Addressing a rowdy Crisler Center crowd on Friday night, Michigan head football coach Kyle Whittingham said they’ve got “1-2 more” assistant coaches to add to his “physical” football team for the 2026 season:
Dusty May and the Michigan Wolverines started back up Big Ten play on Friday night at Crisler Center against the USC Trojans, and the football program’s new head coach got to share some words with the home crowd.
Kyle Whittingham spoke with the crowd at the under-eight media timeout of the first half of the game, and some of his assistant coaches were on the floor with him, including Jason Beck, Lou Esposito, Lewis Powell, Jay Hill, and even Kerry Coombs.
In his message to Michigan fans, Whittingham said the goal will be to go 1-0 every week and that they can expect a tough, physical group next fall.
“Well first of all, how about coach Dusty May and this Michigan Wolverine basketball program?” Whittingham said before the crowd went wild. “It’s an honor to be the 22nd head football coach of the University of Michigan. Blessed to be here, can’t wait to get started. First order of business was to assemble a great assistant coaching staff. We’ve got 1-2 more to add, but otherwise, this is the group that will be coaching the young men this spring, this fall. I can say for sure that we’re going to be a physical football team. It’s gonna be an exciting offense — coach Beck has done a great job. Coach Jay Hill, defensive coordinator.
“Our goal every Saturday is to go 1-0, that’s our goal. Go Blue!”
The interesting thing he mentioned was the need to add one or two more assistant coaches. I assume it’s going to be two, as the Wolverines still haven’t reportedly added a linebackers coach or defensive backs coach. It’s always possible that Jay Hill works with some of the secondary, as he did at BYU, but it doesn’t sound like Brian Jean-Mary is going to be retained, so Whittingham will definitely need to add a linebackers coach to the program before all is said and done.
With the transfer portal opening up today and the Wolverines already losing about a dozen player — including linebacker Cole Sullivan and cornerback Zeke Berry, among others — hopefully Whittingham is able to fill those positions quickly so he and his staff can get to work retaining the rest of the roster and adding guys through the transfer portal.
Category: General Sports
