Kyle Whittingham calls Michigan job 'everything he envisioned it being'

Kyle Whittingham wasn’t sure if he was ever going to coach again once he stepped down at Utah. After over two decades in one place, things moved pretty quickly to get Whittingham into Ann Arbor to be the new coach of Michigan.

It’s everything to Whittingham. The Wolverines came calling to clean up the mess following the Sherrone Moore scandal. Whittingham was certainly the right choice in that department and there’s been total buy-in to his culture. Now, he starts anew in the Big Ten on a five-year contract.

“I stepped down and wasn’t sure if there was going to be more to the career or not,” Whittingham said on Sirius XM. “I was perfectly content with just going skiing and riding my motorcycle and playing golf and all that stuff, being with grandkids. And so I wasn’t sitting there stewing over anything. We had had a good run at Utah. The time was right to step down and move on … At that time, I was good with it. Very shortly after I stepped down, the job came open here, my agent got a hold of me, said, ‘Hey, is there interest?’ And I said, ‘You bet.’ 

“I mean, that’s Michigan. How can there not be interest? And one thing led to another, and things got moving pretty fast. About 10 days later, I got the offer and here I sit. I’ll tell you what, it’s a special place. It’s everything that I envisioned it being. It’s just one of the top jobs in the country, without a doubt.”

Whittingham went 177-88 in his time at Utah, winning two Pac-12 titles and one Mountain West crown. In his final season, his second in the Big 12 with the Utes, Whittingham went 10-2 and the team finished No. 14 in the country.

He brought Utah offensive coordinator Jason Beck with him to Ann Arbor, along with poaching BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill. Both coordinators signed three-year deals with Michigan. Beck averages around $3 million per season, while Hill lands at about $2.6 million.

At the time of Whittingham’s departure from Utah, he was the second-longest tenured head coach in the country. He was behind just Iowa‘s Kirk Ferentz (27 seasons).

Whittingham will be making an average of $8.2 million per season, with the contract spanning five years. His base salary increases by $100,000 over the course of five seasons. Michigan will be on the hook for 75% of the remaining value if Whittingham is let go before the end of his contract, which runs through the 2030-31 season. The former Utah coach also received a $2.3 million signing bonus at Athletic Director Warde Manuel‘s discretion.