Michigan football players rave about new coaching staff: 'I just think it's special'

The Michigan Wolverines are two weeks into the first spring camp under head coach Kyle Whittingham, and an early-week media session with three Utah transfers helped shed some light on the type of people who have come in to lead the program.

Sophomore pass catcher JJ Buchanan might headline the list given his youth and upward trajectory. He’s in the unique spot of being a second-year player under both Whittingham and offensive coordinator Jason Beck, which is an infrastructure he wanted to run back after one season in Salt Lake City.

“Just the belief that not only him, but the entire coaching staff instilled in me, and from when I first got to college, I just think it’s special,” Buchanan said on Monday afternoon. “I think you don’t find that at a lot of places, and I just think that it was something that I couldn’t give up. When they left, weighing my options, I just felt that going to the transfer portal was the best decision for me, and following them, ended up just following my heart, and I just feel like this is where God called me to be.

Buchanan said that Beck is a “player-friendly” coach, and that appealed to him when weighing what came next, and ultimately his decision to land at Michigan.

“The system he uses, the signaling, I think it’s very player-friendly,” Buchanan said. “I did hand signals in high school, so something that I was accustomed to. And I feel like they make it super simple. You don’t think a lot, a lot of options, a lot of different things you can do within a certain play. So I just, I really like how I could be outside, I could be inside, I could be in line from time to time. But I just think the diversity that his offense is able to use is just very appealing to me.”

Senior linebacker Troy Bowles, a holdover from last season, knows what quality coaching looks like. His father, Todd Bowles, is a long-time NFL coach and currently leads the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Bowles’ new position coach is Alex Whittingham, who comes over after 7 years as an assistant with the Kansas City Chiefs.

“I like him a lot,” Bowles said. “You could definitely tell he’s come from the league, and he’s teaching — we watch a lot of Chiefs tape because that’s where he came from. So, just looking at guys like Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill, watching a lot of tape on them. So definitely been teaching us a lot.”

The prize of Michigan’s transfer portal haul, EDGE John Henry Daley, is reuiniting with one of his coaches from Utah in Lewis Powell, who will lead the group of pass rushers. Coming off an All-American season in 2025, Daley gave him a ton of props for his development.

“Man, Coach Powell, I would say to any recruit who’s watching this, that Coach Powell’s probably the best defensive end coach in the country,” He goes in, I feel like he’s very patient with guys, and he understands that everybody has a different way of playing the game.

“Now we all have our responsibilities that we need to go on the field, whether it’s securing a specific gap in the run or pass rush, making sure that we’re not doing what we’re supposed to, but he he coaches every guy and lets them be their own player. He doesn’t say, ‘Oh, well, this one mold, every single guy has to fit into.’ He kind of takes you where you are, and he just makes you better at what you’re already good at doing. And he’s been fantastic. I’m just so grateful that he’s my coach and yeah, very blessed.”

Defensive back Smith Snowden came over from Utah, too, but will play for a different defensive coordinator in Jay Hill. Despite the change, the bones of Hill’s defense are something that traces back to the Whittingham tree in the 1990s.

“I think this defense actually comes from Coach Whitt or maybe his dad,” Snowden said. “So it’s a defense that they’ve all played through, all been through. So Coach Hill will change things up a little bit, but I think at the core, it’s really similar [to what I was in before].”

Snowden also has some special teams versatility and factored into the return game at Utah. Could he do the same under coordinator Kerry Coombs – who has an extensive history coaching defensvie backs – at Michigan? He’s not sure on that, but has a history with Coombs going back to high school.

“He’s awesome,” Snowden said. “He’s a great coach who knows a lot. He has a lot of knowledge to give. He’s coached a lot of players, and a lot of players that I’ve actually looked up to growing up, because, you know, you’re a DB, you watch DBs growing up. That’s what it is. So I’ve known Coach Coombs for a while now. He actually had recruited me when I was back in high school. So just everything came full circle. I’m just grateful to be here at Michigan.”