ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Michigan Wolverines head coach Kyle Whittingham said he is eager to begin spring practices after about 2.5 months on the job and credited the program with significant winter weight-room gains.
Whittingham said he already sees athleticism, length, and a strong work ethic as encouraging signs, but stressed the team will learn most about itself during the 15 spring sessions.
Recommended Videos
“You get a decent idea of your personnel in the winter, but you don’t get as good a read as you will in spring football,” said Whittingham on Tuesday (March 17). “We’re not going in blind, but there’s still a lot to learn.”
Whittingham noted significant gains in the weight room, calling the team’s development over the winter an “A-plus,” and described the roster as athletic with good size and length.
He also praised players for their work ethic and willingness to embrace the transition under a largely new coaching staff.
Bryce Underwood
At quarterback, Whittingham identified sophomore quarterback Bryce Underwood as the clear starter entering spring.
“He’s QB1 without a doubt,” Whittingham said. “Not only his athleticism, but his leadership, he’s already been voted a team captain.”
Underwood, a dual-threat quarterback, will be central to an offense coordinated by Jason Beck, whom Whittingham credited with tailoring schemes to player strengths.
Whittingham said Underwood’s ability to extend plays will remain a key part of the offense.
“I mean, that’s part of his game. I mean, you don’t want to take that away from him. And last year, you know, I thought he got a pretty good start, relative to the circumstances in college football.
He was just barely turned 18 when he became a starting quarterback at a major power four football team.
And so, I think he handled it fairly well. A lot of room for improvement. He knows that. We know that. And, he now has, you know, some dedicated guys, quarterback-wise, who are working directly with him. And, we’ll see what kind of progress we can make in these next 15 practices.”
Kyle Whittingham
Jordan Marshall
Running back Jordan Marshall is also expected to play a major role, giving the Wolverines a strong ground game to complement Underwood.
“Well, our offensive coordinator, Jason Beck, does a masterful job of utilizing the players at his disposal and the talent and what they do well and tailoring the scheme to that. And so, Jordan is a really good running back, obviously. Bryce is a dual-threat quarterback. Last year at Utah, we ranked second in the nation in rushing. We had a quarterback that was a very good runner as well. But, Bryce, you know, we think he can beat you from the pocket or with his legs. And then to have Jordan, you know, quarterback’s best friend is a strong run game, and Jordan helps provide that.”
Kyle Whittingham
Strength of the team
Whittingham said he expects Michigan to build a physical identity.
“We’re going to find that out this spring. We have a decent idea, and we won’t really get a lot of feedback for the first couple of days.
No pads. You know, you can’t get into pads until the third day. And so that will be a work in progress.
But, you know, we think that you know we’re going to be a physical football team.
That’s what we want to be our trademark. We want to be, you know, mentally and physically tough, and you know when you come to play us, you know you know you know you’ve been in for you know for a physical contest, but we’re we’re just looking forward to seeing you know how these things develop over the next 15 practices.
We got a you know a lot ahead of us uh as far as what we got to get accomplished.”
Kyle Whittingham
Whittingham added that simplifying schemes on both sides of the ball has been a priority, reflecting the realities of modern college football, including transfer portal movement and roster turnover.
“Well, three or four years ago, we made a concerted effort at Utah to simplify, you know, with the portal and the roster turnover and all you have.
You can’t have a scheme on either side of the ball that takes a year or two to learn. You don’t have that luxury.
And so, I don’t want to say we dummy things down, but we simplified things. And, you know, Jason Beck, we brought him in last year, and one of the main reasons we brought him in was his scheme was very user-friendly, and you know, the learning curve is not steep.
It’s very effective, but the learning curve is not steep. And defensively, we modified things and made that simpler, more simplistic as well.
And so that uh is a big part of football today, you know at the collegiate level, is is uh making sure that you got a a system that’s essentially plug-and-play because you’re going to get a guy, you know, some of our guys won’t get here till summer, and we’re counting on them playing this fall and we got to be able to you know get them up to speed rather quickly very quickly.”
Kyle Whittingham
2027 group
Whittingham said he and his staff are trying to build the best group they can for the future, but as of March 17, they have few commits.
“We want to build the best group we can. It’s still really early in the process. We don’t have a lot of commits right now, but that’s okay.
You know, we feel like we’re, you know, we’re on a lot of good players, and the visits actually start today.
We got guys coming in today for unofficial visits, and so we think that, you know, it’s not where you start, it’s where you finish.
Even though we’re not uh you know maybe as many commits and and as far along as some schools, you know, you really look at the bottom line when you’re finished what you came away with, and we think we’re going to be okay in that regard.”
Kyle Whittingham
His passion for U-M sports
Whittingham has been seen at a few sporting events since joining the University of Michigan.
He also gave high praise to the men in maize’s hockey program and the basketball team led by Dusty May, who is the No. 3-ranked team in the country and is six wins away from winning the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1989.
“I love hockey, Dusty May, what he’s doing with the basketball team. I mean, it’s incredible.
What a phenomenal job he’s done. And we have two or three other sports that are in the top five. And so it just speaks to the level of the athletic department overall and the quality of the coaches and the teams they have here.
And it’s Michigan. I mean, it’s not surprising. You know, it’s what you would expect.”
Kyle Whittingham
Whittingham signs with U-M
The longtime head coach was introduced as the leader of the football program on Sunday, Dec. 28, 2025, as the replacement for former head coach Sherrone Moore, who was fired and arrested on Dec. 10 for an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and he later broke into her apartment and threatened to harm himself.
→ ‘You’ll become us, we will not become you,’: Kyle Whittingham outlines vision for Michigan football
Whittingham, 66, agreed to a five-year deal worth $8.2 million with 75% guaranteed as he becomes the program’s 22nd head coach.
The 66-year-old stepped down a few months ago from the University of Utah after serving as their head coach from 2005 to 2025, leading the football program to an astounding 177-88 and a 10-2 record this season.
Whittingham has won three conference championships in 2008, 2021, and 2022.
He was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year during the 2008 season.
Whittingham also won the Dodd Trophy Coach of the Year in 2019 and back-to-back Pac-12 Coach of the Year honors in 2021 and 2022.
He had a winning record in 18 of his 21 years with the Utes, including 11-6 in bowl games, tying him for the most among active coaches.
Things learned on the job
Whittingham talked about some of the things that he learned about the job that he didn’t know when he accepted it.
“I don’t think anything really surprised me. I’ve been in this profession a long time. I’ve watched Michigan from afar as well as, you know, some of the other blue bloods. And so, I’m not going to say that anything caught me off guard or was eye-opening. I think it’s pretty much what we anticipated.”
Both sides of the ball
Whittingham inherited six offensive linemen who started last season under Moore. But he has to replace a multitude of guys on the defensive line as he spoke about both sides of the ball.
“I think we’ll be good at the line of scrimmage. We got some guys back with experience on offense.
Jim Harding, our offensive line coach, there’s no offensive line coach in the country better than him at developing talent. His track record speaks to that.
He’ll have two first-round draft choices this year, and so it’s in good hands, like what we’ve seen in the workouts with the defensive line, got three or four big interior guys that we think are going to be really good for us.
Got to develop some edge guys, but uh based on what we’ve seen just athletically and moving around, I think we’re going to be okay."
Kyle Whittingham
Dave Peloquin
Whittingham discussed the new general manager, Dave Peloquin.
“Obviously, we’re in lock step with where we want to go and what our vision is. We wouldn’t have hired him, and so we really did a lot of research to make that hire.
It was a critical hire. Your GM is one of the lynchpins of your program we are absolutely on the same page. Dave is just a completely meticulous, thorough, organized individual. And that’s what you have to be in recruiting.
You better be, you know,” very meticulous and thorough or you’re going to get you’re going to get uh buried.
And so, excited to have him on board. He’s put together a really good supporting cast for himself in his department there.
And we’re still, you know, one or two bodies away from being complete, but Dave brings a lot to this program, and we’re excited to have him.”
Kyle Whittingham
Talent differences between Utah and Michigan
Whittingham discussed the talent gap between Utah and Michigan, noting high-profile athletes such as freshman running back Savion Hiter.
“Well, Utah was more of a development program. We had the two and three-star, a rare four-star guy, and needed to, you know, take some time with them to develop.
But here, these guys are more ready-made. You know, I can tell you that they’re the freshman class that came in, they’re not all here yet.
There’s about seven or eight, maybe nine, that will be here in the summertime, but those guys, a lot of those guys are going to help out right away.
I mean, the tailback, Savon Hiter, is special. I believe he’s going to be a special player, and there’s another handful of guys that we think in that freshman class are going to be real contributors, major contributors for us right away, and didn’t have that luxury at Utah, very often you usually had to wait a year or two to develop those guys.”
Kyle Whittingham
Spring team captains
Whittingham also spoke about the process of naming team captains ahead of the Spring Game.
“Leadership is critical to a football team, never been involved with a really good team that didn’t have, you know, great leadership and a player group, and so you can’t ever get too start that too soon.
It’s what we’re used to doing at the other place. You know we always had spring/summer captains, and then uh we’ll revote in fall camp because you know things change the dynamic changes a little bit.
So, uh, but I thought that it was important, critically important to get a good start with the leadership and that not only involves the captains, but the leadership council, and they’re really essentially the governing body of the team.
And so things that need to be addressed and discussed come from the leadership council and the captains.
And I think it’s a good line of communication, a good way to communicate with your team and get a pulse of the team and where they’re at.”
Kyle Whittingham
Injured players ahead of Spring practices
Whittingham gave an injury update on Rod Moore, John Henry Daley, and Andrew Babalalola, who missed a lot of time during the 2025 football season.
“Injured players probably will not be available for spring. Maybe limited one or two might have some limited action, but very limited. And so we’re just trying to get them to the season healthy.
That’s the critical thing. And not, you know, they’re proven commodities, and we know what they can do. And uh so we got to make sure that we do what we have to do to uh ensure that we don’t have any setbacks.”
Kyle Whittingham
Team expectations
Whittingham spoke about his expectations for the team in his first season as the leader of men.
“I would expect in Michigan, you challenge for the Big 10 title every single year. I mean, that should be a given.
Every single year, you should be in the hunt and deep in the season, you should be right there with the top teams.
You know, playoffs obviously are a lofty goal, but you can’t get there most likely unless you, you know, do well in the Big 10. So you’ve got to take things a step at a time.
But at Michigan, I would say if you’re not thinking Big 10 championship every year, then something’s wrong.”
Kyle Whittingham
Roster development
Whittingham also addressed roster development, noting that Michigan’s talent level differs from his previous stops, with more players capable of contributing early.
He pointed to several wide receivers, including Andrew Marsh, Jaime Ffrench Jr., Salesi Moa, and JJ Buchanan, as emerging playmakers, while saying the team continues to evaluate depth at multiple positions.
“Andrew Marsh, he’s a tremendous talent. That’s very evident. And Jaime Ffrench, we brought in from Texas, has done a really nice job.
Salesi Moa, our true freshman, has really looked sharp in the workouts. JJ Buchanan, transfer from Utah, you know, so those are probably the top four.
Still jockeying for position for the next four. You typically travel about eight receivers, seven, eight receivers.
And so we know that those top four are pretty darn good. And we’re just trying to sort out the next tier, but those four guys are going to be, you know, very good Big 10 receivers in my opinion.”
Kyle Whittingham
Spring practices will span 15 sessions, during which Whittingham said the Wolverines aim to further install schemes, evaluate personnel, and solidify team chemistry ahead of the 2026 season.
The 2026 Michigan football Maize vs. Blue Spring game is scheduled for Saturday, April 18, at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor.