Pete Thamel: 'I'd be stunned' if Kyle Whittingham doesn't win at U-M

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Michigan football has seen its fair share of successes, failures, and scandals over recent years. During the three-year run to the College Football Playoff, when the Wolverines won the Big Ten all three seasons and culminated the run with a national championship, there were two NCAA investigations. Then, the maize and blue hired former offensive coordinator Sherrone Moore, who left the program in disgrace, with an inappropriate affair with his assistant, Paige Shiver, having been the impetus for his firing — though his on-field performance also left a lot to be desired.

The Wolverines are looking for a bit of a reset, and that's why they brought in Kyle Whittingham, the 21-year head coach at Utah. Whittingham embodies the culture that Michigan espouses, and he also runs a style of play that's similar to how the maize and blue have been built, schematically.

On Tuesday, ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel appeared on The Rich Eisen Show, and he shared why he believes that Whittingham is the perfect fit for the maize and blue at this time.

"Well, I think, look, Rich, Michigan made an unbelievable hire," Thamel said. "Kyle Winningham is one of the best football coaches in the last generation in college football. He took Utah from the Mountain West with barely a blip to the Pac-12, made them a contender, made them a conference title. He has been one of the most consistently performing football coaches in college football in the last 25 years, period. End of story.

"One of the telling stats at Utah was they did this. So do you know the last quarterback from Utah drafted in the NFL draft, Rich? You would know this because you know more about the NFL draft — Alex Smith, Alex Smith. It was Alex Smith, the No. 1 overall who played for Urban Meyer. Kyle was the defensive coordinator. Now they've had good quarterbacks since then. Don't get me wrong, but he has almost done it despite elite production at that position, not because of it. And usually when you grow and flourish, you have a couple of guys like that who can sling the pill or move it around a little bit and help you. So I really feel like there will be a consistency and professionalism at Michigan football that, that is, that is going to permeate through that program that was perhaps not there in the past few years.

"So I think it's an unbelievable hire. It's such a good fit in the Big Ten. They've recruited really well. He has a strong front office there, and he's going to maximize the resources. He's a high-end game-day coach, right? The guy's coached a ton of high stakes games, just a lot of, a lot of college football games. They have an elite OC in Jason Beck. Jay Hill at BYU was one of the better defensive coordinators in that part of the world. And in the Big 12, the past few years, look, the resources at Michigan that are available right now, there should be a through line to success. And I'd be stunned if Kyle Whittingham doesn't succeed highly there."

Whittingham truly represents a fresh start in Thamel's eyes. With athletic director Warde Manuel moving on at the end of the year, Michigan has a chance for something of a reset.

After discussing Whittingham and what he brings to the table, Thamel described his thoughts on Manuel and what happened there. Ultimately, he comes to a few conclusions: Manuel wasn't let go for cause, and it won't change what the football program appears to be poised to do.

"To me, Warde Manuel is kind of the last vestige of the controversial era of — pick your scandal," Thamel said. "Whether it was Connor Stalions, whether it was recruiting stuff under Jim Harbaugh, and then obviously there were the more serious things that happened with Matt Weiss. And then obviously the ending of Sherrone Moore, and they're really — Rich, I think you're going to look around and be like, there's really no one that was here in 2023. There are people, don't get me wrong. And there's people in the athletic department, but the principles, if you really look at the core principles from that title team and all the controversies to right now, there's a few assistant coaches that have carried over on the football staff, and that athletic department hasn't had much turnover underneath Warde. 

"So there'll be familiar faces there. But I think my takeaway from Warde Manuel was it was surprising he lasted this long? Not necessarily. It was surprising that he elected to step down at the end of this year.

"Look, he won, he won big. And the scandals, unfortunately for him, were bigger. And, you step back, you had a really successful run. It's hard to do it with 2016 to now. Right? So that's what 10, 11, 12 years, we're talking about. I guess 11, 11 years as an AD — that's a long time to be a modern college athletic director in a high-pressure place like that. And his exit, by letting him stay the year, means that they don't have to, if — look, if they had reason to fire him for cause, they would have fired him for cause. That would have saved them millions of dollars. Right? There wasn't enough in the report for that. So they'll hold hands and have one more football season and kind of let them go out gracefully.

"President Grasso clearly has an affinity for Warde Manuel. And you saw that in his comments. So this is sort of like the negotiated point where Michigan came out and said, we did a lot of bad stuff, but we're really not going to tell you what it was, other than we're going to use like weighty rhetoric to tell you it was bad and it's going to change. And with the video that they released, it's sort of right from the scandal, let's move on playbook. Right? We have to admit fault. It's sort of like a mad lib when you look at it. They checked all the boxes and did all the things admitted just enough, have something punitive, with the decision on Manuel, and then they will press on and move on. But the beauty Rich, I know you're obviously a big Michigan guy, of these big brands is they are set up and poised to win in Michigan. This is not going to slow Michigan down. They are set up and poised to win again."

Michigan has one more week of summer conditioning with fall camp set to begin on August 1.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Pete Thamel: 'I'd be stunned' if Kyle Whittingham doesn't win at U-M

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