CHICAGO — Kyle Whittingham arrived at Big Ten media days as the new face of a Michigan program that has offered a masterclass in reputational mismanagement.Scandals. Investigations. NCAA infractions. A head coach having an affair with his executive assistant, then getting arrested.The Michigan brand is built out of titanium, but even titanium can tarnish. Whittingham, one of the steadiest coaches in college football during his 21 seasons at Utah, is here to wipe things clean. If Whittingham didn’t grasp the magnitude of that job when he was hired, he does now.Whittingham’s first preseason camp arrives amid headlines about an investigation into his predecessor, Sherrone Moore, and the culture of the athletic department. Warde Manuel, the athletic director who hired Whittingham, is stepping down at the end of the year with a $7.2 million buyout. Seven months into the job, Whittingham is about to become one of the most entrenched figures in the Michigan leadership structure.There’s no ambiguity about why Whittingham is at Michigan. Sure, he was hired to win football games, something he did with regularity at Utah. But job No. 1 is to, in his words, “put the drama to bed.” That’s been a seemingly impossible task at Michigan, but Whittingham offered at least one reason to think it’s possible.“The drama was not player-driven,” Whittingham said Thursday. “The players are doing what they’re supposed to do. Knock on wood — because as soon as I say something all hell will break loose — they’re living their lives the right way, and they’re accountable. Unfortunately, the drama came from the adults.”Can Kyle Whittingham bring stability to Michigan?Austin MeekWhittingham is exactly right. Michigan’s problems came from people who were supposed to know better: coaches, administrators and university leaders. To fix the problem, the Wolverines didn’t need to run off a bunch of players or completely rebuild the culture of the locker room. They just needed some new adults in the room.Now they have one. Whittingham is as steadfast as college coaches come. His late-career move to Michigan after 21 seasons in charge at Utah is a gamble for both sides, but there’s little risk that he’ll embarrass the program the way others have.Whittingham is coming into a loaded league that won’t give Michigan an easy path back to national relevance. That was illustrated by the massive media throng surrounding Indiana coach Curt Cignetti, just one table away from where Whittingham spoke to a slightly smaller crowd.If nothing else, Michigan under Whittingham will have structure and discipline. A little more of both could have helped the Wolverines immensely over the past two years.“That’s just what I’ve always done,” Whittingham said. “That’s been part of our culture forever, being disciplined and structured. Players, in my opinion, thrive on structure and discipline.”Whittingham quoted former Texas coach Mack Brown as saying the best part of the job is from “the day you get hired to the first game.” A coach who takes over a team in turmoil, as Whittingham did, gets points for not being the last guy. That only lasts so long, and ultimately every coach gets judged by what happens on the field.So it will be with Whittingham, too. All the structure and discipline in the world won’t spare him from criticism if Michigan loses four games this year, which is a distinct possibility with a schedule that includes Ohio State, Oregon, Indiana and Oklahoma. Three years removed from a national championship — and the program’s last trip to the College Football Playoff — Michigan fans will be patient, but only to a point.Whittingham’s baseline for success in Year 1 might strike some Michigan fans as underwhelming. He talked about playing “meaningful games in November” but stopped short of saying that Michigan ought to be in the CFP.“We’ve got some work to do in the depth department in a few positions,” he said. “I think in a year or two we’ll be about where we need to be across the board. I don’t want to paint the picture that the cupboard was left bare because it wasn’t. (There are) a lot of good players in our program, but we’re going to have to see how everyone adapts to the new schemes, the new culture.”Whittingham inherited a quarterback, Bryce Underwood, who is immensely talented but also a major wild card. If Underwood plays up to his potential as the No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2025, Michigan could be a CFP contender. If Underwood is the same player he was as a freshman, it’s difficult to see Michigan competing with the best teams in the Big Ten.Whittingham acknowledged that Underwood’s numbers need to improve while suggesting that expectations may have been too high for an 18-year-old freshman. Jason Beck, Michigan’s new offensive coordinator, worked wonders with Devon Dampier at Utah, and the hope is that he’ll do the same for Underwood.“He’s got a very high ceiling,” Whittingham said. “I firmly believe he’s going to turn out to be a very successful quarterback at Michigan.”Underwood’s development will go a long way toward making Whittingham a very successful coach in Ann Arbor. At 66, with a new athletic director on the way, Whittingham is operating on a compressed timeline. If nothing else, he should give Michigan a stable bridge into whatever comes next.Michigan may not be over its scandals yet, but the Wolverines have something they haven’t had in a long time: a no-drama football coach to manage the brand.