Colin Cowherd Explains Why Kyle Whittingham Makes Sense for Michigan

It’s a new era for the Michigan Wolverines, as they recently hired Kyle Whittingham as the new head coach of the football program. Whittingham enters after spending the bulk of his career at Utah, including the past 20 years as the team’s head coach.

The move arrives in the wake of significant turmoil and drama as the school fired Sherrone Moore as its head coach several weeks ago. With that in mind, many are reacting to Whittingham becoming the new Wolverines coach, including Colin Cowherd.

While the Fox Sports personality noted that Whittingham is an older coach for the program at 66, he suggested the move makes a lot of sense considering what Michigan needs moving forward.

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According to Cowherd on his podcast featuring “3 & Out” host John Middlekauff, Whittingham is the right move based on the current college football landscape.

He contended that there are many more administrative and transactional aspects to coaching a college football team, which warrant more staff, program culture, and roster management.

Cowherd suggested on his podcast that the Wolverines are well-positioned given their infrastructure and NIL resources. He said Whittingham is a “real coach” capable of building teams that feature toughness and discipline.

“If you can build a staff- Whittingham can, and you have $15M to $18M NIL money [like] Michigan does, you’re gonna win 10 games,” he said, adding he only wished the coach was maybe eight years younger.

Along with that, he said the Utah Utes resemble a “Big Ten-like” West Coast team and expressed that Whittingham achieved significant success while at the program. With his no-nonsense approach, Cowherd says Whittingham gives Michigan the strong, steady, and authoritative leader it needs, following in the footsteps of previous longtime coach Jim Harbaugh.

The hire is ideal, according to Cowherd, who indicated Sherrone Moore was never the right fit as a head coach for the Wolverines.

“He was out of his element. He’s a position coach. I don’t even think he’s a great coordinator. He was a co-coordinator, Harbaugh ran everything,” he said, adding, “Michigan made the mistake, and this is a classic mistake, they hired proximity not professionalism.”

Whittingham led the Utes to a 177-88 record as coach and participated in multiple college bowl games during his time there. Based on comments from Cowherd, he’s precisely the type of coach Michigan needs heading into the future of the program after an ugly situation involving Moore.

His hire at Michigan arrives just before the team heads into a college bowl game. The Wolverines take on the Texas Longhorns on Dec. 31 in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

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