Anonymous Big 12 Coaches on Kyle Whittingham Leaving Utah for Michigan: 'A Relief'

Big 12 coaches reflect on Whittingham's time at Utah, and one coach gives somewhat of a critique.

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The Kyle Whittingham era is underway at Michigan and after 21 seasons coaching Utah, the Utes will look a lot different without Whittingham on the sideline. Even though Utah hired from within, losing a coach after 21 seasons is hardly ever a seamless transition.

So far, despite Whittingham yet to coach an official game for Michigan, it appears the Wolverines landed a home-run hire. He brings a no-nonsense personality and will build the culture back to where it needs to be in Ann Arbor.

And with how good of a coach Whittingham has been, Big 12 coaches are excited to see him out of the conference. Athlon Sports spoke with anonymous coaches from the Big 12 and they spoke a little about Whittingham and Utah.

A 'relief' Whittingham is out of the Big 12

Whittingham is one of the most respected coaches in college football, after running a clean program for so long. Now that he's at Michigan, he will have almost unlimited resources at his disposal. He had just a sliver of that in Utah, but still was able to win games. One coach is happy to see him gone — due to his winning ways.

“But yeah, it’s definitely a relief that (Whittingham) is out of the Big 12 because he’s a great football coach, and he’s an even better person," one coach said.

And another interesting nugget that came from an anonymous coach is regarding the offensive philosophy. A coach was talking about Utah in general, but it's important to remember Jason Beck left and is now the offensive coordinator at Michigan.

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This coach was talking about how difficult it is to stop Utah's run game. Devon Dampier was excellent in the run game last season, and now Michigan is hopeful Bryce Underwood's legs can be used in similar ways.

“They cause a lot of mismatches because they’re plus-one in the run game with the quarterback and all the pullers and gap schemes that they did," another coach said.

It's not all so good

While it was mostly positive talk regarding Utah and Kyle Whittingham, one coach pointed out the Utes' Achilles' heel from last season — stopping the run. Utah ranked third-to-last in the Big 12, allowing over 181 yards per game on the ground.

“It’s gonna be really interesting to see what their new philosophy is on offense and defense because they did struggle to stop the run last season," a third coach said. "I think they were the worst in the Big 12 against the run last year. That’s not them. They’ve always been great up front, so that’ll be interesting.” 

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Whittingham has always been a trench guy, but you could likely take 2025 with a grain of salt. He will have a new-look defense coming to Ann Arbor and Michigan has been good against the run for several years. Plus, Whittingham has a new defensive coordinator running the show, after adding Jay Hill from BYU.

Michigan is targeting to get back to the 2023 form, which made the Wolverines one of the top defenses in the nation. If the Wolverines can do that, expect a big season out of Michigan.