Kyle Whittingham’s Michigan staff is ‘strict’ and similar to the Harbaugh era

NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos...

While the ties in the Michigan Wolverines football program to Jim Harbaugh are dwindling, the type of mentality Harbaugh brought to the Michigan program seems to be back with new head coach, Kyle Whittingham. While Harbaugh and Whittingham are their own people, they both believe in physicality and a blue-collar approach to build the culture of their program.

Michigan safety Rod Moore spoke about how Whittingham, who spent the last two decades as head coach of Utah, is similar to Harbaugh.

“I would say it’s kind of a similarity to Coach Harbaugh’s regimen,” Moore said, per Clayton Sayfie of The Wolverine. “It’s a lot more strict than the past two years, and the weight room has kind of been a night and day difference from the past two years. We feel a lot stronger, a lot more progress.”

The strength and conditioning program seemed to have taken a step back in the past two years under former head coach Sherrone Moore. It’s one thing to say you’re a tough team, but it’s an entirely different thing, actually, to be one.

“I think it starts with the weight room,” Whittingham said earlier this offseason. “The offseason program is so critical, and you’ve got to have the right guy running the strength program, which we feel we’re going to. And that’s where a lot of the mental toughness and the work ethic and all that begins.”

Harbaugh had a similar approach to that of Whittingham — knowing that wins and losses are greatly shaped by what’s done in the weight room from January to August.

The “strict” nature of Whittingham’s staff extends beyond the weight room and the practice field all the way to meeting rooms and classrooms.

“The coaches are holding everyone accountable in the meetings, going to class. There’s a lot more accountability of going to class,” Moore said. “Just the little things that makes a team great, not just the big, broad things that everyone sees.”

The attention to detail, a firm grasp of how the small things impact bigger things down the road, there seems to be a similar dynamic between what Harbaugh instilled and the culture Whittingham is now trying to shape. The question is, will the Whittingham era end the same way as the Harbaugh era — with a national championship?

More at NCAAF College Football News, Photos, Stats, Scores, Schedule & Videos