Kyle Whittingham was more than 1,000 miles away from his new stomping grounds − where he still hadn’t stepped foot yet, except as an opposing coach − but still, he had an overarching message to share.
The longtime Utah coach had flown to Orlando − where Michigan football was preparing for its upcoming Citrus Bowl appearance − for his introductory press conference in a Florida hotel ballroom, where he spelled out his vision for the ethos of his program moving forward in Ann Arbor.
“Family culture, without a doubt,” he said. “I believe in family. I’ve got an adage that as coaches, we love the players, the players love each other. And if we can get that done in the locker room and make sure we have a genuine love for each other, then you’re halfway home.
“There is nobody above the team. And we’ve got to have everybody buy into that. Everybody, including myself, needs this team more than this team needs them.”
Little did anybody know, a familiar phrase often used figuratively would turn literal with the Wolverines.
Whittingham hired his brother Freddie (tight ends) and son Alex (linebackers) as coaches on his staff. Meanwhile, the only holdover who remains with U-M is running backs coach Tony Alford, whose late brother, Aaron, worked under Whittingham at Utah before dying from a heart attack in 2013.
For Alford, it’s now a family affair at U-M, too, with his son Braydon (a wide receiver who transferred from Butler) and nephew Max (a linebacker who transferred from BYU) both joining the program this past offseason.
It’s not always easy having family inside such a high-stakes building. There can be cries of nepotism from the outside, not to mention the challenge of separating what happens inside Schembechler Hall and what happens at home.
But for Whittingham and Alford, two men who’ve been college coaches for a combined 70 years, tuning out the outside noise is more than worth it to have time with loved ones, especially considering the family time both have sacrificed to chase their dream.
“It’s a blessing,” Alford said in a recent conversation with the Free Press, while sitting in a lounge chair in his basement. “I look at things, you have the rest of your life to live away from your kids. If you don’t have to rush the process, I’m OK having my guy around me daily. It will be very settling for me because I know I can get kind of wired up and wrapped around the action, so to speak.
“That will be one of the guys who can be like, ‘Whoa, chill out,’ but it’s been great so far.”
‘Really the first time … I’ve been able to have one of my children with me’
Over the past two decades, Alford’s work has been relatively steady for someone in a job that by its nature generally features a lot of movement. He spent lengthy stints at Notre Dame (2009-14) and Ohio State (2015-23) before joining U-M prior to the 2024 season.
Still, despite the stability, his high-demand job required him to be either in the office, on the field, out recruiting or fulfilling many other responsibilities, which often made it nearly impossible to be involved full time with his children’s activities.
One example: youth football.
“They were in Little League or Pee-wee ball in the summer when they were first starting. … I was able to go a couple times,” Alford said. “Occasionally [when I was there] the coach would say, Come out here and help with X, Y, Z … but they were little, little guys.
“This is really the first time it was serious that I’ve been able to have one of my children with me or around me every day.”
Braydon played his ball at Dublin Jerome, just outside of Columbus, Ohio. Whenever OSU had a home game, Alford made sure to attend. Nephew Max didn’t have the same fortune, with his father dying before he was in middle school.
Alford still refers to Aaron as the “best friend [he’s] ever had” and took it upon himself to help Max when it came time to pick a school. A three-star prospect as a high school senior out of Utah, Max had more than a dozen offers, including Ivy schools such as Yale, military academies such as Air Force and Navy, and in-state Utah State.
While Utah State is where Max ultimately attended to begin his career, it wasn’t without a lot of consulting from Alford. The two had frequent phone calls, and Alford walked him through the recruiting process and help him navigate a world that was entirely new.
“At one point I was so stressed, I’m like, ‘I’m not even going to make a decision,'” Max said. “It was really cool to have an uncle who knows the ropes and who wants my best interest. I think that’s real, especially now, all these kids want to go to school where they get the most money.
“But the cliché answer is true: Go where you’re wanted at the end of the day. Money can only get you so much.”
Both Max and Braydon, who didn’t play a snap the past two years after suffering season-ending ACL and patellar tendon injuries, were wanted by Michigan. Alford had a message for the coaches who approached him about it: If you want them, you talk to them.
‘You need to tell him that’
One of the bigger fights Alford and his son had came in the spring of 2024. Alford had just accepted the position with U-M, and one day, as he was getting to know Ron Bellamy (former wide receivers coach) and Steve Casula (former tight ends coach), he discussed how he had a son who was about to graduate and go to Butler.
A few days later, one of them came in and said to Alford, “He’s a good little player. … Why didn’t you tell us?” Alford’s response? “Well, you didn’t ask,” he recalled while pointing at his son, a third-team all-state player in Ohio who set his high school record for receptions (90) in a year.
Then, without going through Alford ahead of time, the staff contacted Braydon and asked him to be a priority walk-on. Braydon was eager to jump at the chance, and it was “a done deal,” according to Alford, before he put the kibosh on it.
“Not because I didn’t want him here – I did – but I thought it was very important for him to blaze his own path. … Build his own name away from me, where you’re not coach Alford’s kid,” he said. “We had some pretty heated arguments about it, but it wasn’t up for debate because he made a commitment to [Butler], they held a spot for [him] … so you’re going to honor that commitment.
“I said, ‘As you’re growing, if in a year or two if you still want to make the move, then you’ll do it for all the right reasons’.”
Fast-forward to spring of 2026, when Whittingham and wide receiver coach Micah Simon both watched his film and again told Alford they wanted him. His response was the same: “You need to tell him that.” The second time was the charm.
This idea of Braydon earning things on his own merit wasn’t new. Alford recalled a time on a recruiting trip to Navy where a coach reached out to him as they were courting his son. They began talking when the Navy coach asked what Alford did, and he informed them he was running backs coach at Ohio State.
The staffer couldn’t believe it.
“Damn, your son never told me,” Alford recalled of the discussion. “I said, ‘Yeah, he won’t.’ [Max] is the same way. They want to do things on their own accord, which is just, much respect. Sometimes I almost wish they would use it more because they have potentially some built-in advantages … but they [want to have offers] based on the work [they] put in.”
While connections can be helpful, there’s a flip side to every coin.
No matter the level or age, there’s often a stigma around being a coach’s son. The discourse online after Braydon signed with the Wolverines was far from what anyone would want to read about their own family. The Alfords have done their best to tune it out, but they’re familiar with it.
“Most people will say that the only reason I’m here is my dad,” Braydon said. “If you look on social media, I’m sure that’s what everyone is saying. I don’t really look, but if I was a betting person, I bet everyone says that.
“They can say what they say, but in my mind, anyone who shows up to a program like this and puts in the time and the work that the players put in here, they deserve to be here.”
‘Didn’t want to force it’
It’s a different dynamic with the Whittinghams, all of whom are coaches and therefore in positions of power.
Few have suggested Alex is anything but a proven hire − he just finished eight years with the Kansas City Chiefs, which included trips to five Super Bowls and three rings − but there’s always a dynamic at play that needs to be navigated internally.
The Alfords have a hard and fast rule to not discuss football outside of the facility − at all, point blank, period. The Whittinghams don’t have the same luxury, given they’re all on staff and one is the boss, which requires them to give the program constant care and attention.
“We’ll come over for dinner and all that and we’ll talk about football,” Alex said. “We’ll be doing other stuff but talk about recruits and strategy and stuff like that. … I’m kind of new to this recruiting thing, so I’m like, give me advice more than anything.
“But with me having kids now, his grandkids, most of the attention is on that and there’s other things as family … just about having a good balance.”
Fortunately, this in’t their first time navigating the balancing act. Whittingham first learned how to handle the dynamic in 1994, when he was hired as Utah’s defensive line coach to work under his father, Fred, then the Utes’ defensive coordinator. Then, Alex played for his father at Utah (2013-17) − appearing in 45 games on special teams − and the relationship was entirely different, from player to coach.
Alex has been on the coaching side of the ledger for going on a decade now, and for the first time, it made sense for his father to bring him on staff. Of course, there was temptation in years prior, but with the Chiefs rolling and Alex getting good experience, Whittingham wanted him to grow in his own way.
He felt, or at least hoped, there would be a time where it made sense to come together. That just so happens to be in Ann Arbor.
“Several times I thought about bringing him over [when I was at Utah], but he was doing so well in Kansas City and it didn’t align as well as I would have hoped,” Whittingham said. “I didn’t want to force it. Then, I got this job and was like, ‘OK, now you’re coming.’
“Three Super Bowl rings later, and what an opportunity to work for Andy Reid, the experience he gained there, the knowledge … it was awesome for him, but after eight years he was more than ready to come make this move.”
‘Rely on the people you truly love and trust’
Having family on the roster together isn’t completely new in Ann Arbor.
Former coach Jim Harbaugh was in charge of a staff featuring his son Jay. (Father Jack, a former U-M assistant and longtime coach elsewhere, also occasionally filled in on the staff.) Edge coach Lewis Powell helped the Wolverines land his nephew, four-star wide receiver Salesi Moa, from Utah. Michigan just got a pledge from Charles Woodson Jr., the son of 1997 Heisman Trophy winner Charles Sr., and recently offered Mario Manningham Jr. and Marquis Ray, the sons of standout Wolverines Mario Manningham Sr. and Marcus Ray.
Aidan Hutchinson and Blake Frazier are both the sons of former Wolverines, while Ben and Max Bredeson became the first pair of brothers to serve as U-M captains. And on it goes. Family has long been important in Michigan football culture, but this particular coaching staff is putting a great deal of faith in it as one of its pillars.
“I think everyone uses that word and it’s thrown around very flippantly,” Alford said. “They talk about family, but then the family is never around. They talk about, We’re so close to our kids, but then you never see their kids.
“It sounds good in a recruiting spiel … but is it real? I do think teams that are very close as a staff and you have a close-knit football team .. I do believe when things get tough, things get hard, you can rely on the people you truly love and trust.”
Whittingham is known for being hard-nosed, a straight shooter and transparent in his asks of everybody inside his program. There’s a level of consistency and reliability that’s a prerequisite to be a key fixture on his teams.
That’s another reason he’s comfortable having a brother and son on staff. After all, who can be trusted like family?
“You’ve gotta be the same guy when you come in every single day,” he said. “We’ve gotta be the same staff, preaching the same things, emphasizing the same things, being consistent with our approach.
“That’s what it’s all about. You can’t [say] family’s important one day and you don’t hear about it for another week or two. You get what you emphasize, and so we emphasize that on a daily basis.”
Tony Garcia is the Michigan beat writer for the Detroit Free Press. Email him at apgarcia@freepress.com and follow him on X at @RealTonyGarcia.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Michigan coaches blending football and family in Ann Arbor
Reporting by Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Tony Garcia, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
