At some point, a school has to admit when a situation isn’t working. That doesn’t mean things will improve quickly for Michigan, though.
The athletic department may need to take a serious look at how head coach Kyle Whittingham is being received and consider whether this hire was a mistake. After Sherrone Moore was dismissed, athletic director Warde Manuel appeared to believe he had found the right person in the former Utah coach to steady a program that has endured an unusual amount of turmoil.
But Michigan’s 15-6 loss to Michigan State over the weekend was another dismal showing. Right now, the program looks directionless, and the money being spent doesn’t seem to be producing much in return.
Some donors who helped assemble the resources needed to compete in the Big Ten had hoped an unconventional hire might get the Wolverines back on track. Instead, they seem to be waiting to find out how much more damage is coming before the season ends.
In hindsight, there were signs of a disconnect from the moment Whittingham was introduced in Ann Arbor. His relaxed approach to Michigan’s rivalries may simply reflect a career spent in a different football culture. It takes time to understand what games against Michigan State mean here, or the history behind the Paul Bunyan Trophy.
Still, most college football fans don’t need long to grasp the importance of playing Ohio State. I’m not suggesting Whittingham doesn’t understand that this rivalry matters to Michigan supporters. He is an accomplished coach, but he spent much of his career in Utah, where the stakes and traditions were different.
That context didn’t help when he was asked how he would motivate the team for its final three games, with little left to play for beyond pride and a win over the Buckeyes.
“It’s my job as a coach to rally them back up and get them ready to compete for these last three games,” Whittingham said. “I don’t know, are there any more trophies in these last three games? I don’t think there’s any more trophies. Anyway…”
Michigan fans were already angry after the loss to Michigan State. That answer gave them another reason to be frustrated. The casual tone has also landed poorly with donors helping fund a costly roster, including quarterback Bryce Underwood, whose deal has paid him more than $7 million since he arrived on campus.
The offense has struggled badly in Whittingham’s first season, and his handling of the quarterback situation and play-calling have raised further questions. Still, responsibility for the mess doesn’t rest with the former Utah coach alone. The people who chose to hire him share some of it.
After the Michigan State loss, Whittingham said he wasn’t planning to make changes to the offensive staff, including coordinator Jason Beck. The offense had looked out of sync, and decisions involving the quarterback only added to the concern.
Then, a little more than 14 hours later, Michigan announced Beck was out. Whittingham had reportedly pushed back against the move the previous morning, which left people inside the program wondering who had actually made the decision: the coach hired to run the team, or the people paying for an expensive Big Ten roster.
“The results have not matched our desired outcome, and I felt that a change in leadership was required for our offense,” Whittingham said in a statement. “We need to put our offensive players and the entire team in the best possible position to be successful.”
That explanation didn’t quite match his comments the night before. And for people following Michigan closely, the gap between what fans and donors believe is happening and what they hear from the head coach has become hard to miss.
So perhaps it’s not surprising that the program has tried to patch one obvious hole. The larger problems remain. Michigan is also looking for a new university president and an athletic director to replace Manuel when he retires.
Firing Whittingham would be an expensive move, too. The university would reportedly owe him about $24 million. It’s difficult to see the school making that choice, especially when it still needs to raise money beyond the revenue-sharing limit to build a roster capable of challenging for a Big Ten title next season.
Whoever takes over will inherit a difficult situation left behind by Manuel and others in the athletic department. The dysfunction has been building for years, which is striking for a football program that won a national championship just three seasons ago.
Now Whittingham finds himself at odds with a fan base that wants some stability in an already complicated college sports landscape. Fans and donors are being asked to feel optimistic about a coach who has repeatedly seemed unsure how much the Ohio State game means to Michigan.
The Wolverines have a lot to sort out. From a distance, it can look like just another Monday in Ann Arbor.
