There's a group of first-year coaches struggling with all of the above, nearing the midway point without clear answers. Offseason optimism has disappeared for a few preseason-ranked teams and others who have tanked through five weeks, or at least aren't where they expected to be following coaching changes. Nobody expects every rebuild to produce immediate wins, but how it looks is often equally important.
For these coaches, the early returns suggest there is considerably more work ahead than fans anticipated this fall. Universally graded as one of the coaching cycle's best hires last season, considering the timing following the firing of Sherrone Moore, Whittingham's already calling the first half of the year with the Wolverines the toughest of his career. That's a successful coaching legacy that spans more than four decades.
Michigan's three-turnover disaster during Saturday's loss at Minnesota was a lesson in more self-inflicted wounds that continue to haunt this football team under Whittingham's watch. Bryce Underwood continues to handcuff Jason Beck's offense, a scheme proven to get the most out of its quarterbacks. Underwood's not playing with any confidence thanks to a QBR, completion rate and rushing averages all down compared to his freshman campaign.
Winless in Big Ten play, maybe it's time for Whittingham to go to his bench and see what freshman Tommy Carr, the brother of Notre Dame's CJ Carr and grandson of former Michigan coach Lloyd Carr, has to offer. This is part of the predicament coaching staffs get themselves into in the NIL era when your QB1 is being paid at an elite rate, yet the production isn't there. When you give up 413 yards rushing against Northwestern, everything in the football program's operations needs to be assessed from the top down.
Campbell never envisioned he would be engaging in wide-scale referendums in Week 6, but here we are ahead of what was scheduled to be a narrative-setting showdown with USC. Penn State's crowd won't be as ramped up as usual, given the team's winless start in the Big Ten. The Nittany Lions rank in the back half of the conference in several offensive categories, and Campbell's cast of Iowa State transfers at key positions are beginning to be exposed.
Until institutional buy-in is secured in Fayetteville, Arkansas, it will remain the most arduous job in the SEC. The Razorbacks have been outscored this season by three Power Four opponents, 122-34, in games that were never competitive, an alarming trend that may not stop with four more top-20 teams on the schedule. Despite success at Memphis, Silverfield looks like he's in over his head in the SEC, even with a limited sample size.
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