{"id":474899,"date":"2025-12-27T11:53:19","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T11:53:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474899\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T11:53:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T11:53:19","slug":"kyle-whittingham-hired-as-michigan-football-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/474899\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Whittingham hired as Michigan football coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Michigan<\/a> hired Kyle Whittingham as its football coach on Friday night, giving the longtime Utah coach a five-year contract to replace the fired and disgraced Sherrone Moore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cKyle Whittingham is a well-respected and highly successful head coach who is widely recognized as a leader of exceptional character and principled leadership,\u201d athletic director Warde Manuel in a statement. \u201cThroughout our search, he consistently demonstrated the qualities we value at Michigan: vision, resilience, and the ability to build and sustain championship-caliber teams.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 66-year-old Whittingham announced two weeks ago that he would step down<\/a> after 21 seasons at Utah. Morgan Scalley was promoted from defensive coordinator to replace Whittingham, who has won a school-record 177 games.<\/p>\n

Whittingham did not characterize his departure from Utah as a retirement, and he wasn\u2019t out of work for long.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan is synonymous with tradition and excellence \u2014 both on the field and beyond \u2014 and our entire program is committed to upholding those values while striving for greatness together,\u201d Whittingham said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The 15th-ranked Utes will play Nebraska in the Las Vegas Bowl on Dec. 31 \u2014 now with Scalley as their coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter discussions with coach Whittingham, his representatives and the University of Michigan, we have granted their request to allow him to join the Michigan program immediately,\u201d Utah athletic director Mark Harlan said.<\/p>\n

Moore was fired on Dec. 10, when the school said an investigation uncovered his inappropriate relationship with a staffer. Two days later, Moore was charged with three crimes after prosecutors said he \u201cbarged his way\u201d into the apartment of a woman he\u2019d been having an affair with and threatened to kill himself.<\/p>\n

Michigan was hoping to hire a coach this month, helping its chances of retaining recruits and keeping key players, including quarterback Bryce Underwood, out of the transfer portal.<\/p>\n

Whittingham had been Utah\u2019s coach since December 2004 and a member of the Utes\u2019 staff since 1994. He has a 177-88 (.668) record over 21 seasons. Utah finished with 18 winning seasons under Whittingham and won at least 10 games eight times.<\/p>\n

Whittingham twice helped Utah navigate conference changes. The Utes moved from the Mountain West to the Pac-12 in 2011 and then departed the Pac-12 for the Big 12 in 2024. <\/p>\n

Utah found success following both moves. Whittingham led the Utes to back-to-back Pac-12 championships and Rose Bowl appearances in 2021 and 2022. Then, after a 5-7 campaign in its first Big 12 season, Utah went 10-2 this season and finished in a tie for third place in the league.<\/p>\n

Utah capped an undefeated season in 2008 with a win over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl.<\/p>\n

Whittingham won three national coach of the year awards, including the AFCA and Bear Bryant awards in 2008 and the Dodd Trophy in 2019.<\/p>\n

Whittingham was a linebacker at BYU under LaVell Edwards from 1978 to 1981.<\/p>\n

\u201cUtah will always hold a special place in my heart,\u201d Whittingham said in a statement released by the Utes, \u201cand I wish coach Scalley and the program a smooth transition and continued success moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here<\/a> and here<\/a> (AP News mobile app). AP college football: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/ap-top-25-college-football-poll<\/a> and https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/college-football<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) \u2014 Michigan hired Kyle Whittingham as its football coach on Friday night, giving the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":474900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[83243,1428,1369,1318,77319,181121,215204,7801,214,7800,86529,215202,8807,62,2732,67,132,68,436,424,28056,215203],"class_list":{"0":"post-474899","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-bryce-underwood","9":"tag-college-football","10":"tag-college-sports","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-kyle-whittingham","13":"tag-local-news-for-apple","14":"tag-mark-harlan","15":"tag-mi-state-wire","16":"tag-michigan","17":"tag-michigan-wolverines","18":"tag-michigan-wolverines-football","19":"tag-morgan-scalley","20":"tag-sherrone-moore","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-sports-transactions","23":"tag-united-states","24":"tag-unitedstates","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-ut-state-wire","27":"tag-utah","28":"tag-utah-utes","29":"tag-utah-utes-football"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115791397241642631","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/474900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}