to take his own life while telling her that she ruined his life. Moore has been charged with felony home invasion and two misdemeanors for that incident and has a January court date.
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Whittingham has been a Utah football lifer since playing linebacker at BYU. He was a grad assistant with the Cougars for two seasons and then coached at Eastern Utah and Idaho State for seven years. He became Utah’s defensive line coach in 1994 and has coached for the Utes ever since. He became the school’s defensive coordinator in 1995 and held that job until Meyer left to coach Florida in 2005.
Morgan Scalley has already been announced as Whittingham’s successor at Utah after he had been named the team’s coach-in-waiting. Whittingham will coach the Utes in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31.
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Whittingham could be a person to help bring stability to the Michigan athletic department after recent years plagued by scandal. The school recently announced that it had told an outside law firm investigating Moore’s dismissal to broaden its investigation into the entire athletic department. Michigan football has been penalized for two different NCAA investigations from Jim Harbaugh’s tenure including the Connor Stalions advance-scouting scandal.
Additionally, former co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss is facing over 20 felony federal charges for allegedly accessing the accounts of female student-athletes across the country. Weiss, who was fired from his job at Michigan for alleged “computer access crimes,” was the Wolverines’ co-offensive coordinator with Moore in the 2022 season.
Before Michigan’s search turned to Whittingham, Alabama’s Kalen DeBoer and Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham were mentioned as potential candidates. DeBoer issued a statement saying that he wasn’t interested in speaking with another school and Alabama’s win over Oklahoma in the first round of the College Football Playoff also threw a wrench in any Michigan hopes of hiring him.
Dillingham, meanwhile, signed a contract extension with Arizona State.