Urban Meyer’s very Ohio State reaction to Michigan football’s Kyle Whittingham hiring appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
To say former Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer was surprised that Kyle Whittingham left Utah to become the Michigan football coach would be an understatement.
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Meyer told On3’s Chris Low that he couldn’t believe the news, even though he unequivocally thinks that Michigan made a masterful hire.
“Yeah, I’m a Buckeye, so my first thought was, ‘What?’” Meyer said [h/t On3]. “He’s my friend. Kyle and I are really close, but it didn’t take long for me to put two and two together. Not only did I tell him that I think it was a great move, but it was exactly what that school in Ann Arbor needed.
“They fell into the perfect guy.”
Michigan plucked Whittingham, who had recently — and quite awkwardly — stepped down as Utah’s head coach a few weeks earlier, shortly after firing Sherrone Moore. The hiring of Whittingham was a relatively quiet affair, at least in comparison to the drama around Moore, who was arrested after being fired, and accused of having an improper relationship with a football staffer and threatening suicide.
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The quiet nature of Whittingham’s arrival and the spring are undoubtedly welcome sights at UM. He previously spent more than 30 years at Utah, with the last 21 coming as the head coach, working his way up from defensive line coach. During his stint, he served as an assistant under Meyer, who was the Utes’ head coach in 2003 and 2004.
With the Utes, despite slipping under the radar for a number of years, he won 177 games, two conference championships, and made it to three BCS/New Year’s Six bowl games.
Michigan obviously hopes he can have similar success in Ann Arbor, especially since it’s only a few years removed from a national championship. The Wolverines will begin their 2026 title quest on Sept. 5 vs. Western Michigan.
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