Kyle Whittingham Inadvertently Gave Dan Lanning, Oregon Bulletin Board Material

Michigan is set to travel to Eugene this weekend and with five wins, the Wolverines need one more to reach bowl eligibility. Where will that win come? It might not. Michigan plays Oregon, UCLA, and Ohio State, three ranked teams, with only the Bruins coming at home.

And the last thing Michigan wants to do is to give its opponent any sort of momentum leading into the game. Unfortunately, Whittingham has done a good job of that in recent weeks. Just this past week, he overspoke about the Michigan State rivalry being the second biggest rivalry to Michigan and that this was going to be the Spartans' Super Bowl. Was he wrong? No, not at all. But it wasn't something to say publicly.

Michigan State came into Ann Arbor and won 15-6, resulting in Jason Beck losing his job — which wasn't a bad thing for the Wolverines' offense. Honesty isn't a bad thing, and it can be quite refreshing, but Whittingham appears to not think about how honest he's being.

Bulletin board material

Oregon is rolling and the last thing Michigan wants to do is to give the Ducks any unneeded momentum heading into the game. But Whittingham might've done that, when he was trying to credit Oregon. Appearing on 'Inside Michigan Football', Whittingham was asked about Dan Lanning as a coach. He credited Lanning and his recruiting skills. But he had to add in Oregon's $50 million roster and how that doesn't hurt anything.

“Outstanding football coach, defensive-minded coach,” Whittingham said of Lanning. “That’s his background, but tireless recruiter. He really does a great job recruiting. It doesn’t hurt that you have $50-plus million at your disposal to, in essence, outbid everybody. Not everybody, but a lot of people. But that’s not his fault. That’s a credit. I mean, that’s a credit to their program and their dedication and desire to win and the support they have.”

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Oregon won back-to-back ranked games. The Ducks rolled over Northwestern at home and then went into Columbus and beat Ohio State after trailing 14-0. Dylan Raiola has figured something out and looked like the five-star he was when he went to Nebraska this past weekend against the Buckeyes.

Whittingham has been outspoken about recruiting and putting his stamp on Michigan football in the 2027 recruiting cycle and the transfer portal. Envy could be a word used when Whittingham was talking about Lanning and Oregon.

“NIL is really the name of the game in recruiting these days,” Whittingham said. “I mean, it’s shifted so much. It used to be the facilities you had and the tradition and all these other things, and now it’s well, this is all great, but these guys got $100,000 more for me. That’s a little bit of a factor, to say the least.

“But not to take anything away from Dan because he is an outstanding recruiter just in and of itself, and they seem to have found out who they are again in the last few weeks.”

The game will kick at 3:30 p.m. ET on FS1 and Whittingham will need to have his team much more prepared than he has in recent weeks. Oregon has a shot at the playoff and it won't be looking past Michigan.

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