Kyle Whittingham details timeline of stepping down from Utah, taking Michigan job

Kyle Whittingham’s past few weeks have been chaotic, to say the least.

The guy who spent 21 years as the head coach at Utah announced on Dec. 12 that he was stepping down after the Utes bowl game. Two days before that, Sherrone Moore was fired as Michigan head coach, so the Wolverines’ vacancy and Whittingham’s availability coincided almost to the day.

Fast-forward to Sunday morning, when that stroke of timing came to ultimate fruition, as the 66-year-old Whittingham was introduced as the 22nd head coach in the proud history of Michigan football. Those plans to coach Utah one last time in the Las Vegas Bowl against Nebraska on New Year’s Eve went out the window, as Whittingham wanted to join his new program as quickly as possible.

Utah accepted Michigan’s request for Whittingham to head to Ann Arbor now, not later, and there was Whittingham on Sunday, explaining the whole timing ordeal of when he left Salt Lake City and also when he interviewed for the Wolverines job.

“Ironically enough, the timing was almost the same when I stepped down and when this job came open,” Whittingham told reporters.

He explained what his thought process was in leaving a program he had been in charge of for so long, going 177-88 over those 2-decades plus at Utah.

“This program is in a great place right now, excellent players, excellent coaching staff,” Whittingham said. “I just felt the time was right to exit, but I still feel like I have a lot of energy.”

He’ll be tapping into that energy right away in Ann Arbor, taking over a blue blood program that’s in a bit of disarray right now after the firing of Moore.

It hasn’t been a very easy past few weeks for Michigan football and it’s been a crazy few weeks for Whittingham, but the timing couldn’t have been better for the Utah legend to head east and try his hand in the Big Ten.