Everything Michigan TE coach Freddie Whittingham said on the latest In the Trenches podcast

On his thoughts on being in Ann Arbor

Initial reaction, man, it was cold when we came in here at first. I think it was like maybe a record cold spell there for a little bit. As things progressed, and I got to explore the city a little bit, get downtown and try some of the nice restaurants, I love it. It’s the ultimate college town, and it just has this great vibe, great feel. I was out over the weekend of the spring game. I think there must have been a graduation or something going on because there were a lot of parents and students here. I love the vibe, great vibe

On his thoughts on the tight end room

Yeah, so there was a familiar face in there, Zack Marshall is a kid I recruited out of Carlsbad High School, and, actually, at Utah, thought that we might be his selection, and then Michigan came in kind of late and offered him, and he couldn’t say no to the business school and the program and everything. He said, “Coach, you’re in my top two.” And I knew at that point that, okay, he was probably going to Michigan. I came in, the first thing that I did, the first day here, was watch film. Pulled up all the snaps of each one of the guys in the tight end room had from last season and watched those. Talked to the coaches that were here. Tony Alford was here, Lou Esposito was here, Coach Coombs had been here for just a bit, kind of got there. Oh, and Freddie Jackson. He probably had the most information on the guys, and so kind of got their description of what type of players they were. So I kind of saw I got two fullback types and three true traditional tight end types. Liked some of the stuff I saw on film. I knew they were graduating, or at least, two guys moved on to the draft in Max Bredesen and Marlin Klein. Watched their film as well, and kind of wished that you know, both of them may have had another year to stick around, or chosen to stick around. I’m excited about the room.

On where the tight end position is with depth

I think the depth is strong. The two guys that are the fullback types, Jalen Hoffman and Eli Owens, both had great springs. Both had a lot of production this spring. Feeling good about where they are to be able to help out in their role, and then, you know, Zack was not able to practice recovering from a shoulder surgery that he had in January, but Hogan Hansen came on really strong. He showed himself to be a threat in the passing game, big target, good hands, goes up high, and gets the ball. And then Deakon Tonelli, also, he has some real physical traits. He can run. He’s athletic. He put some good tape out there, too. So, felt really good about the depth of the position.

On whether it’s difficult to manage a postion group with different roles included

Yeah, I would say that maybe one of the only challenges is when it comes to individual drills. Individual drills for a fullback are gonna be a little bit different than those of a inline tight end, and individual drills for a tight end, kind of a flex Y type are gonna be a little bit different. We really structure our offense to spend a lot of time in team. So, at that point, it’s just focusing on the film and the fundamentals and technique that you see on film, and altering your indy to really work on those drills that match up with the assignments you’re asking them to execute.

On where the position group is coming out of spring and what needs to happen between now and fall camp

Coming out of spring, I saw some things that we improved at, got good at, with a lot of our offense. We’re gonna be blocking perimeter runs, we’re trying to circle the defense and in one direction, the other direction, using a QB read and power or counter. So they need to be good at fitting up in space. I saw a lot of progress with that type of blocking. Then a lot in the throw game. A tight end, really, has to get open in tight spaces and also be physical at the top of the route and in those tight spaces, so I thought we made a lot of progress in that area, too. When you’re gonna catch those quick, six-seven yard routes that can turn into eight, nine, ten yards with a good run after catch, that was something we made a lot of progress in. In pass protect, we kind of have a unique pass protection here, where we get six-man pass pro using an additional tight end. Sometimes that can be a sixth alignment. Sometimes it can be a tight end, so we worked a lot on pass pro so that the tight ends would be in a position to do that. Play action pass is where the tight ends really eat within the passing game. So that, to me, is going to be kind of the core of what we do.

On how much the TE group fits the offense or does the offense need to fit the TEs?

No transfers in the group. We came in, and there was not really a spot for a tight end transfer. So, I didn’t feel the need to go out and get one late in the process. So when it comes to that, it’s kind of a two-way thing if you know a player can do something really, really well. Let’s say it’s running a seam bender route. Okay, then you’re gonna design the offense to utilize that player in a concept that uses what they do really well. On the flip side, you look at what they do well and build a scheme around that, build plays around that. So you’re gonna have a clustering, the six guys are gonna remain the same always, pretty much, or the five O-linemen and then the quarterback. From there, you got the five skill players you can mix and match. Two backs, two tight ends for what we see, however, you want to do it, and really utilize what the guys that are in that personnel group do best. So it’s kind of a back and forth between identifying what they do really well, and making sure we leverage that with the concepts that we design around them, and then also designing concepts around what we already know that they can do.

On his experience playing for the San Antonio Riders for the World League of American Football

That was the very first season of the World League, Inaugural League and they had some financial support from the NFL. However, we showed up to training camp and there was not enough gear for about 15 players, so it kind of delayed our training camp in San Marcos, Texas. Mike Riley was the coach, at San Antonio, went on to become the head coach at the Chargers, Oregon State, a variety of other places. It was kind of great because there were a lot of guys that didn’t quite make it in the NFL that got another chance to play ball, and I wasn’t there long before I realized this is probably my swan song. I’m gonna be finished after this and go get a real job.

On what took him away from football and his decision to return to football as a coach

Yeah, so I was definitely part of a football family. My two older brothers had played at BYU before me. My father had been in the NFL when I was born and then had transitioned to coaching when I was about six years old, so football is all I had ever known, and my two older brothers also went into coaching as soon as they were finished playing. When I when I was all finished, I kind of just didn’t want to go into the default of being a football coach. Consulted with my dad and my two older brothers and all three of them were like, yeah, go do something where you have a little bit more time with your family, a little bit better job security and so I started looking for what life after football would be and I found a spot with a college textbook publishing company, it was a division of Simon & Schuster and it kind of fit. I did well. Took various promotions moving me to New Jersey, Arizona, California, and spent 19 years in that business, and it was a great run, and I loved it. But then Kyle had an opening at Utah for a Director of Recruiting, and I had been thinking about it for a couple of years, just like, man, I kind of miss football. Did I make the right decision not going in that direction? I’m not gonna lie, it kind of helped that the income you could make in college football had escalated quite a bit since those days, so he had that opening, and the company I was with, McGraw-Hill at the time, had just been bought by a private equity firm, and they replaced my boss, who was probably the best boss I’ve ever had. No offense to Kyle. In that business, they let go of him and replaced him with a guy who kind of drove about 60% of the people to move on.

It was just timing. It was that event at McGraw-Hill, plus the opening at Utah, and I’m like, I made a leap of faith and took a big pay cut and went to work in operations, and I did that for four years. I had told Kyle that I’m doing this to attempt to get on the field at some point. Four years later, the tight end job opened up at Utah, and it was a good fit.

On what it’s like working with family members

Yeah, so we don’t really talk about football in any type of family gathering. Usually, if it’s brought up, it’s gonna be brought up by somebody else that’s gonna be asking questions. Amongst ourselves, it’s not really brought up in those type of gatherings. For me, when I was at Utah, it was me as his brother, and just like a lot of brother relationships, I think he, and I admitted this, I probably worked harder on you than I am on any other guy, and I got that and I appreciated it. I didn’t resent it at all. I thought it kind of comes with the territory, and I think a lot of the other coaches would say the same thing that I worked with there and then coming here, being able to work with my nephew, that was a pretty cool thing because Alex and I, we’re obviously a lot of years apart, but he was born on the same day I was born on. Always had a good relationship with him. We got a lot of similarities, and so for him to come from Kansas City with his NFL experience, I always ask him a lot about that. I went to visit him there a few times to do some professional development with the Chiefs, see how Kelce ran, and now it’s just awesome that we’re here in the same building together and probably can have more of a friendly relationship with Alex. Kyle is still the boss, but I can hang out with Alex and go get a burger in downtown Ann Arbor.

On what has shaped him as a coach

Yeah, I think that what I learned are two main pillars. The first thing is when I was working for the publishers and I became a manager that hired a lot of people. I figured out the best way to get high performance and results is to hire the right people, and that’s the same in football. The best way to get performance and good results is to recruit the right players, so that’s lesson number one.

Number two is that in order to teach concepts that can be complex, you’ve got to be able to distill them and simplify them and be able to communicate them clearly to players so that they understand them and know what it is that you’re asking them to do clearly so that they can go and do it. I would say that my style is to instruct. Evaluate how they’re doing it, and then correct and demand that they do it the way we’re asking them to do it. So to me, everything’s on me. I’ve either not taught it correctly, I’m not evaluating it correctly, or I’m not demanding that they do it. So, ultimately, everything you see out on that field is gonna be my responsibility, my accountability.

On what he and his brother are most competitive about

Really two hobbies. Tennis, and he got an earlier start in tennis than I did. Both of us started after we were done playing, but he was done playing six years before me. So early on, the win-loss record was heavily in his favor, but then I started playing more and more and more and he kind of stayed the same, and that has flipped. I’ve won in the last, I don’t know, eight to ten years I’ve won a lot more matches. Then the other thing was skiing, and that’s where I got a head start on him. My mom started skiing in Utah when I was eight years old. For whatever reason, he was, I guess, what? 12, 14 he was involved in sports and stuff football, baseball, so he wasn’t skiing. He got into it later, and he thinks he’s as good as me, and I will admit he’s closed the gap, but he’s still not quite as good as me. In golf, it’s no contest. He beats me soundly. He became obsessed with it several years ago and started playing a lot, and I still play in a scramble a few times a year.