Kyle Whittingham shares why he's 'fired up' about his Michigan football staff

It was quite the few weeks for Kyle Whittingham once he was introduced as the next head coach of the Michigan Wolverines. It was late in the process and not only did Whittingham need to retaining players for the 2026 season, but he had to find his coaching staff.

During his introductory press conference, Whittingham said he planned on retaining two or three coaches from the Sherrone Moore regime, and that's exactly what he did. The long-time Utah coach kept three coaches on board whom Moore had hired and then filled out the rest of his staff with coaches he was familiar with.

Appearing on the Triple Option Podcast with former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, Whittingham talked about the three coaches he retained: Tony Alford, Lou Esposito, and Kerry Coombs.

Michigan HC Kyle Whittingham — Junfu Han / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

"We kept three coaches from the previous staff," Whittingham told Meyer. "I thought it was important to have a bridge between the last staff and our staff. Those three guys, Tony Alford, first of all, the running back coach, terrific coach, outstanding recruiter. He's put together maybe the best running back room in the country. I mean, he's a guy that is a proven commodity.

"And then, Lou Esposito, defensive tackle coach, who I really hit it off with. And then, Kerry Coombs, special teams coordinator. So those three guys I've really leaned on them to navigate things, and figure things out along the way."

Meet the new coaches

With just three returning coaches, Whittingham wanted to surround himself with coaches he was familiar with and trusted. The long-time Utah coach brought over several coaches from the Utes, along with some former coaches had had coached with.

Kyle Whittingham and Jay Hill — Jeffrey Swinger-Imagn Images

"Well, first of all, fired up about what they bring to the table," Whittingham said to Meyer about the newest Michigan coaches. "I mean, the offensive staff, we finished fourth in the nation last year in scoring at Utah and, second [in] rushing, fifth and total offense. Jason Beck is the architect of that offense. It's a user-friendly offense. In this day and age with the portal and you're getting 40, 50 new guys in your team you better have an offense in the defensive scheme.

"These guys can adapt to -- really quickly and plug and play type of a situation. Jason -- everywhere he's been, he's had great success. We brought Micah Simon receiver coach, KoY Detmer, the quarterback coach, Jim Harding, who is a real key piece to our staff, our offensive line coach, one of the best offensive line coaches in the country. Developed Spencer Fano, who won the Outland Trophy this year. Both his tackles are going to be first-rounders.

"So a lot of familiarity with the offensive staff brought my strength staff, Doug Elisaia I had the strength staff from Utah. He's been with me 21 years. And then of course, as you mentioned, Jay Hill, who did such a great job for us in Utah, before he went over to Weber and resurrected that program, then he went down to BYU and did a great job coordinating that defense."

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