Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham is a man of discipline, leading a program in desperate need of it

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Kyle Whittingham turned left out of his office on the second floor of Schembechler Hall and walked down a hallway for his midday workout, following a routine he has stuck with six days a week since July 1, 2008.

“Today’s a light one,” Whittingham said to a reporter on Tuesday.

Not quite.

Michigan’s first-year coach will turn 67 in November while preparing to play rival Ohio State, but the 6-foot, 220-pound former BYU, NFL and USFL linebacker looks fit enough to play some snaps for the Wolverines.

Whittingham seems to be a man of discipline and, without a doubt, he is leading a football team in desperate need of it.

The former Utah coach was hired after the firing and arrest of Sherrone Moore and the departure of Jim Harbaugh after he won the 2023 national title, ending an era marred by rules violations that put college football’s winningest program on NCAA probation.

“There has been a lot of drama,” Whittingham said. “We hope that we’ve come to the end of that.”

The 16th-ranked Wolverines will start the Whittingham era on Saturday night against Western Michigan, an expected tuneup for next week’s home game against No. 10 Oklahoma.

Kyle Whittingham’s youth included football

Whittingham was in San Luis Obispo, while his parents were attending Cal Poly. His father, Fred, was an NFL linebacker for 12 years and died at 66 in 2003 due to complications from a third back surgery.

“Football is all I ever knew because of him,” Whittingham said in an interview in his office this summer. “I was with him in the Dallas Cowboys’ locker room, in New Orleans and Philadelphia. I got to coach with him at Utah. I played for him at BYU.

“When I got to Utah, he was the coordinator and I was his D-line coach. Then later at Utah, I was the coordinator and he was linebacker coach.

Kyle Whittingham was an all-conference linebacker for the Cougars and went on to play in the USFL and appeared in three games with his hometown Rams during the 1987 NFL strike. He was hired as an assistant coach in 1994 at Utah, where he was the head coach from the 2005 season until last December. He was 177-88 with the Utes, winning at least 10 games eight times, including 11 last season, and three conference championships.

Whittingham and his wife, Jamie, have been married for more than 40 years and they have four children with a 13th grandchild due soon. His brother, Freddie, is coaching Michigan’s tight ends and his son, Alex, is leading the team’s linebackers.

Kyle and Jamie Whittingham are living in an Ann Arbor apartment, buying time to look for a home, and he drove his motorcycle to work on Tuesday for a four-minute commute.

Whittingham on leaving Utah

Whittingham announced he was stepping down at Utah on Dec. 12, the same day Moore was charged with three crimes, including felony home invasion and stalking, after barging into his former executive assistant’s apartment upset that their relationship led to his firing.

“We had a really good run at Uah and it came to the point where we felt we accomplished all we could at there,” he said. “Could I have stuck around another year or two? Probably. But I kind of felt like maybe it was time for someone else to lead that program.

“I was completely unsure what I was going to do,” he added. “I was comfortable with the fact that if an opportunity didn’t arise, I was going to just ski and enjoy my grandkids. When the mutual interest started to develop here, I told my agent, `This is a no-brainer. If this gets to the point where I’ve got an opportunity, there’s no question I am all in.’”

He has instilled discipline at Michigan

Rod Moore, who is in his sixth season at Michigan, said Whittingham’s approach is more aligned with Harbaugh’s structure and is a drastic departure from how Moore ran the program in 2024 and 2025.

Meetings that started on time or a little late the last two years now begin early sometimes. Quarterback Bryce Underwood chose to stay instead of transferring after hearing Whittingham’s pitch and said he is thankful he did.

“He’s a great guy to look up to,” Underwood said.

And, Whittingham has been pleasantly surprised by the players he inherited.

“I was a little leery that perhaps all these four- and five-star athletes would be entitled and me-guys and I found out they were the exact opposite,” he said. “I didn’t know what I was getting into as far as the culture.”

Works out with crosswords and AC/DC

Just like his hometown Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle that he does daily to keep his mind agile, a game that gets harder each day of the week, his workouts go from moderate to intense.

Whittingham broke a sweat seven minutes into his workout after riding a bike, hovering around 17 mph with the level of resistance at 15. Roughly halfway through his 45-minute cardio block, he ramped the level and speed up to 20.

He spent about 12 minutes completing the crossword puzzle with a blue marker on a sheet of paper, resting on a towel draped over the handlebars. When he was done, he matched his answers with another sheet of paper with the answers.

“100%,” he said proudly while crumpling up the papers. “I usually get 100% through Thursday, then it gets tough Friday. On Sunday, they’re diabolical.”

He shifted gears to pump music from AC/DC through his wireless earbuds, no surprise for a classic rock fan.

The second part of Whittingham’s workout was on the ground floor of Michigan’s massive weight room. There were three sets of the incline bench press with 55-pound dumbells, Whittigham lamenting the shoulder pain that prevents him from using 100-pounders anymore; inverted rows with his feet on a bench; 50 crunches and stretches for his troublesome hamstrings, hip and shoulder.

A little more than an hour after he started, he grabbed a protein drink from of a wall of refrigerators.

Whittingham weighs slightly less than his playing weight thanks to his workouts and a disciplined diet that starts with fresh lemon and olive oil in the morning and includes about a 6-hour window to eat. No alcohol or caffeine, no celebratory cigars.

“That’s religion and choice,” he said. “Even if I wasn’t Mormon, I wouldn’t.”

Whittingham then walked up the steps to his office, where he has welcomed a lot of people to learn more about the Wolverines, a team he followed as a kid in Southern California because he liked their winged helmets and coach Bo Schembechler. Nearly 20 years before Whittingham even thought about coaching at Michigan, he said he listened to “Bo’s Lasting Lessons” at least 20 times on CDs in his car while driving in Utah.

“I’ve always had an affinity for the Michigan program,” he recalled. “Since I got the job, I have connected with Tom Brady, Desmond Howard, Charles Woodson, Derek Jeter, and Lloyd Carr sat here for an hour. Jack Harbaugh, Jon Falk and John Bacon have come in here, too. This place is special.”

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