If you thought Kyle Whittingham was the type of coach who coddles his players, well, you might want to think again. Michigan is 3-1 this season following a pitiful loss to Iowa that came on the final play of the game, and even a few days later, Whittingham doesn't seem very happy with his team.
"Right now we're 3-1 but I feel like we're 0-4," Whittingham said in his Monday press conference. "But we're 3-1 − one play away from 4-0, one play away from 2-2. So, it's been about three of the four games very close, you know, closely contested games. It's been an emotional roller coaster in a way."
Kyle Whittingham: “Right now we’re 3-1 but I feel like we’re 0-4.”
— Anthony Broome (@anthonytbroome) September 28, 2026
No updates yet on John Henry Daley and Blake Frazier injuries. pic.twitter.com/vaV0n4qHHL
Wow, I mean, Whittingham must really not be happy with his team to make that kind of statement, and you can't really blame him. Michigan has not played its best football this season - actually, far from it - but at least against Iowa, they showed signs that their best football is still to come.
The offense finally opened up, especially with the passing game, and now the next step is finishing drives with seven points instead of three in the red zone. The defense still looked great, but it came down to some costly penalties that could have been avoided, which aided Iowa in its game-winning drive.
There is still a lot of growing pains for Michigan in the Kyle Whittingham era
Kyle Whttingham makes a point about feeling like the team is 0-4. Honestly, Michigan could very easily be 0-4 if it weren't for a few plays here and there and good second-half play. Michigan could also be 4-0 easily if it cleaned up some key areas of execution.
First and foremost, penalties have to be cleaned up, and I don't mean all penalties because sometimes holding and pass interference come from just being beat. No, I mean penalties that are self-inflicted, like illegal formations, late hits, and unsportsmanlike conduct.
When the penalties get cleaned up, Michigan can start to get more into the details of the game and find ways to win without it coming down to the last second. It makes sense that there would be growing pains in Whittingham's first season with the Wolverines, but being 3-1 is still nothing to scoff at, especially looking at the schedule Michigan has this season.
Sure, every coach wants to win comfortably, and to this point, Michigan hasn't, but that is all part of the process when it comes to a head coaching change. Whittingham needs to focus on continuing to build his culture at Michigan and keeping this team together, which he has done up to this point.
There is still a lot of football to be played this season, and if Michigan can be 3-1 when their head coach feels they could also very easily be 0-4, it means something has been going right for Michigan somewhere.
Add us as a preferred source on Google