Michigan football begins Kyle Whittingham-fueled fever dream in Orlando
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ORLANDO, Fla. − The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day often feels like a fever dream.
It’s hard to remember what day it is, calories don’t count (that clock restarts with New Year’s resolutions) and the fog of holiday spirit makes for a weird vibe.
For Michigan football, one of the strangest months in recent memory has now bumped up against its bowl game, which is generally supposed to a fun event. Sometimes, it’s the crowning achievement of a season, sometimes it’s just one final chance to end on a positive note and take some momentum into the offseason.
Michigan (9-3, 7-2 Big Ten) has arrived in Orlando and will begin practice on Saturday, Dec. 27, for its Citrus Bowl matchup with Texas (9-3, 6-2 SEC), a game between two blueblood programs that few in Michigan circle are actually focused on.
The team is led by interim coach Biff Poggi after Sherrone Moore was unceremoniously fired earlier this month for an alleged inappropriate relationship with a staffer and subsequently arrested for breaking into her house and threatening to kill himself in a sad and scary ending to a disappointing two years at the helm.
It all forced the Wolverines to conduct a tough coaching search at an awkward time, one that eventually led to the hiring of longtime Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, who spent Friday in Las Vegas telling his Utes players he won’t coach their bowl game. Instead, he was heading down to the Sunshine State to begin making relationships and working on roster retention with his new group.
He signed a five-year deal reportedly worth $8.2 million annually with 75% of his contract guaranteed.
Fitting with the bizarre timeline of it all, Whittingham is expected to be formally introduced at a press conference at a hotel ballroom in Orlando instead of the typical pomp and circumstance at Michigan’s facilities.
It’s obviously a situation Michigan never wanted to be in. Just like the Citrus Bowl, a nice end-of-the-season landing spot, but not the College Football Playoff. Texas opened the 2025 season as the No. 1 team in the nation, while Michigan needed to just knock off Ohio State in the final game to be considered. Instead, each side now seeks a 10th win to make their final record look more respectable.
For U-M it would be the fourth 10-win season in five years, a feat not achieved since the days of Bo Schembechler.
Michigan wasn’t expecting a ton of opt-outs for this game. Poggi said on Monday of this week that the only three were edges Derrick Moore and Jaishawn Barham (both of whom have already declared for the NFL draft) as well as captain Gio El-Hadi, who is likely to do the same soon.
However, Poggi went on a Texas-based podcast called “The Stampede,” shortly before Christmas and explained to hosts Bob Ballou, Mack Brown, and Vince Young that he wouldn’t be surprised if that’s no longer the case by the time the weekend rolled around.
“I have to tell you with what’s going on with those here now, we sent them home for Christmas yesterday and, you know, I think there’s a really good chance that we’re going to have many more opt-outs for the game, unfortunately,” Poggi said. “Because we’re in such a state of flux. … “(Players may feel like) ‘Why do I want to, you know, play in that game?’ And so I can see some of that happening too. And I would tell you on the 26th, we’re probably going to have a significantly different roster than we had yesterday when we sent them home.”
Exactly who has made the trip will become clear Saturday, when the media gets to speak with a handful of team-selected players and observe the first 15 minutes of practice at West Orange High School, in Winter Garden, Florida, just a few miles west of Orlando.
Co-offensive coordinator Steve Casula will call the offense after former offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey left to take the same job at Missouri earlier this month. But for many coaches, this could be the final time they coach at Michigan. It all depends on who Whittingham surrounds himself with on his new staff.
So with one eye on the future, Michigan is doing its best to stay in the present. There are bowl activities, like kids day at the “Fun Spot America” theme park on the schedule, as well as a handful of practices, press conferences and a pep rally the day before the game.
Michigan has a bit more stability today than it did 48 hours ago, now knowing who will usher U-M into the 2026 season. But the 2025 season feels like its headed to a strange and anticlimactic conclusion.
Tony Garcia is the Wolverines beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan football begins Citrus Bowl fever dream week in Orlando
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