Blue By Ninety - Michigan Hires Kyle Whittingham

Episode Date: December 28, 2025

Michigan's coaching search is finally over and they have found their guy. Justin & Tanner break down the Wolverines hiring former Utah HC Kyle Whittingham and what this means for the future in Ann Arbor.

All right. Welcome back to Blue By 90, presented by Felvin Chevrolet of Highland. I'm Justin joined by Tanner today. Emergency podcasts. I'm here from my parents' house. You're dialing in from Arizona on vacation over the holidays. But Michigan has hired Kyle Whittingham as the 22nd, I believe, head coach of the Michigan Wolverines football program.

I would say just like watching this unfold yesterday overwhelming positive feedback from I mean obviously the Michigan fan base I think is excited about it after everything that transpired but just looking at like the college football talking media heads and you know et cetera et cetera you know everyone has good things to say about Kyle Whittickham and so. So I think there's a lot of excitement around this hire. Yeah, I think yesterday I was, when I saw the news, I was like, man, I don't know, you know, was a little down on it. But then, you know, so I flew to Dallas for our connecting flight to get to Tucson yesterday. When I got off the plane and when we landed, I turned off airplane mode, I immediately go to 247. Because it came out as I was leaving. I was like, okay. And just seeing the potential staff that he's bringing to Ann Arbor, I think, is what's really exciting.

You know, Jason Beck has been mentioned. They averaged, you know, they were top five in boring offense. They were just 2025. Yeah. So for a fan base who's been clamoring for like, you know, and they are more a Jim Harbaugh-esque offense. I think that's been kind of Winningham's M.O. They're going to be extremely physical, tough up front. We'll talk about the, you know, some of the.

other guys but just seeing all that i was like you know what hell yeah like my you probably saw it in the in the group chat like my tone kind of shifted a little bit because i didn't think he was you know i didn't think he was going to go and just raid his successor's staff i i would say this i think that you probably had a similar reaction to a lot of fans because on the surface you're seeing okay a 66 year old guy who i mean to be honest since he's been on the west coast for so long a lot of of people probably like he's not like a very talked about name you know all the time and when you're at michigan obviously you you know you're expecting okay we can get one of you know we should be able to go get the biggest name in college football um so on paper you're like all right

66 year old guys getting you know somewhat forced out at utah it seems like you know is this the guy for us um you know just a week ago or two weeks ago he resigned from that job kind of looked like he was retiring, but then comes out and says that he's not retiring. So on the service, it's a little, like, weird. But then to your point, you start digging in and you're like, okay, man, you know, 20 plus years at Utah, you know, won 10 games quite often there with, I don't know what resources

took Utah from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 to the Big 12 and one at every stop, you know, with that. And then you talk about who he's bringing with him, and you're like, all right, I can get behind this. Yeah, I mean, Jay Hill, I'm excited we're recording this, what it's almost 11 Eastern time, almost 9 o'clock Arizona time. So the BYU, Georgia Tech Pop-Tarts Bowl, is in a few hours, certainly going to be watching that. A lot of things are indicating that Jay Hill, as the defensive coordinator at BYU is going to be coming over to Ann Arbor. So, yeah, and you know, just talking about Jim Harding, who's the Toledo guy from Maumee, played at Toledo, coach at Troy High School before going out to, I believe, Wyoming, and then has been with Whittingham since 2014. You go look at this year's offensive line, there's a lot of, there's some names, you know, Spencer and Logan Fano, who are both going to be high draft picks in a few months, names that Michigan fans are probably familiar with.

So they've been a pain in the ass on the recruiting. trail. They've also got one of the best offensive tackles in 2026 committed and signed. I think it's I don't know exactly how you say, Kevin Obott from Idaho. So Michigan was in on him as well. So Jim

Harding, there's been rumors that he's going to be joining, but also that Utah might try to make a play to keep him because the office of coordinator spot's going to be vacant. So yeah, the staff, I mean, Helford staying huge. Huge. Sounds like Espo staying.

I think I saw his son was pretty fired up. He's committed to Michigan. So I think there's a world where you can, you know, you need, you can't just bring everybody over from Utah and BYU, right? Like you have to have a president's outside of that area to be able to recruit. And I know money speaks today, but you're still going to have some relationships with coaches in the areas that you're recruiting. So, you know, this is off the wall,

but do you keep Kerry Coombs on just for recruiting? Like, poor guy, by the way. I don't know if we've even talked about him much in our last show. That was a blur, but more guy, man. He, like, got to, he's forgotten about in all of this right now because he got to Ann Arbor, and immediately the whole program just blew up, yeah. And so, yeah, maybe you do, I don't know, I mean, obviously special teams, you know, was one of the things that needed to be addressed the most from this past year's team. So, yeah, maybe you do. I don't know.

I think that I like from a, from a culture fit. I think Whittingham fits really well, both for, you know, just the type of character and person that he is, but also the type of football that he plays, right? You know, I think, you know, getting back to our trenches, you know, that's going to, that's where you win. You know, I watched the Lions game on whatever that was Thursday on Christmas Day. They look like a shell of a team, but, you know, they have talent all over the place except for the offensive. of line, and then they couldn't do anything, you know? You win in the trenches, right?

Like, that's true of all football, but especially in Ann Arbor. And a lot of people talk about it, and yes, I want to see Michigan throwing the ball and get explosive plays in the past game. But at the same time, when it comes to November, and that weather's a little, you know, a little, you know, rain spitting, some sleet maybe, you know, it's a little more difficult to win, howling. Like, you've got to be able to run the football. also, but I do think that they're extremely balanced.

And, you know, I think Devin, Dan Peer from Utah, like, when I watched them this year, he's not the most physical guy. He doesn't have the biggest arm, the strongest arm. But they got a lot out of them this year. I think he threw 22 touchdowns, five picks, 3,000 yards. Basically, JJ McCarthy type stat line. Yeah. Just the yards for a tenth or a little bit lower.

But you think about Bryce Underwood, and there's probably some work to be done there. But, man, you talk about, like, if you were willing to play for Rhone, like, come on. This seems like a massive upgrade. I agree with that. And I think that, you know, the thing to add on Dampier that I loved is he had seven rushing touchdowns in almost 700 rushing yards, right? Who didn't have you going to run the ball? I mean, he comes from the Urban Meyer tree, right? And then Alex Smith, when he was the defensive coordinator before Urban went to Florida.

Florida, they've always had success with their quarterbacks running the ball, except for like a couple of years. And, you know, last year they went five and seven, but they lost like three or four quarterbacks throughout the years. So they've always had success on the ground. People forget, Camer Heising was like a Heisman contender before, you know, all his injuries. And the way that they used him was awesome.

And, you know, in the balanced attack of throwing the ball, getting him on the move, you know, do it, running the RPL, all that. stuff. So I think that that's where, like, I obviously love that he's in the trenches. I love that that's, you know, a focus that's going to be running the ball. But it doesn't seem like it's going to be Chiron Moore's offense where it's like, oh, we literally don't throw the ball. I think they're going to use the quarterback very effectively in the run. Yeah. Sorry, Emery, my daughter just came over to the French store that is just staring at me. Very excited. And there's a, there's a light up blueie on the patio table out here that that grandma and grandpa put in place.

So she's got some sunglasses on now, although it's cloudy here in Tucson. It rained last night. Wow. Yeah, it's about 55. So I'm really excited, though, just to have an adult in the room. I mean, man, we're probably not going to get into it. We don't need to rehash it because it's been talked about by everybody else.

I mean, I don't think anybody comes to us for our thoughts or opinions on very serious matters like that. but I will say I saw a tweet from somebody that made me laugh and basically said, I checked his Instagram. He only follows his wife and daughters. And I'm like, that's a win. That's a big, big improvement for us. I saw some of the doers, like going from head coach who's DMing Instagram models to a Mormon

is about as big of a whiplash as you can get. So, but in all serious, I think, legit like that was probably something that the you know whether it was ward manual the regents the search for they're definitely taking that all into consideration and i think that was probably the first checkboxes here it's like all right 20 years plus coaching no issues really you know with that uh you know the care high character and then most important it's like bringing stability i think like you say you have an adult in the room that's super necessary um a guy like you know i have to imagine we're not going to have struggles of you know game management of when to

call a time out at the end of a half now and just like like building a program and the way that you you know go about your day um that was super necessary because i think it became more and more apparent with more stuff that came out about this last regime but those little things in that type of structure was not going well yeah and i think to your point about that, like, just, I mean, we had heard, I think you maybe told me, but there was rumors of, like, issues in the locker room, like, this season, like, in September, and I was like, why? But it all makes sense.

And then the story comes out where, you know, Sharon is like, I mean, Sharon must have been, at the very end must have been just so paranoid about everything. Because, like, that story about him and wink going at it, and wink's, like, we're just trying to help you get the best players, basically. And Sharon freaked out and, like, teary-eyed or whatever. So I'd like to retract any negative things that said about Wink Martindale

because I don't know how much is on him at this point. You know, I'm excited for, I'm excited for a fresh start, man. You know, the Jim Harbaugh era was a lot of fun. And 21 to 23, I mean, even, you know, 15, 16, 2018, like, you know, take out the Ohio State losses. Like, those are fun years, man. I really enjoyed watching those teams. I really enjoyed Jim Harbaugh leading the program.

And I think at the end, I don't know if, again, people talk about Jim just like having blinders on and not caring about anything but football, but it just feels like things were sloppy at the end outside of the actual product of the field, which was the lead. So I'm excited for a fresh start. I actually think, too, I saw our friend Clayton Safie. I love Clayton, and this one. Clayton Anderson, I didn't know what Clayton as well, which speaking of us, of it, you know, we'll talk about the basketball team at some point here, probably not

on this podcast, but, you know, Final Four is in Indianapolis. Clayton's. New Bar is in Indianapolis. Maybe there's a party there. I don't know. But, no, Clayton put out, like, somebody get coach winning at him, the skinny M hat ASAP. And I was like, you know what?

Maybe we just, maybe it's time to put that one up on the shelf. Yeah. You know, bring the thick, the thick block on. Yeah. That's a good moment. Like, I, not everything, you know, this is where, like, not everything needs to be Beauchamp Bethleh, you know, not everything needs to be those guys. And obviously, like, it was for Harbaugh because of he played for him.

Right. His football identity was shaped by Bocham Blackburn, right? How, where Sharon was doing it, it was like, okay, you're just kind of trying to keep is going when it's really not that and so now i'm you know i'm like kyle wittingham is 66 and has his own identity let's bring that i want him to bring that to anne arbor and you know he can become his own legend you know a little bit in antarver if he can set us up for a you know a stability and set us up for the future yeah no i mean you know the the the one real con probably uh maybe there's a There's a few.

There was always going to be that with basically every higher, even with DeBoer. I mean, DeBoar's run game was, was, you know, an issue that's about leading up to the potential of him coming in Ann Arbor. I think,

you know, obviously his age, right? But I think it, I think it plays both ways, right? Because, you know, coaches are going to negatively recruit him,

even though he just signed a five-year deal, seems very energized and ready to go, which I think is a good thing, obviously. But also being 66 years old, you know, playing in the NFL, coaching in college for as long as he did.

I mean, have you ever heard anything negative about the University of Utah program? Like, there's been things here, there. Like, the guy who was just announced head coach, he had an issue a few years ago, I think. It was pretty minor in the grand scheme of what can come out these days. But you never really hear Pete. So, you know, it's going to be a well-coached program,

not just on the field, but in terms of just the guys in the locker room. And you're just hopefully not going to have it. I mean, dude, the last five years, the stories coming out have just been, like, embarrassing. That's what it's just like, I really am looking forward to not having to do that. Yeah, it's been one thing after the other. I think that's where, like, I think we can appreciate the Jim Harbaugh era because it brought us a lot of joy and a lot of wins and, you know, all that. But I think it's also okay to say, all right, let's, you know, end that era. We can, you know, think, like, highly of it.

With an on-field play and whatever, let's end that. Let's move on to a different era. Both things can be true, right? And I think that, you know, yes, there's the, you know, there's a talk about winning heavy 66, but, you know, at the end of this five-year contract, if we get to that point, you know, he'll be 71. A, Nick Saven, I'm not saying he's Nick Saven. Nick Saven won a national title at 69 years old. You know, Curtin Wettie is 64. and is dominating college football, building a program up for the first time.

You know, so I think, and then you look at the Joel Klatt video of him talking about, you know, Wittingham kicked his ass on the Pelotan, you know. He's just like this chiseled old guy that's like Grizzly Adams. I feel like he's still super energized and like certified badass. Like I honestly, I just love the identity that he brings. And so, yes, on paper, the 66 years old looks like an issue. But I have no issue with that at all. And I think, you know, let's be honest with ourselves, this is not a 10 to 15 year hire.

This is a hire to stabilize the program, bring an identity back, and then you work in the next four to five years to either bring in a coordinator that you groom to be the next head coach or, you know, you're working the system to, you know, all right, who's the next guy that's going to be, you know, that we're going to bring in as a head coach. Yeah, maybe Kail on the board five years. Who knows? Yeah. Maybe the timing will finally work out.

Right. Which is funny, too, because I, you know, I have it on very, very good authority that if MAML loses that game to Oklahoma, which they're down 17-0 at halftime, you know, I genuinely believe that Caleb DeVore would have been the head coach of Michigan. He would have come here 100%. And so this is the sidebar. By the way, so I just want to talk

and looking at Twitter yesterday, and I try not to look at it as much because there's so much stupidity. But like, you know, you kind of need to be on there to see what's going on and like what rumors are out there for Michigan. One, I don't remember ever being this invested in Michigan State hiring Pat this show.

I don't give a shit. The amount of people, they're like, Oh, you know, Marshall, Michigan account, which they follow me. Shout out to them. I know it changes every year. They still follow me. I appreciate you guys. But they tweeted that he's an elite recruiter.

I disagree on that. We'll see with, you know, resources at Michigan what Whittingham looks like recruiting. I mean, he's been a solid recruiter. They've gotten some big time guys. But so, like, I saw these Michigan State accounts, because, you know, the 4 U pages brings you whatever. And it's like, you know, the fact they think he's an elite recruiter, blah, blah, blah. But anyways, I didn't care that they got a guy who went four and 20 in the last two full years of the college football. Good for them.

Very exciting times. I think 14 to 31 over the last four years he coached. So, you know, really, really big hire for them. But also, like, all the Alabama fans were like, oh, I thought it was going to be DeBoer. I thought it was going to be DeBoer. Yeah, if Alabama had lost, it probably was going to be DeBoer. And honestly, I don't know what you think, but the rumors are is that Michigan was still waiting. and then some things that were said by some people in the program

currently spook the donors and they're like, well, we probably should hire a coach now. If that didn't happen, I bet we're not doing this podcast and they're still waiting for the Rose Bowl. Yeah, and I think there's, it's just, there's probably a ton of things that happen inside, but also just the timing, the transfer portal is opening up at five days,

but you have to have. You have to recruit your team. Yeah, right? You have to have somebody that's going to be, be at the you know you have to know what you're telling the guys on your roster to say hey don't go in the portal because we have this person here instead of like oh we you know just wait a couple more days like you're it's just not going to work so the timing is always it's always funny because that the timing does determine so much in college football

that's wise for michigan and cail and abhor yeah i'm super excited about winning hand but DeBoer is always my number one. He's my number one two years ago. You can vouch for me. I told you I wanted DeBoer even before knowing what the Sherrote more era would be. Like, I told you at that time. Yeah. So, you know, my worst nightmare is that Marcus Freeman goes to the NFL and that

Kailen de Borges in the other day. I'm going to be so pissed. But anyways, enough about the other coaches. I am very excited to have Kyle Whittingham. I think it's much better than a Jeff Brom hire if I have, if I'm being on it. And I know that all came out that it wasn't real. But at the time, I'm like, oh, okay, this is the route they're going to go. And Rod English is a defensive coordinator.

And I remember how Ron English was, you know, he left eastern Michigan. And I'm like, oh, that doesn't seem great. I know Ron English isn't going to come to Michigan in that scenario. But, like, it doesn't give me a lot of confidence in his hiring ability. So, yeah, this is a much better alternative. Honestly, of the guys that were available outside of DeBore and Dilling, him. And I think, look, I mean, Utah beat the shit out of Arizona State this year. I think dealing him got a lot of potential. I think he's going to be a great coach for a long

time. Outside of those two guys, this is about as good as I could have asked for as I sit back and really look into it, think about it, they'll just fire off emotional tweet at 8 in the morning. And, you know, I mean, listen, look at, if you look at Utah, who they played in their schedule this year and how it went out, they lost to BYU and Texas Tech, right? So, it's I don't be like three otherwise they're in the playoff and we probably don't get winning him.

Right. Like that's where like this isn't some guy that's being run out of town because you're so bad that they need to you know like get rid of them. It was there was I've seen multiple things from Utah beat writers that are like

Utah completely screw this up and now Michigan is benefiting from it. So yeah there are a lot of Utah people that are pissed that he's leaving. I think they really like like that OC, Stolly, I think it is, that Utah now has as their head coach. But, I mean, it's a D.C. Yeah, Morgan Scalli, I think, yeah.

He'd been to D.C. forever. It's really like that, what is it, the family guy clip where he has two boxes and one box is unknown. The other box is a million dollars. And Lowe's Griffin is like, Peter, just get the million. He's like, what about the other one? It could be a million dollars. That kind of seems like what they went with.

Like, we don't know what's behind this door. But it could be Kyle Whittingham. Right. You know, he's, what, this guy's 46, so he's 20 years younger, so I get it. You know, you want to kind of take the next, next chapter of Utah. It's always the grass is always greener, right? Like, that's, that's college fans, that sports fans in general. It's like me, every time, bro.

And that's what, you know, that's what I think was so enticing about Kenny Dillingham because it's like, yeah, he's only been there three years, but like, what could he be? Right. Because there were people that preferred Dillingham over Dabour, if he had the option of both. I think because of the end I was like, well, Canada board almost won the national championship at Washington. Right. Washington hadn't been in that position in, you know, I mean, I went to the playoffs one year, but they hadn't been in that position in three decades. So I think we're all very fickle and what have you done for me lately? Yeah. I just, this is a good hire.

Overall, it's like not a sexy hire at all, right? It's, it's a, um, you're not getting the Dillingham who's coming in, you know, with with higher energy. young guy that's like got, you know, the potential is through the root, but this is about as high of a floor as you can get. Yes, right? This is 9, 9, 3, 10, and 2, 4. Exactly. Like, the guy has proven to win 10 games quite often.

And that's out of Utah where, you know, let's just be honest, they just, they're not going to be, they're, you know, when he started, they were in the mountain west, right? And so, you know, I think just from a money standpoint, I think I, my, here's my guess is as soon as he goes to the podium for his opening press conference, every Michigan fan is going to fall in one. I think super well-spoken guy, you know, the wise old man type guy, you know, for the reasons that everyone's loving on Bitpoji, I think he's going to, people are going to love Winningham very similarly because he's going to have like this stern look. He's going to come in and be like, we're going to do this, that, and this, right? And like, it's, you know, he's going to come in with an exact plan of how he's going to do it. And so I really do feel like as soon as,

You know, my guess is he does some interview in the booth during the bowl game, right? And, you know, people don't know well. Yeah, no, I, yeah, have you given me a choice of the 66-year-old? They'll take the guy that's won for 20-plus years as a head coach and played in the NFL, and, you know. Now that it's over, I don't want to be disrespectful, but there have been a lot of things that have come out. So maybe I do want to be disrespectful. I don't know. The people who were actually, like, wanting Biff Poji to be the head.

coach at Michigan what are we doing guys come on like you know our great friend of the podcast jake butt was like you know i know he's tight with henry poachy but it's like jake no no i'm like guys what are we what are we talking i love i love both those guys i jake is a great friend jake let i think he let his friendships get in the way of logic um at this point with that one. But I think also, two things can be true about Bith. It can be true, you know, and I don't know about some things that just came out about him. Like that is, I'm putting that aside for a second here when I say this. It's true that he was instrumental in keeping this staff, the rest of the staff, and the players together during this two, three week stretch. Right.

And I know that he was instrumental in the culture. He changed the culture. With Harbaugh, you know, after 2020, he came in and was very helpful there. Like, he's been instrumental to this program and being that, you know, advisor culture vibes guy. It's also okay to say that he did that, but is also not a good fit for the head coach. Or does it? It's not maybe deserving of the head coach. Both those things never, I couldn't believe so of the people that were kind of shilling for Biff.

And I like, you know, Biff coming in and what he helped do. You know, he's a part of the part of that run. But yeah, it just was never going to happen. It never should have happened. It never should have, you know, yeah, give him an interview. But like, I'm sorry, that's just not a guy who was fired at Charlotte two years ago was not fit to be the head football coach at the University of Michigan. I mean, also just knowing the circumstances of what just happened.

They just took the, an unproven guy, right? Obviously, there was off-field issues that the eyes of it. But also, I mean, the on-field issues were major issues, too. So the regents in Ward manual were not going to go get an unproven guy again. Right. Is my guess on why the Dillingham thing didn't happen too. It's like they're looking for this is what Michigan needed at this time is. You know what you're going to get.

Like I said, it's not a high ceiling. it's a high floor, you know what you're going to get. You're not going to have all field issues. You know, guys are going to be disciplined. You know, you have a plan, you know, all this stuff. So, you know, the thing that I kept seeing a lot of people say is like, yes, there's going to be stability, but you also have a chance. Like, he's going to win a lot of football games.

Well, this team, if you keep them together, is built to win in 2026 and 2027. Exactly. Like, that's the window. and who like the age thing at the same like you know obviously it's a concern right because you i wish this guy was 10 years younger man because his resume is obviously phenomenal and i thought he's the guy that's i think maybe come up a couple times in previous searches and i don't think he was ever ready to leave utah at that point and kudos to him for building that program and but like i think i'm really excited about him because you don't have to build like remember when rich rod

or bradyoh came up until they get their guys you don't have to wait right you can go a third-year guy to come in and plug and play. So I think, and there's been some exciting, you know, rumors about maybe players from Utah and BYU coming over. I didn't realize this is Utah and BYU are basically the same program. Like, they just have all the same people going back and forth. It's a weird. It's really strange.

I agree with that. I just always assume that that's like the in-state rivalry type of thing. But it feels like it's like, oh, we're just going to like get guys from Utah and BYU. They're all best friends. Yeah. So I think there's rumors about their safety who I'm going to have to work on my pronunciation of some some names of some like Polynesian names just because some of the guys have the like Samoan Polynesian pipeline now. Absolutely. I mean that's the one offensive tackle coming in, right?

Yeah. I know he I think he said something like so the reception from the recruits I think has been extremely positive. You know Carter Meadows I think came out and said, I can't wait to play for Coach Whittingham. Like, that's huge. Hyder, I'm assuming it's saying, because Alford's staying, right? You know, you have your point Malachi Lee, who was like, I'm super excited to play. I can't wait to, you know, be a part of the culture.

And we have a great head coach. And because I know Texas is stupid around there. And so, yeah, I think from that standpoint of the, you know, I mean, the Polynesian pipeline, Utah and BYU have always done a great job of that. I think it's a lot to do, I don't know if anybody wants to correct them wrong. I don't know the, you know, the workings of this, but like the kind of the Mormon connection and that sort of thing.

So, yeah, I think it's, what about a, what about Gatlin Baer? I mean, I mean, I don't know. Here's a couple things that I want to say. There's still probably going to be a decent amount of guys that enter the portal from there. Of course. There was going to be no matter what. Exactly. So I just want to say that because I want to make, like, we shouldn't, you know, fans out there shouldn't just totally, like, panic if 20, 20 plus guys still enter the portal.

It happens in any coaching change. 30 guys left last year. Right? Like, yeah. And also, like, every program has that now because the portal is so, so crazy. So I just don't want people to panic because of that because that was going to happen no matter what. and but i still think you know you look at bryce posted the winningham hire on his instagram story i'm not saying that means 100% he's saying or you know that he loves the

hire but i'll tell you what him posting that is better than him you know not posting that or you know like i'd rather have him post it and so um circle graphic with him and kyle wittingham on it i mean come on shout out jared Jared was a big soft of a car group chat yesterday. There's the man. I mean, I think that there's, you know, I do think, you know, shout out to Champion Circle. I think that they're going to be super instrumental in handling what happens in the next, you know, seven days, ten days, right, of the portal opening and, you know, after the bowl game.

But to your point, like, I do think that the majority of guys are going to like what they see in Whittingham and want to be a part of this. You know, you talked about our young offensive line. Like, you have to imagine most of those guys are going to say, hey, this is a great situation for me. Same with the running backs, you know, the defensive line, as you mentioned. I think it's rumored that Bellamy might stick around. I think Marsh was super tight with Bellamy.

So, again, who knows if, you know, with an actual passing offense, you know, maybe maybe Ron can sell it. And I thought Ron did a good job. with this recruiting class so that might be great on the trail lately i'll be you know i know i know that we all have our issues with how our receivers have played on the field but um but yeah it's it's a it's a different situation so um you know i think that i think it seems like most you know i saw jelan pile uh tweeted and said let's get to work coach wittingham like all that type of stuff so my gut tells me you know especially like i know that charon was good on the trail um i my gut tells me

that Whittingham's going to get to Ann Arbor, he's going to have these conversations with these kids, and the parents are going to be all in, right? They're going to be like, oh, my God. This is like a guy that, you know, I can really feel comfortable sending my son to, which after what just transpired with the last regime, like that is one of the most important things.

It's like you have to gain the trust of these players' parents to say, yes, I want my kid in Ann Arbor with this coach and staff. Yeah. Yeah, I'm excited to see how it all pans out. I think there have been rumors of Courtney Morgan, no matter what, maybe coming to Michigan. I think that would be a call I would have made immediately if I was quitting him because I think Courtney Morgan did a fantastic job when he was at Michigan. He was instrumental in getting Michigan Mason Graham.

He's got a lot of connections all throughout the country. So I think from a coaching staff perspective, I want to see some guys with different ties to different parts of the country that can help the other guys who mainly focus in the west coast and in Utah. But I think if you have a guy like Courtney Morgan as the GM, you know, that might be a plus plus higher. Yeah, I agree. I think the key to Whittingham's success is going to be him surrounding himself with, you know, great recruiters, great coordinators, which...

Just be the CEO. Just be the CEO, be the adult in the room that we've all been needing, right? Right. So I think that that's going to be, you know, the major key. Shout out DJ Callie, major key. Suffering from success. Exactly. But no, man, I think overall, like, here's what I would say is I don't know, given the circumstances, I don't know that outside of, you know, even like you said, DeBoer had his own issues, right? like you weren't going to get the the Jim Harbaugh hire where you know Jim Harbaugh coming to Michigan was a total anomaly he literally was in the Super Bowl and then and then came to Han Harvard yeah almost immediately following that and so that shit just doesn't happen and so especially given the circumstances you weren't going to go get this like perfect you know number one guy on the board and I think that

given everything that's gone on, this was an awesome hire. You know, I still go back to a lot of people saying, like, man, you know, with everything that went on for Michigan to land, Whittingham, it's like it's the perfect best case scenario for that. Yeah, we fall the stairs. Yeah, right? Like, that's kind of what it feels like. I mean, and I'll say this.

I obviously hate Urban Meyer with every piece of my body. but if urban Meyer is condoning for it if he's like hey you this guy is is the guy two years ago he said he's the best coach in college football i know they're friends from urban's Utah days you know whatever but urban's urban knows some shit he's he's he's he's a proven winner so uh you know there are well Utah's been so consistent for 20 i mean dude our entire lives basically right they've been extremely consistent um it has some years here there that were maybe blips, but he's won 10 games, what, three or four out of the last five years or something like that?

Like, the guy can win. Really excited. I mean, do you think about how many times, like, a favored USC or Oregon team will play Utah and Utah would just smack that shit out of him physically? Right. Like, that's Michigan football. Yeah. And yeah, we got Bryce Underwood, but, you know, I don't want to see Michigan sling the rock.

But to your point earlier, like, they can run the quarterback. So I think I'm really excited about if they can keep everybody together. the short term, but also to your point, the stabilization of the long term for Michigan football and just getting away from some of the nonsense that was going on in the building, and then having a fresh plate is going to be amazing. I'll tell you what. I am excited to see what kind of gear, Coach Whittingham is going to wear? Is he going to wear the thick end?

Is he going to wear the helmet on the hat? I don't know, man. I don't know that the black gear maybe. we'll stay i don't know we'll see well i got some i'll tell you what i have some some michigan jordan stuff that's like real dark if you if you wear it with other navy it's like wow that looks black but if you wear it with black he'd tell it's navy so maybe he goes that route i don't know maybe i don't know either way i i mean overall obviously we've said it now for for 40 minutes but um overall great i are very excited to see what happens in the next

six months um you know i and and you know come august september like I just, I feel like there now, you know, is going to be a pretty damn big excitement from the Michigan fan base to see what this squad looks like. And so, you know, there's a ton of things, a ton of variables that are going to happen between now and then of guys leaving, guys coming, you know, all this stuff. But overall, it just feels like this is a major step in the right direction for Michigan, you know, especially considering. what just happened in the last three weeks. Yep. I was just thinking about it. I mean, is this the first hire Michigan's made other than Rich Rodriguez

that came from outside the Michigan football family since Bushembeckley? Yeah, seriously. I mean, and I think it was necessary. It was like it was to a point here with everything that's gone on. It's like, all right, we need somebody, but let's not talk about that Michigan man thing. you know let's just let's just go get the best person to lead our program right and it feels like they they did a good job at that yeah they got one of the best five guys out there in terms of what michigan was looking for in this search i think yeah 100 percent and so i i don't know

you got to give it up to you know ward manual and the search firm and the regents or you know whoever really was leading this search i you know i don't know that we'll ever know who was leading the search, but I'm got to give it up to him. So I'm super excited. You know, hopefully we get to meet coach Witt here soon and, you know, maybe we'll have some players on to talk about it. But, but yeah, I'm pretty pumped. So go ahead. No, man, I was just trying to see if there's anything that we'd miss because, like, news has been popping off the last couple weeks. So, like, I was just checking to see if there's anything that we missed. No, man, I'm really excited and i don't know this has nothing to do with michigan or us or kind of um we were talking

we were just kind of talking about like the block m skinny block em whatever you watch the oklahoma albama game right and why is brett vettibles wearing a hoodie with just the jordan winks that felt with a basketball on it yeah i mean look i got a bunch of air jordan's michigan wears jordan just like oklahoma does but if i see a coach where the wings logo and a playoff game. I'm going to lose my mind. That said, I would love amazing blue version of that hoodie. That's true. But I'm not coaching. Right. I don't think I would wear it when my team is playing the biggest game of the year, you know, on national TV. I just thought it was a ridiculous look. Like, yeah, we're both Jordan teams, you know, Jordan jerseys, but like, guys, come up.

Yeah. I will say, I'm, speaking of that, I am excited to see, like, coach Whittingham's look on the sideline because I do think it's just like that tough leg you know yeah the gray beard I think he's going to look sick in the amazing yes yeah no I'm excited for for everything that's going to happen I I'll say this nice to feel good yeah yeah football for the first time in two and a half weeks from upside because even you know even before everything went down you didn't feel good coming out of the season And obviously, you know, losing to Ohio State is one thing, but losing the way you did and not scoring a touchdown. But, like, you just didn't feel good about, okay, what the next, you know, two years is going to bring.

So I think this brings just a huge spark of energy. It actually, like, it saves the Bryce Underwood era a little bit, or at least it gives it, you know, a new life, you know. It just feel like we were going to waste him. Yeah, I mean, that was. I don't know if he's going to stay. but he's got a lot better chance to reach his goal with this staff they did with the previous one, in my opinion. I mean, I think that it is so easy for right now, for Whittingham to come in and say, hey, Bryce, look what I've done.

Like, this is, like, hard evidence that I can use you the right way. Like, that's super exciting. I would, I'd be shocked, not shocked, but I'd be surprised if Bryce Underwood is in the quarterback next year. you know but who knows crazier things have happened right so the last two weeks have happened right exactly but all right well go ahead I would just think it just feels good

to feel good about things and it was a rough couple weeks and the group chats were very in despair and so now it's looking forward to coaching hires which is fun man I mean you know the fun time right after a coach is hired is this right now because you're you know And when Jim Harbaugh got hired, he's like, oh, who's he going to get?

It's like, oh, you got Tim Drebno. He's going to be good, right? Like, those kinds of things. So hopefully it works out better with the initial hires for Whittingham. But no, like, this is the, this is fun. It's just fun to have a reset. It's going to be fun to hear who's coming over, reading all the message boards and rumors. And it's optimistic.

It's very optimistic. That's the fun part. I'm mostly excited that people will stop asking me about the Sharon incident and stop asking me about texting me every day who I think the coach is going to be so you're the slinky meme yeah literally like that is that is my phone so um very excited to be able to talk about something else for a change so basketball soon man that team that's right and we got hoops coming up i'm i bet you winningham's going to make an appearance here at a game soon you know maybe right after the bowl game.

So I got a run of a big team that said I played McNeese State on the 29th, and then they have like, I want to say like three games and eight days in the big 10 at the start of the year, which is nice because I've been sick of having to wait a week, eight days to watch the team play. We needed, there was nothing we needed more than to watch Dusty May during all this stuff. We only got like two games. Who did they even play on the 21st? Well, Sal?

That was so just needed that, man. Even though they were going to win by 40, no matter what, like needed that badly. Literal one, you know, score 100, win by 50, just crazy. But, yeah. All right, well, shout out to Woodson Whiskey. Thank you to Feldman Chevrolet of Highland.

Maybe we get Coach Whittingham in a, you know, in a Feldman Chevrolet. He seems like a, he seems like a Silverado kind of guy. Oh, hey, hey, I'll tell you what. They got some silverado. So, yeah, we'll have to get him over to the dealership and talk to Jason. So for us, you can follow us at Blueby 90 on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, at Blueby90 podcast on YouTube and Blueby90.com.

We appreciate you. Go blue. Go blue.