Coaching Carousel (Football)

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#551      
BashCtIllini
IlliniHardwood said:
Oh man. At the time of your post, I could not have agreed with you more. Unfortunately (for Whittingham mostly), your sentiments/post aged both at light-speed and not well.
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I find Whittingham's decision baffling. I saw he was making $6.9 M at Utah, and Michigan is giving him $8.2 M. What can you buy with $50 M that you can't buy with $40 M?

I just don't get these coaches. If I'm Utah, within a couple years of his retirement, it becomes Whittingham Field. You leave this late in your career, screw you man. We've given you 20 years, and you're going to retire somewhere else? Nice knowin ya.
 
#552      
Serious Late
BashCtIllini said:
I find Whittingham's decision baffling. I saw he was making $6.9 M at Utah, and Michigan is giving him $8.2 M. What can you buy with $50 M that you can't buy with $40 M?

I just don't get these coaches. If I'm Utah, within a couple years of his retirement, it becomes Whittingham Field. You leave this late in your career, screw you man. We've given you 20 years, and you're going to retire somewhere else? Nice knowin ya.
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Whittingham would still be at Utah if the administration at Utah still wanted him. They named Morgan Scalley "head coach in waiting" in 2019 (unofficially), then in 2024 made it official. Everything I have read has indicated he understood this was his last year, but then when they won 10 games he didn't want to call it quits. Utah didn't want to keep going year to year with this (he almost stepped down last year) and lose Scalley to another program this offseason.

Whittingham has done nothing to tarnish his legacy at Utah. He won't lose his standing with Utah because he took another job after they basically said enough with him.
 
#553      
SoCal Illini
Wittingham is a CEO type coach that got a lot out of his players at Utah. They were constantly near the top of the conference in large part because they were more disciplined and physical than the rest of the pac12. I actually think it’s a great hire and will last until he wants to retire, especially if he gets talented assistants like he did at Utah. He just needs to drive the same way, but now he has a better car.

Could be wrong, we’ll see though
 
#554      
illini0440
BashCtIllini said:
I find Whittingham's decision baffling. I saw he was making $6.9 M at Utah, and Michigan is giving him $8.2 M. What can you buy with $50 M that you can't buy with $40 M?

I just don't get these coaches. If I'm Utah, within a couple years of his retirement, it becomes Whittingham Field. You leave this late in your career, screw you man. We've given you 20 years, and you're going to retire somewhere else? Nice knowin ya.
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Utah forced Kyle to “retire”
 
#556      
Username
illini0440 said:
Utah forced Kyle to “retire”
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Can you share any more of the details if you know anything else? UT had named Scalley the HC in waiting in 2024. He is a former UT player and is 20 years younger than Whittingham. Scalley (to me at least) is not a hot name on the HC scene. Why did UT seemingly push Whittingham out this year and not wait another couple years when Whittingham noted that he wanted to continue coaching? Were they that worried that Scalley was going to pursue opportunities elsewhere? I'm not saying UT is the best job in the country or anything, but I don't see Scalley getting anything close to equivalent anywhere else, and given it's his alma mater and he was on staff there for 20 years and has never coached or played anywhere else, it seems like this is really the only job that he wants too.

Does Whittingham have some skeletons in his closet that would upset the alumni, church, other? What gives?
 
#557      
illini0440
Username said:
Can you share any more of the details if you know anything else? UT had named Scalley the HC in waiting in 2024. He is a former UT player and is 20 years younger than Whittingham. Scalley (to me at least) is not a hot name on the HC scene. Why did UT seemingly push Whittingham out this year and not wait another couple years when Whittingham noted that he wanted to continue coaching? Were they that worried that Scalley was going to pursue opportunities elsewhere? I'm not saying UT is the best job in the country or anything, but I don't see Scalley getting anything close to equivalent anywhere else, and given it's his alma mater and he was on staff there for 20 years and has never coached or played anywhere else, it seems like this is really the only job that he wants too.

Does Whittingham have some skeletons in his closet that would upset the alumni, church, other? What gives?
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I’ll answer the last part first….no. Kyle is a stand up guy, great person.

As for the reasoning I think it was just after 20+ years they just thought it was time for a change. Right or wrong I guess we will find out. Utah was always going to keep it in house when replacing Kyle, it’s kind of their MO.
 
#558      
Username
illini0440 said:
I’ll answer the last part first….no. Kyle is a stand up guy, great person.

As for the reasoning I think it was just after 20+ years they just thought it was time for a change. Right or wrong I guess we will find out. Utah was always going to keep it in house when replacing Kyle, it’s kind of their MO.
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Appreciate the insight. It just seems weird. Whittingham appeared to still be at the top of his game. He seemed to be a perfect fit (and had been for the past 2+ decades), 10-2 season this year, no rumors of him having lost the locker room or anything like that. UT administration might have let the new coach put pressure on them. I read an article that he was at least messaging the possibility that he would pursue the Stanford job, but still, this seems like a situation where Scaly is/was more desired by UT than any other equivalent program.
 
#559      
Chillinini
I get it with coaches like Kyle. Wanting a new challenge and seeing it thru. It'll be a huge undertaking, but he's hungry to prove people he can change Michigan and make a huge impression in the history of college coaches.

If he can get Michigan on the straight and narrow and make it to the playoffs, it'll be huge.
 
#560      
sbillini
Kind of, somewhat ironically, reminds me of John beilein going to coach in the nba at, coincidentally, 66 years old. He had it pretty well set at Michigan but probably wanted the challenge. Nonetheless, didn’t work out well for the cavs - unless you believe the conspiracy theory that Gilbert hired him primarily to knock Michigan basketball down a few notches.
 
#562      
mhuml32
Dan said:
https://twitter.com/x/status/2005339144596205695
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This is the best answer to give, but I still wonder if this is press conference preparation or reality.


If he thinks he made a mistake by planning for retirement a few years ago and had regrets, why not walk it back at the institution that's been your home for two decades? Maybe he did and they were ready for the future. That makes sense, especially with how everything ended and his soundbites about not being "done coaching".

The bigger question is if he felt like the "train had left the station at Utah", then why wasn't he sniffing around for jobs the past year or two? There were lots and lots of jobs opened. His name was never mentioned for anything until he announced he was leaving Utah. If you still have the fire to coach, he gave little effort to dissuade the retirement rumors or seek out a new opportunity until he was officially out.


I say all of this with the understanding that if the current Whittingham was available in 2020 when Illinois fired Lovie, I would have done terrible things to bring him to C-U.
 
#566      
Thaillini22
Dumb question, but I'm curious about whether Whittingham's discussions with UM precipitated his bailing on UU, or if he was intent on leaving UU (and indeed left) prior to UM reaching out?
 
#569      
bluemountain
Mr. Tibbs said:
he walked away from UU way before thr Moore incident
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I'm pretty sure his retirement has been in the works for a few years. With a lot of people, retirement sounds better in theory than in practice, so it doesn't surprise me a bit that he has found he isn't quite ready to give up coaching. The problem from Utah's standpoint is they had already gone pretty far down the path in terms of making Scalley the HC and all sides probably agreed it was best to stick with the original plan.
 
#574      
Noblesville Illini
Illiniguy74 said:
Including the wide variety of infractions committed by Michigan starting many years ago with no repercussions.
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Pointing Up Morgan Freeman GIF by MOODMAN
 
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