Michigan football hiring longtime Utah coach to lead Wolverines

Michigan has finalized a deal to hire Utah coach Kyle Whittingham to be its next head football coach, a person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to the Detroit Free Press. The person told the Free Press on condition of anonymity because the hiring is not official.

The school’s deal with Whittingham, 66, will be for five years, according to a report from ESPN and confirmed by the Free Press.

The caps a relatively quick search that began after former coach Sherrone Moore was fired with cause earlier this month.

After 21 years leading Utah, Whittingham announced Dec. 12 he was stepping down as Utes coach after the Dec. 31 Las Vegas Bowl.

He has gone 177-88 in his two decades in Salt Lake City after taking over the job after Urban Meyer left for Florida. A Brigham Young grad, Whittingham has spent his entire career coaching out West beyond the Continental Divide but would be a capable pair of hands to guide the Michigan program out of this mess.

Whittingham projects as a safe, transitional choice who’d keep the floor respectable at Michigan, while acknowledging the ceiling would stop short of the Big Ten’s top floor.

Whittingham led the Utes in three different conferences (Mountain West, Pac-12 and Big 12) and proved to be a consistent winner. He won the Mountain West once (2008) and the Pac-12 twice (2021 and 2022)

He last coached somewhere other than Utah in 1993, when he was Idaho State’s defensive coordinator. His place in Utah history is secure, but his bruised record against ranked opponents raises question whether he’d achieve at the level Michigan craves.

Whittingham represents a notable break from the school’s traditional football hires.

Since Bo Schembechler retired in 1990, five of the seven Michigan head coach have had previous ties to the program, including a former player in Jim Harbaugh and former assistant coaches such as Gary Moeller, Lloyd Carr, Brady Hoke and Moore.

The only other exterior hire during this span was Rich Rodriguez, who went 15-22 from 2008-10.

Harbaugh won on the field, including a national championship in 2023, but the end of his tenure was also marred by two NCAA investigations that led to him being suspended twice, receiving two show-cause penalties that run through 2038 and the school being sanctioned with a $30 million fine.

Moore was also suspended twice during his time at Michigan. A one-game suspension for his role in recruiting violations was served when he was an assistant in 2023. Moore was also implicated in the school’s signing-sealing operation. He served two of a three-game suspension in 2025 and was due to miss the team’s opener in 2026 before his firing. He also received a two-year show-cause penalty.

Michigan announced Moore’s firing Dec. 10 after it said the coach engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member.