Former Michigan interim HC Biff Poggi sends message about Wolverines that leaves out coaches

The Michigan Wolverines are 5-4 and 2-4 in the Big Ten after a 15-6 home loss to the Michigan State Spartans on Saturday, a game in which the Spartans kicked five field goals, forced four turnovers and recorded five sacks to beat Michigan for the first time since 2021. On Wednesday, the man who coached many of those players through last season’s bowl game went on X to speak up for them.

“I know the kids on this Michigan team. It is not going as they hoped. However, they will not be broken, discouraged or quit. There is a lot of toughness and determination in that group. Selling them short is a mistake. So many complex issues go into a season. GoBlue. I believe,” Biff Poggi wrote.

I know the kids on this Michigan team. It is not going as they hoped. However, they will not be broken, discouraged or quit. There is a lot of toughness and determination in that group. Selling them short is a mistake. So many complex issues go into a season. GoBlue. I believe.

— Biff poggi (@BiffPoggi) November 11, 2026

Poggi was Michigan’s associate head coach when Sherrone Moore was fired last December, ran the program as interim head coach through the bowl game and now works as a Big Ten Network studio analyst. He has said the search that followed came down to him and Kyle Whittingham, and that he believed he had the job.

What Biff Poggi said about Michigan’s coaches in October

This is the second time in three weeks Poggi has asked Michigan fans for patience, and the two posts are built differently. After the 13-6 overtime loss to the Indiana Hoosiers left Michigan at 4-3, he opened with a defense of everyone in the building.

“To all of my Michigan friends. First, GoBLUE. Second, no one is getting fired. Please relax. The team is 4-3. It is a new staff, a very good staff,” Poggi wrote in late October, adding that the worst thing Michigan supporters could do was abandon the players and coaches when they struggled.

To all of my Michigan friends. First ,GoBLUE. Second, no one is getting fired. Please relax. The team is 4-3. It is a new staff, a very good staff. The worst thing we can do as Michigan supporters is abandon the players and coaches when they struggle. It is exactly at this time that they need us most. Let’s see some support for all the coaches and players.

— Biff poggi (@BiffPoggi) October 25, 2026

Wednesday’s post names the players, their toughness and their determination, and stops there. Whittingham, offensive coordinator Jason Beck and the rest of the staff go unmentioned, and the line about complex issues leaves open where those issues come from.

Earlier this month, in the same week he discussed finishing second to Whittingham, Poggi said publicly that Michigan’s offense was not playing Michigan football. He defended Bryce Underwood, the quarterback Michigan benched after the Indiana loss in favor of Tommy Carr, against the criticism Underwood had taken, and he pointed to scheme and the use of personnel as the problems. That is a view of the offense that places the responsibility with the people who design it. Michigan’s offense then produced one touchdown against Michigan State, with 1:35 left in the game.

Poggi did not criticize the staff in the post, and nothing in it should be treated as a shot at Whittingham. A former interim coach who has said he expected to get the job, and who has already questioned the scheme, chose to vouch for the roster and left the coaches out. Three weeks earlier, at 4-3, he vouched for both.

How Michigan fans answered Biff Poggi’s defense of the players

The replies under Poggi’s post went where the post itself did not, straight to the head coach. One fan pointed to Ohio State’s handling of the 2011 season, when the Buckeyes gave Luke Fickell the job for a year after Jim Tressel resigned.

“Can’t wrap my head around why they didn’t pull a Fickell and sign you to 1-year for these kids while they got their s— together in the athletics department and spent the last half of the year on a national coaching search. It’s just beyond me,” @TrueCrimeKeith wrote.

Others skipped the history and asked for a change now. “Sometimes complexity can have simple solutions. It’s never fun to demand for change in someone’s job but it’s time. The change needs to happen for those kids,” @UMichTakes wrote.

Another account, @KYVAMIguy, wrote: “I believe if we rid this program of Whit and bring in someone who gives a s— about Michigan, it’s tradition, and its players, we can save the roster next year and go back to competitive football again.”

A fourth reply called for Whittingham to be fired immediately.

All four replies accepted Poggi’s case for the players and turned the criticism on Whittingham, the coach his post left unnamed, which is the conversation Poggi stayed out of on Wednesday.

Michigan visits the Oregon Ducks at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday on FS1, hosts the unbeaten UCLA Bruins on Nov. 21 and closes at the Ohio State Buckeyes on Nov. 28. One more win makes the Wolverines bowl eligible. Three losses would leave them 5-7 in Whittingham’s first season, with the players Poggi backed on Wednesday carrying the record and the coaches he no longer mentioned carrying the questions.

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