Kyle Whittingham could be relaxing on a boat or riding his motorcycle through the mountains right now. Instead, he’s gearing up for another preseason camp and embarking on one of the biggest challenges of his career as the new coach at Michigan.Whittingham, 66, avoided the word “retirement” when he stepped down at Utah in December, but it was hardly a guarantee that he would be coaching in 2026. After 21 seasons as Utah’s head coach, Whittingham walked away without a safety net.“My future was really up in the air,” Whittingham said last week at Big Ten media days. “I had no idea if I was going to coach again or not.”Through a head-spinning sequence of events, Whittingham went from potential unemployment to replacing Sherrone Moore as Michigan’s head coach. As preseason camp begins, a coach who once said he planned to retire by 65 is fueled by the same fire he’s always had, if not more.“I kind of look at it like Christmas, where you get a Christmas present, you unwrap it and see what you got,” Whittingham said. “You really don’t know what to expect when you’re just working with each other for all those months. I can tell you right now, it’s been a very good transition for me and my family.”Can Kyle Whittingham bring stability to Michigan?Austin MeekHere are five questions facing Whittingham and the Wolverines as they open preseason camp Wednesday.1. Did Michigan fix its weight room issues?Michigan’s strength and conditioning program was a big part of the Wolverines’ success during their run of three consecutive Big Ten titles from 2021 to 2023. When strength coach Ben Herbert decided to follow Jim Harbaugh to the Los Angeles Chargers, Michigan promoted assistant Justin Tress in hopes of maintaining continuity.The weight room, it seems, was another area where Michigan slipped over the past two seasons.“The most glaring thing that stood out to me when we first got there was when we tested them in the strength room,” Whittingham said. “The overall strength of the team was not up to par. We’ve worked hard the last seven months to correct that.”New strength coach Doug Elisaia, who followed Whittingham from Utah, delivered the bad news after analyzing players’ testing numbers. The conclusion was that Michigan had players who looked the part but weren’t strong enough to play Whittingham’s brand of football.“Our philosophy is at the line of scrimmage, we want to be as big and physical as we can be,” Whittingham said. “That doesn’t mean we want a bunch of fat guys. We want as much lean body mass as we can get.”Michigan’s strength and nutrition programs are getting an overhaul with Elisaia taking over in the weight room and longtime team nutritionist Abigail O’Connor leaving for Oklahoma. Whittingham was pleased with the offseason progress and said 97 percent of players hit personal bests when Michigan tested before camp. The next step is to see whether the Wolverines look noticeably stronger on the field, particularly on the offensive and defensive lines.“The players bought into what Doug was selling,” Whittingham said. “They started seeing the strength gains and their body weight go up and lean body mass. As soon as the players know that you can help them be a better player, you’ll get that buy-in.”2. How good can Savion Hiter be?Hiter is one player whose weight room credentials aren’t in question. If there’s such a thing as a freshman wall, Hiter is built to run through it. The physical traits that made him a top-15 prospect in the Class of 2026 could translate to a major role in Michigan’s backfield.“Savion, physically, is dynamite,” Whittingham said. “He’s 6 feet, 220, not an ounce of fat on the young man. He looks like he’s in the NFL right now.”Hiter and Jordan Marshall give Michigan one of the most physically imposing running back tandems in the country, and possibly one of the best. There’s no question about who the No. 1 back is — it’s Marshall, Whittingham said — but Hiter is too talented to keep under wraps.“He’s explosive,” quarterback Bryce Underwood said. “He’s like no other, just different. There’s nobody built like him as a freshman.”3. Will Underwood’s offseason translate?Underwood is a gifted quarterback who had “a lot of catching up to do fundamentally” after his freshman season, Whittingham said. Between new quarterbacks coach Koy Detmer Jr. and QB guru Jordan Palmer, Underwood tapped some new resources to help him smooth out those issues.“Not to make excuses, but he didn’t really have much of an opportunity last year to become more sound in that regard,” Whittingham said. “You can get too many cooks in the kitchen. You can’t go overboard and have six different guys in his ear telling him different things, but just in our building, I think we’ve got it dialed in really well.”Underwood’s tendency to flee the pocket rather than work through his progressions was a theme last year. That’s not solely Underwood’s issue to fix, Whittingham said. It’s also a challenge for an offensive line that didn’t give him enough clean pockets last year, ranking 72nd in pressure rate, per TruMedia.“I was surprised at how much duress he was under,” Whittingham said. “It was almost like he’d take the snap and the rush would be on him, just like that.”Michigan isn’t trying to turn Underwood into a statue in the pocket. His ability to throw accurately on the run is one of his best attributes, Whittingham said, and Michigan plans to use him more as a runner, something the previous coaching staff was reluctant to do.“He’s got the ability to run the football like a tailback almost,” Whittingham said. “He’s very elusive, he’s got speed, and he’s also really good at extending the play.”4. What can Michigan expect from Jay Hill’s defense?Structurally, Michigan’s defense won’t look dramatically different under Hill, who coaches a system developed by Whittingham’s father at Utah. The Wolverines will play a base 4-2-5 look that utilizes one of their most versatile defensive backs at nickel, much as they did the past six years while using variations of the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive scheme.The base defense will have two defensive ends and two defensive tackles on the field, though Michigan will vary its fronts based on matchups.“We’ll also jump into some odd fronts on certain downs,” Whittingham said. “If you put a percentage on it, 65 percent even, 35 percent odd.”Utah transfer Smith Snowden started at nickel for the Utes and appears to have the inside track for that job. The Wolverines return two starting cornerbacks in Zeke Berry and Jyaire Hill and would like someone else to emerge alongside sophomore Shamari Earls on the depth chart.“If you can have five corners you trust and feel good about, you’re in a pretty good spot,” Whittingham said. “Right now, we’re probably at four and a half.”Memphis transfer Chris Bracy is a contender to start at safety alongside Rod Moore, who is vying to regain his starting job after two injury-plagued seasons.“In our scheme, safeties have got to be great tacklers, and he brings that to the table,” Whittingham said of Bracy. “He’s athletic. He’s got great ball skills up the field. He’s got great angles to the football. That’s so key. A free safety that runs 4.4 (in the 40-yard dash) that has poor angles is not as valuable as a 4.6 guy that takes great angles.”5. Who’s the odd man out at tackle?One theme that stood out from Whittingham’s comments at Big Ten media days: He’s really high on second-year offensive tackle Andrew Babalola, a five-star prospect who missed all of last season with a knee injury.Whittingham said Babalola reminds him of Spencer Fano and Caleb Lomu, tackles from Utah picked in the first round of April’s NFL Draft. Though he didn’t get to see much from Babalola in the spring, Whittingham described Babalola as a “natural tackle” and summed up his pre-injury film with one word: “Wow.”“His upside is really high,” Whittingham said. “We just had two first-rounders, and he reminds me exactly of those guys.”Those comments suggest Babalola will have a strong chance to win the starting left tackle job, as he nearly did last year in camp before his injury. Michigan has three players competing for that spot in Babalola, Evan Link and Blake Frazier, and all three might be among Michigan’s top five or six linemen. If Link and Frazier aren’t starters at tackle, both have the versatility to play inside at guard.“Blake’s a talented enough kid that he can play multiple positions,” Whittingham said. “The five best football players are the five guys we’ve got to find a way to get out there.”