It looks like Michigan won't be landing Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham or Alabama's Kalen DeBoer, so now what? There are still some solid candidates out there and Kyle Whittingham but just be the most solid.

Pros

1. Michigan will be great on defense

For years and years and years Michigan was known as a stout, aggressive, fast and stifling defense. During the Harbaugh Era and under Don Brown, that reputation was lost. After that, Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter restored that rep in a major way. Recently, under Wink Martindale, it's been a bit up and down. Under Whittingham, defense would once again be at the forefront of what Michigan is all about.

Whittingham has been a defensive guy his entire career. He has coached the defensive line, linebackers and safeties and was also a defensive coordinator for nearly 15 years before becoming Utah's head coach in 2005. If he takes over at Michigan, the Wolverine defense will be a top priority.

2. He's done more with less

Utah isn't exactly a hotbed of talent and it's hard to recruit there. Per 247 Sports, since Whittingham took over as head coach in 2005, the Utes have only had one top-20 recruiting class. That was in 2023 when the class ranked 19th in the country with eight four-star prospects. Aside from that class, Utah has only landed a maximum of four, four-star recruits in any one class and that happened just four times. The Utes finished outside of the top 50 in the national recruiting rankings six times during Whittingham's tenure. 

Yet somehow, Whittingham has compiled a 177–88 record over that time. He was being out-recruited by programs far less successful than his Utah teams. That is a sign of maximizing what you have on your roster and gaining a schematic advantage week in and week out.

3. He's old school, disciplined and rock solid

At 66 years old, Whittingham has seen and done it all as a coach. He's never going to be surprised by anything and he's always been in charge of solid, disciplined and well-coached teams. He's been the head coach at Utah since 2005 and has been pretty much squeaky clean the entire time. Recently he was accused of fudging injury reports, but that's barely even mentionable when compared to what's happened at Michigan as of late.

He's also very consistent in his approaches. As mentioned above, he's going to field a very serious defense and an efficient offense. He has had different types of quarterbacks and all sorts of skill players during his time in Salt Lake City. If he inherited Michigan's roster as is, it would likely be more talented than anything he ever had at Utah. The sky could be the limit.

Cons

1. His age

At 66 years of age, Whittingham likely doesn't have much left in the tank. Obviously he did just exit his post at Utah, which indicates that the passion for coaching might be gone. If it's not, in a perfect world you might get five years out of him. If he could give Michigan five seasons, that would be a best case scenario. 

You also have to consider the fact that he could be a bit out of touch when it comes to recruiting high school and transfer portal players just because of the age gap. How proficient is he when it comes to recruiting and social media and things like that? It remains to be seen at a place like Michigan.

2. Geographical unfamiliarity

Whittingham was born in California and has never coached further east than Price, Utah where he was the defensive coordinator at Eastern Utah University in 1987. After that, he moved slightly west to Idaho State University before settling down in Salt Lake City for the past 30 years. Because of that, he has no ties to the Midwest or anywhere that Michigan recruits heavily. Yes, Michigan is a bigger brand than Utah and obviously recruits nationally, so there might be a few relationships here and there, but Whittingham certainly doesn't have an abundance of connections in Michigan's recruiting footprint.

Also, sometimes a guy just doesn't fit culturally or naturally because of where he hails from. Whittingham does seem like a pretty down to Earth guy, but Utah is not Michigan or the Midwest. It would be interesting to see if he could acclimate after getting used to the same thing for so long.

3. Not an offensive guy

Michigan's defense was not good at times this year, especially in its three losses against talented, fast teams like Oklahoma, USC and Ohio State. Whittingham would likely fix that as a defensive guru, but that's just part of the pie. 

Michigan's offense was embarrassing pretty much all season long. All-world freshman quarterback Bryce Underwood threw just nine touchdown passes during his rookie campaign after saying, "You've never seen a freshman like me." 

Whittingham has no background with quarterbacks or anything on offense, for that matter. Despite that, he's been able to field some very solid offenses. In fact, Utah has finished ahead of Michigan in eight out of the last ten years in total offense. With the right OC, Michigan could be very good on offense under Whittingham, which is obviously very important with Underwood's sophomore season on the horizon. 

At the end of the day, Michigan could do a lot worse than Kyle Whittingham. Is he Kenny Dillingham or Kalen DeBoer, no, at least in terms of age and potential. But he is solid, blemish free and proven and he would be a massive upgrade over Sherrone Moore.