{"id":752160,"date":"2026-02-14T18:22:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:22:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/752160\/"},"modified":"2026-02-14T18:22:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-14T18:22:21","slug":"michigan-football-adds-former-vanderbilt-defensive-coordinator-to-staff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/752160\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan football adds former Vanderbilt defensive coordinator to staff"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Michigan football team is filling out its new staff<\/a>, under new head coach Kyle Whittingham. Michigan is hiring<\/a> former Vanderbilt co-defensive coordinator Larry Black, per CBS Sports. Black will be the coach of the defensive tackles at Michigan, for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack, who (ESPN reporter) Pete Thamel previously reported was expected to be hired, helped Vandy rank 18th nationally in run defense,\u201d Matt Zenitz posted to X, formerly Twitter.<\/p>\n

Michigan parted ways with former head coach Sherrone Moore<\/a>, following an internal investigation that determined Moore had an inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Following an extensive search, the Wolverines hired Whittingham. Whittingham previously coached at Utah for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

Michigan finished the 2025 college football season with a 9-4 record.<\/p>\n

Michigan has high expectations for Kyle Whittingham\"MichiganRick Osentoski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Wolverines are looking to turn the page after a tough last few years. Despite winning the national championship during the 2023 season, Michigan was subject to a NCAA investigation due to a sign-stealing scandal<\/a>. Moore faced penalties, as well as former head coach Jim Harbaugh.<\/p>\n

Michigan is now looking to move on with Whittingham at the helm. He had a lot of success at Utah and turned the program into a national power. Coaching the Utes in several conferences including the Pac-12 and Big 12, Whittingham won 177 games. He twice won the Pac-12 Conference championship.<\/p>\n

Michigan football fans now hope that Whittingham can do the same thing in Ann Arbor. The Wolverines have won plenty of games<\/a> the last few years, but not made the College Football Playoff since the 2023 season.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter 21 years at Utah, I stepped down a couple weeks ago,\u201d Whittingham said in his first Michigan press conference, per Deseret News. \u201cWasn\u2019t sure if I was finished (coaching) or not. I knew there was a lot left in the tank. You could count on one hand the number of schools that I would be receptive to. Michigan was one of those schools. Definitely a top-5 job in the country, without a doubt. When the ball started rolling and the more I learned about Michigan, the more excited I got. I am elated to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Michigan starts the 2026 season in September. The Wolverines open their season against Western Michigan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Michigan football team is filling out its new staff, under new head coach Kyle Whittingham. Michigan is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":752161,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,580,49,48,28752],"class_list":{"0":"post-752160","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-michigan-football","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-football","12":"tag-vanderbilt-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116070381410453447","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=752160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/752160\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/752161"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=752160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=752160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=752160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}