Michigan swings and misses trying to reunite 5-star Utah commit with Kyle Whittingham

It has been a wild offseason for the Michigan Wolverines. Well, technically, all the crazy stuff that happened was before the Wolverines even played in their bowl game, but things are finally beginning to calm down.

Michigan ended up firing head coach Sherrone Moore, who was under investigation by the university, and he was later arrested and had three different charges filed against him. The Moore era officially over, there were many questions as to who would take over in Ann Arbor, and after a few swings and misses, the Wolverines landed on former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.

Since Whittingham took over in Ann Arbor, he has quickly built his coaching staff, but he has also worked hard to keep players in the building, as well as bringing in new ones. There have been a few of his former players from Utah who have chosen to follow their former head coach, as well as some of his commits.

However, there is one five-star Utah commit that Whittingham was pushing hard to flip to Michigan, who chose to stick with the Utes.

Five-star Utah commit Salesi Moa spurns Whittingham at Michigan by enrolling at Utah

Just because Whittingham jumped ship from Utah to Michigan doesn't mean that all of his players, or even commits, would come running to Ann Arbor. Many commits that signed with Utah chose to stick with the Utes, even with the opportunity to leave because of the head coaching change.

Five-star athlete Salesi Moa has chosen to enroll at Utah, officially signaling that Whittingham and Michigan should stop pursuing him.

It would have been a great grab for Whittingham to get Moa to flip from Utah to Michigan, but in the end, Moa chose to stick with Utah. Moa is the top player in the state of Utah and a top-five athlete in the Class of 2026.

Whittingham will have to look elsewhere to continue building his roster for the 2026 season, and the transfer portal just might be his best friend.