Michigan Wolverines head football coach Kyle Whittingham and Urban Meyer know each other very well.
They’re both part of the college football “elite,” of course, but they also have a working relationship.
Whittingham was Meyer’s defensive coordinator when both were with the Utah Utes in 2003 and 2004.
When Meyer left Utah to take the head-coaching job with the Florida Gators, he recommended that Whittingham replace him. Whittingham then coached at Utah for 22 seasons, going 177-88 overall.
Whittingham is now the head coach of the Wolverines, but he’s still good friends and colleagues with Meyer.
Their relationship may be strained a bit now that Whittingham calls Ann Arbor his football home, though. Meyer has been retired from college football since 2019 and currently works as an analyst for Fox Sports, but his legend grew tenfold when he left Florida and became the head coach for Michigan’s archrival, the Ohio State Buckeyes.
Meyer went 83-9 and won a national championship at Ohio State while going 7-0 against Michigan.
Urban Meyer not invited to Michigan practice during Ohio State week
Perhaps that’s why Whittingham recently said that while Meyer is welcome to come visit him in Ann Arbor, there is one week in which he will be banned from visiting the Michigan football program.
“If Urban wants to come to practice, he can come every week but one,” Whittingham said, per Isaiah Hole of Wolverines Wire.
Whittingham didn’t come out and say it, but clearly, he means that Meyer can’t visit during Ohio State week.
Otherwise, he has nothing but good things to say about his former boss at Utah.
“Urban Meyer was a huge influence on me as far as my head-coaching philosophy, how I go about my business,” Whittingham explained.
