{"id":865835,"date":"2026-04-13T23:54:25","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:54:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/865835\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T23:54:25","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:54:25","slug":"michigan-asked-for-accountability-kyle-whittingham-delivering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/865835\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan asked for accountability, Kyle Whittingham delivering"},"content":{"rendered":"

One by one, Michigan Wolverines football<\/a> players met with new head coach Kyle Whittingham<\/a> at the site of the Citrus Bowl in Orlando in late-December. Whittingham, who spent the previous 21 years as the head man at Utah, came away impressed with their character and focus on academics, not to mention his impressions when it comes to football.<\/p>\n

Those conversations have been ongoing, of course, with one consistent theme being the desire for discipline and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cSomething that Coach Whitt is emphasizing is accountability, and that\u2019s something the [players that were already at Michigan] asked for,\u201d senior defensive tackle Jonah Lea\u2019ea<\/a>, a Utah transfer who spent his first three years under Whittingham and followed him to Ann Arbor, said. It\u2019s showing up, and I think everyone is handling it pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

The workouts are earlier, and everyone has to be on time. Players must be in meetings five minutes before the srar time. The staff monitors, too, if the players attend class. There are consequences if rules aren\u2019t followed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are hungry and willing,\u201d Whittingham said of how the new structure has been received. \u201cI\u2019m not going to say that they were a bunch of undisciplined guys, but our structure is different than what they were used to before, and so there was a little bit of an adaptation period \u2014\u00a0very short adaptation period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey caught on really quickly. We\u2019ve had very few issues, knock on wood, discipline-wise over the last three months. We\u2019re not perfect, but I think we\u2019ve got a really high-character, good group of guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whittingham has adjusted how Michigan practices, too. Sessions are shorter but upbeat and productive.<\/p>\n

\u201cHigh tempo,\u201d Whittingham called them. \u201cWe push the tempo from start to finish, and I don\u2019t believe in being on the practice field for hours and hours. The work is the work, and you\u2019ve got to put it in and it\u2019s got to get done, but if you can be more efficient and get it done in a more compressed amount of time, get the players on and off the field, I think that\u2019s at least my feeling through the years that, that works best.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt keeps the players more fresh, and I think that they\u2019ve really done a good job of adapting to that new mentality and new philosophy. Of course, I don\u2019t exactly know what the old way was, but they\u2019ve said practices were a little bit longer. They have really done a good job responding to the high tempo and just the pace at which we\u2019re working.\u201d<\/p>\n

Overall, Whittingham is pleased with where his group is at.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of positives,\u201d the Michigan coach said. \u201cOffense is progressing. Defense is progressing. Everything is on track and where you would hope it would be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are new schemes on both sides of the ball, so that was the first order of business, to get those schemes installed and up and running, which we have done. Guys are working hard. Really haven\u2019t had a bad practice. Some better than others, obviously, but nothing we can say, \u2018Hey, that was a step backwards.\u2019 So, positive in that respect.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Whittingham familiarizing himself with Michigan royalty<\/p>\n

None of what Whittingham is implementing is all that dissimilar from the way successful Michigan teams have been led. He\u2019s compared his style to the late former head coach Bo Schembechler, and is getting to know prominent Michigan football players, coaches and staffers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had the chance to meet with [former head coach] Lloyd [Carr] personally in my office,\u201d Whittingham said last week. \u201cWhat a guy, just a tremendous human being. Sharp, funny. I just really enjoyed my conversation with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a chance to meet with quite a few guys from the past. Coach [Jim] Harbaugh\u2018s father [former U-M assistant coach Jack Harbaugh], I met with him. I was actually able to get on the phone with\u00a0[former quarterback] Tom Brady\u00a0the other day. I\u2019m going to get on the phone with\u00a0[Michigan alum and MLB legend] Derek Jeter\u00a0tomorrow. I\u2019m a Yankee fan from the word \u2018go,\u2019 so that\u2019s going to be big. [Former Michigan basketball] Coach [John]\u00a0Beilein, as well. Who else?\u00a0[Former Michigan equipment manager] Jon Falk, what a stud he is.\u00a0Red Berenson, the [former] hockey coach. Like I said, the tradition, this place is just oozing with all of those historical figures. Very respectful of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

A huge sports fan, Whittingham has also embraced Michigan\u2019s athletic department at large. Over the winter, he was often seen at Crisler Center or Yost Ice Arena, taking in basketball and hockey games. He was in Indianapolis last weekend, watching the Wolverines dismantle the Arizona Wildcats in the men\u2019s basketball Final Four.<\/p>\n

\u201cCongrats to our basketball team,\u201d Whittingham said. \u201c[Head coach] Dusty May<\/a> and his crew \u2014\u00a0what a year. Incredible season. National champions. Just a fun team to watch, and just so proud of those guys and congrats to them.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of good stuff going on at Michigan right now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One by one, Michigan Wolverines football players met with new head coach Kyle Whittingham at the site of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":865836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[7,49,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-865835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-ncaa","10":"tag-ncaa-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116400099483368037","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865835","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=865835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}