Kyle Whittingham Now Insists He Wasn’t Planning to Coach After Leaving Utah

Months into his new job at Michigan, head coach Kyle Whittingham joined SiriusXM radio this week and talked about how the job came about following his departure from Utah. Whittingham insisted he was not planning to coach again, but that the Wolverines position was too attractive to turn down.

“I stepped down and wasn’t sure if there was going to be more to the career or not,” Whittingham said on Sirius XM. “I was perfectly content with just going skiing and riding my motorcycle and playing golf and all that stuff, being with grandkids. And so I wasn’t sitting there stewing over anything. We had had a good run at Utah. The time was right to step down and move on … At that time, I was good with it. Very shortly after I stepped down, the job came open here, my agent got a hold of me, said, ‘Hey, is there interest?’ And I said, ‘You bet.’”

Whittingham’s About Face?

Whittingham was reportedly interested in a return to Utah, according to court documents uncovered last month, but with a raise for 2026 and 2027. The Desert News reported, “On Dec. 2, ahead of a Dec. 5 deadline for Whittingham to inform the university of his future plans, Whittingham’s agent, Bruce Tollner, emailed associate athletic director for football administration Jeff Rudy to inform Utah that Whittingham “does not intend to retire at the conclusion of the 2025 football season.” However, his approach now seems to have changed. Or its revisionist history. Maybe a little bit of both? However in recent months, it wasn’t clear how “done” Whittingham really was with coaching.

But as for Michigan, Whittingham went on to say to SiriusXM, “I mean, that’s Michigan. How can there not be interest? And one thing led to another, and things got moving pretty fast. About 10 days later, I got the offer and here I sit. I’ll tell you what, it’s a special place. It’s everything that I envisioned it being. It’s just one of the top jobs in the country, without a doubt.”

Whittingham went 177-88 in his time at Utah. In his final season, his second in the Big 12, Whittingham went 10-2 and the team finished No. 14 in the country. Whittingham will be making an average of $8.2 million per season, with the contract spanning five years.

Whittingham brought in two of the best coordinators in the Big 12. He took former Utah offensive coordinator Jason Beck with him, along with poaching BYU defensive coordinator Jay Hill. Both coordinators signed three-year deals to join the Wolverines.