00:00Kyle Winningham, coach, thank you so much for doing this.
00:02And I've got to start out with the trillion-dollar question.
00:05How hard was it for you to leave Utah?
00:08Well, it was very difficult.
00:10I mean, I've been there for essentially my whole career, 32 years, 21 as the head coach.
00:16And so you get ingrained in a place and, you know, your family's there.
00:21And, you know, kids have been, you know, in the same house for X amount of years.
00:26It was a big change.
00:27But we're empty nesters now.
00:29And so, you know, it wasn't as difficult as it could have been.
00:32But what a great opportunity and what a great challenge here in Ann Arbor.
00:37No doubt.
00:38Coach, I can't think that you were just going to take any gig.
00:41It had to be something like this, right?
00:44Because, you know, you had done all the things that you had done.
00:46You had built that tremendous resume of yours up.
00:49And I'm probably going to ask you a stupid question here, coach.
00:52Why Michigan?
00:53I mean, you know, you say and you look at the great history of the place.
00:57But this had to be one of the only places that you want to go.
01:00Tom Brady, obviously, there had to be a place like this for you to take a job like this, right?
01:06Absolutely.
01:06And when I stepped down at Utah, I was fully at peace if I wasn't, you know, able to coach
01:13anywhere and, you know, call it a career.
01:15But I had a list, really, you can count on one hand of places that if they reached out, then
01:21that would be something that I would definitely listen to and explore.
01:26And Michigan was on that list.
01:27And everything happened.
01:29The sequence of events and how things unfolded was, you know, pretty uncanny.
01:35And really just everything aligned.
01:38And now here I am sitting here in Michigan.
01:41Coach, did it get to a point where you had come to grips with the fact that you weren't going
01:47to coach again?
01:48How fast was that process for you to go, oh, wait a minute now.
01:52We're talking Michigan now.
01:53And not throwing shade at all in any way, at Utah in any way.
01:57But, I mean, all of a sudden you're like, wait, I'm already settled to be in retirement.
02:02How did that change for you?
02:04And how quick did that change for you, that process?
02:07Well, it changed as soon as I heard the word Michigan, you know, come out of my agent's mouth.
02:10And I said they had interest.
02:13And as I said, you know, this is one of the best jobs in the country.
02:18There's no doubt about it.
02:20And, you know, just an opportunity to come and be a part of this program and see what we can
02:26do here was just too enticing.
02:29Coach, for you, obviously, the news of a year ago, you're coming into a situation.
02:34Tell me about the environment of the players right now.
02:38You got a chance probably to talk to each and every single one of them.
02:41Talk about the culture right now as you get ready for camp next week.
02:45Yeah, we got a great group here.
02:46And they've been through a lot of, let's just say, drama over the last few years.
02:51There's been things that were distractions.
02:54But to their credit, you know, they were able to battle through it and win nine games this year.
03:01And really, none of the drama was player driven.
03:04I mean, it was all other issues that, you know, had nothing to do with player behavior or anything like
03:11that.
03:12And so, you know, I came in here and wasn't really sure what to expect as far as the personnel.
03:18I mean, I know we had a bunch of four and five-star athletes, and I didn't know if they're
03:22going to be a bunch of entitled guys that didn't want to work.
03:25And I found exactly the opposite.
03:27These guys are hungry.
03:27They're willing.
03:28And what a great attitude and what a great character this football team has.
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