Michigan's Kyle Whittingham Gamble & One-and-Done Possibility

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Michigan Could Be Justified in Moving On From Kyle Whittingham

Both Michigan and Penn State could be in danger of missing the playoff this year. By the end of the season, it is possible that both teams could miss the 2014 playoff.

Penn State made the decision to move on from James Franklin because the program believed he was no longer good enough and viewed Matt Campbell as the answer. Penn State cannot abandon that decision after one year.

Wisconsin also gave Luke Fickell time, which was the right approach after hiring him away from Cincinnati. He might still turn the program around.

Michigan’s situation is different. The program was not trying to fire its head coach, but circumstances left it with no choice. Michigan did the best it could by hiring Whittingham, but the results have been exclusively bad.

Much of the case for Kyle Whittingham was simply that he was not Sherrone Moore. The argument was less about believing in Whittingham and more about how poorly things had gone under Moore.

Moving on from Whittingham would not be an overreaction. It could be Michigan acknowledging that he was never the coach the program expected to hire. The athletic director who hired him is also gone, and a new athletic director may want to select a different coach.

Whittingham was successful at Utah, but that success has not carried over to the Big Ten. He is also not a Michigan guy. Michigan wanted to move away from that identity, but hiring Whittingham was not the right way to do it. Michigan has succeeded with Michigan guys, and the Whittingham hire did not make sense from the beginning.