New Head Coach Kyle Whittingham Ignites Michigan's Record-Breaking Victory Magic
New Michigan football coach Kyle Whittingham emphasizes physicality, similar to his predecessors, as spring practice begins.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- It's not a massive personality change for Michigan football to have moved on from the Jim Harbaugh-Sherrone Moore era to Kyle Whittingham. The former Utah head coach has a similar ethos as his predecessors -- be physical up front, at the point of attack, and then work everything else out.
Whittingham's teams might have a bit more panache in terms of skill positions compared to what Harbaugh-Moore brought to the table, but the identities have been essentially the same. So when Whittingham met with the media for the first time after his Orlando introduction in December, when asked about the strength of his team, he expects that it will be physicality. Thus, should that be the case, the hallmark for Michigan football won't change.
"We’re going to find that out this spring," Whittingham said. "We have a decent idea, and we won’t really get a lot of feedback the first couple days, no pads. You can’t get into pads until the third day, and so that will be a work in progress.
But we think that we’re going to be a physical football team. We want that to be our trademark. We want to be mentally and physically tough.