Volleyball.
There is a new No. 1 team in Division 4 of the latest Michigan high school volleyball statewide rankings.
D4 saw a new team take over the top spot in the Michigan Interscholastic Volleyball Coaches Association as Clarkston Everest Collegiate relinquished its hold on the division for the first time this season.
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Kyle Whittingham on the dual-threat of Michigan QB Bryce Underwood
Kyle Whittingham spoke about Michigan football’s Bryce Underwood at the start of the spring practice window in Ann Arbor, March 17, 2026.
Each day Kyle Whittingham walks into Schembechler Hall, he is reminded of Michigan football’s tremendous power. The program he now leads possesses a rich tradition, abundant resources and immense brand recognition.
“I mean, it’s all here,” he said last week at the outset of spring practice.
A convincing case can be made that the Wolverines’ built-in advantages have diminished the impact of their own self-inflicted controversies, which stirred intense turmoil and caused reputational damage but did not lead to complete devastation. Even in the turbulent wake of former coach Sherrone Moore’s shocking firing this past December, college football’s winningest program weathered a destabilizing leadership change and remained relatively unscathed.
In this era of mass player movement, the Wolverines managed to retain many of their top contributors and the bulk of their 2026 signing class, which was ranked 11th-best in the country by 247Sports. Whittingham, in fact, is so bullish about Michigan’s new crop of freshmen that he told reporters “a lot of those guys are going to help out right away.”
Following his awkward, bitter divorce from Utah – the school where he coached in some capacity for the past 32 years – the 66-year-old Whittingham understands that he landed in a fortunate situation at a place he calls “one of the pinnacles of college football.” It’s why he has already set his mind on achieving lofty goals in his first season in Ann Arbor.
“At Michigan,” Whittingham said, “I would say if you’re not thinking Big Ten championship every year, then something’s wrong.”
Whittingham has reason to believe he can completely bypass the rebuilding phase that usually accompanies a regime change and complete organizational reboot. The team he inherited, after all, won nine games and remained in contention for a College Football Playoff berth until halfway through the third quarter of a 27-9 loss to Ohio State in the regular-season finale.
It was a rather impressive achievement considering Michigan was led by Moore, a flawed, inexperienced coach who still seemed out of his depth in his second year in charge. There is reason to assume Whittingham is capable of producing even better results given that he is more seasoned and successful than his disgraced predecessor. Eight seasons with 10 or more victories during Whittingham’s 21-year tenure at Utah’s helm support that supposition. The Utes, Whittingham noted, were a “more of a development” program populated with lower-tier recruits.
Michigan is not that.
The Wolverines have a strong talent base loaded with players other elite programs coveted. Bryce Underwood, the team’s sophomore quarterback, was the top high school prospect in the 2025 class. Savion Hiter, a five-star freshman, was rated the No. 2 running back in the nation as a high school senior. They headline a large cohort of blue-chippers that dot a roster returning 63% of its production from last season, a share that is among the 20 largest in the country, according to ESPN. With 10 starters back, including seven on offense, the transition should be relatively smooth.
While defensive coordinator Jay Hill noted that that Whittingham and his new staff will have to build their “own identity” and a new “culture,” the football philosophy appears similar to the one Moore, and his mentor Jim Harbaugh, espoused.
Whittingham, just as they did, said he wants the Wolverines to be “physically tough” and control the line of scrimmage. In Whittingham’s final season at Utah, the Utes finished second in the country in rushing, averaging 266.3 yards per game on the ground. Much in the same way Michigan has done for years, they feature their tight ends in the passing game and rely on a healthy diet of play-action throws.
“They’ll pack it in and pound you and they’ll spread you out and throw it,” said Hill, who was BYU’s DC the past three seasons and matched wits with Michigan’s new OC Jason Beck last year, when he was at Utah.
Hill noted that the offense is versatile, much like his own defensive scheme, which he likened to the one Michigan ran under Jesse Minter during its run to a CFP championship in 2023. Minter’s system, which had NFL roots and included a menu of coverages, multiple fronts and packages of simulated pressures, was a huge success; it allowed the fewest points and yards per game in the country that year. Michigan also created the fourth-most takeaways. As Hill watched the Wolverines back then, he noted, “That defense looks just like us.”
BYU, under Hill, then began to resemble them in results. Over the past two years, the Cougars forced 53 turnovers, the fifth-highest total in the nation during that span.
The numbers, Hill said, show that his scheme “works.”
“We believe emphatically that it is the best system in the country,” he added.
Hill is eager to prove it. Much like his boss, he sees no point in tamping down expectations. A rebuild, he said, is not even a consideration because “no one puts up with that in today’s world.
“Do we expect to be good in Year 1?” Hill asked rhetorically. “Absolutely. Do we expect to be competing for championships? That’s why we came here.”
The program they now lead has seeded them with the confidence their goals can be accomplished in short order. While history has shown Michigan is not too big to fail, it’s understandable why anyone given ownership of this football Leviathan would think it is. As soon as he assumed control, Whittingham realized he was set up for success. Now, it’s his mission to achieve it.
It seems eminently possible he will, if he can make the right moves with all the quality pieces he has come to possess.
Contact Rainer Sabin at rsabin@freepress.com.
Michigan football hires Kyle Whittingham: Tony Garcia analyzes it
Michigan football hires Kyle Whittingham: Tony Garcia analyzes it
The University of Michigan has beefed up its football personnel department with multiple new hires, people with direct knowledge told USA TODAY Sports on Monday, March 23.
The Wolverines are adding former New York Giants director of scouting Chris Pettit and ex-Wolverines player and assistant coach Ron Bellamy to the staff of new general manager Dave Peloquin, who was hired last month by Kyle Whittingham and worked closely with Whittingham in these moves, according to people familiar with the process.
Pettit will serve as Michigan’s assistant general manager of player personnel; Bellamy has been tabbed as the program’s senior director of recruiting relations.
Sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the new hires have not yet been publicly announced by Michigan.
Working with the NFL’s Giants for almost two decades, from 2004-2022, Pettit was a part of the organization as it won a pair of Super Bowl championships and eventually rose from intern to the role of director of college scouting.
The Giants dismissed Pettit in May 2022 after they hired Joe Schoen as general manager.
Pettit had founded a scouting data service, Scout Smarter AI, that leaned into technology and data to supply what the company previously termed “a stat-based scouting” service for football.
Bellamy, who played at Michigan from 1999-2002, had been on the Wolverine coaching staffs of both Jim Harbaugh and Sherrone Moore from 2021-25. He first served as Michigan’s safeties coach before he transitioned to coach wideouts, the position he played, the past four seasons.
Initially, Bellamy was not retained by Whittingham after Whittingham was hired away from Utah in late December.
But sources familiar with the process told USA TODAY Sports that Peloquin and Whittingham worked together to find a way to bring Bellamy back into the program.
In the overhauled personnel department, Bellamy and Pettit will join Skylar Phan, whom Michigan hired away from USC last month to become the Wolverines’ director of recruiting.
Michigan has completed its first week of spring practice under Whittingham and is scheduled to host its annual spring game on Saturday, April 18.
Michigan basketball: How the Wolverines made it to Sweet 16 again
Tony Garcia and Carlos Monarrez discuss how Michigan basketball made it to Sweet 16 again in Buffalo, New York, on Saturday, March 21, 2026.
BUFFALO, NY — Nimari Burnett couldn’t help but shake his head as he thought about it.
As he sat in front of his locker at KeyBank Center, after Michigan rolled over Saint Louis to return to the Sweet 16. before the buses returned, he realized he’d be playing a former team one way or the other. His two former programs, Alabama and Texas Tech were set to meet in the NCAA Tournament second round. The winner would head to the Sweet 16 to face Michigan basketball at Chicago’s United Center, with a spot in the Elite Eight on the line.
The team on which he made his college mark, playing against a squad where it didn’t work out, in his hometown, the place where he became a freshman All-American, before he transferred to Prolific Prep and took the next step of his journey.
“It’s an exciting feeling,” Burnett said. “I was talking to my family about it the other day. “Just can’t wait to see who we’ll play.”
On Sunday night, the Crimson Tide and Red Raiders squared off in Tampa, Florida, with XXX prevailing, xxx.
And now, Burnett’s basketball journey will get a full-circle moment, on Friday
But it will be just one of several big moments for him.
A year ago Nimari Burnett, his now-fiancé, Will Tschetter and his girlfriend all went out to lunch at Cafe Zola in downtown Ann Arbor.
had been eliminated in the Sweet 16 about a week earlier, and the two longest-tenured Wolverines wanted a well-earned time away from the game to enjoy some food, friends and laughs.
Burnett had just finished his fifth year of college basketball and all season long, he’d been telling his teammates it was likely his last.
In fact, Burnett didn’t go through U-M’s senior day activities in March 2025, because he’d done so the year before, under the previous staff, and didn’t want to make the moment about himself, given he’d already had one.
But on that late March afternoon, Tschetter couldn’t help himself — he had to know.
“I remember straight up asking him, ‘What are your thoughts on next year?’” Tschetter said Saturday in Michigan’s locker room at KeyBank Center. “That was when, I think, he’d made his decision, he was like, ‘Yeah, I think I’m going to pull the trigger and come back.’
“All year he’d been saying, like, ‘Nah, this is my last year.’ We were all getting the ‘Unc’ jokes in, because he was a fifth-year. But yeah, I mean we were all super, super happy when he made the decision. It’s been a great ride with him.’
Burnett made his return to the Wolverines official less than a month after that lunch, on April 21, 2025. He was optimistic, based on the roster coming together — transfers Elliot Cadeau, Morez Johnson Jr. and Aday Mara were already in the fold, with the possibility of landing Yaxel Lendeborg — that the 2025-26 season could be a special one.
The staff’s message and vision only convinced him further.
“I felt like last year was the best year of college, until this year,” Burnett said, his eyes almost reflective, as if he was processing it all in real time. “My collegiate career has been long, been through a lot of ups and downs and so I was uncertain of the future.
“But just trusting the staff, understanding they had high hopes of winning and they know how to recruit. I was like yeah, I’d be making a dumb decision [to leave].”
Of course, Burnett didn’t know all that would follow. But after everything he’d gone through to that point, he was more than willing to take the chance.
A McDonald’s All-American coming out of high school, Burnett began his collegiate career at Texas Tech. After one injury-shortened year in Lubbock, Burnett didn’t like the fit, so he opted to transfer to Alabama.
The move to the SEC brought a world of changes. In the months leading up to the season, Burnett tore his ACL, which sidelined him for the entirety of the 2021-22 season. His next season wasn’t much better, playing fewer than 15 minutes a game, with a mere nine starts.
He hit the road again, landing in Ann Arbor in 2023 under coach Juwan Howard. That season produced some of the worst results in program history. But Burnett stuck through it, agreeing to play for his fourth coach when Howard was replaced by Dusty May.
Its tough to argue with the results.
The sixth year in college has proven to be the best yet. Michigan (33-3, 19-1 Big Ten) has had a historic season, tying the program record for most wins in a season, setting a Big Ten record for wins in conference play and became the first Big Ten team in 50 years to sweep its road slate.
The Wolverines have gone 60-13 the past two seasons, with a Big Ten Tournament title, a regular-season crown and now, two straight Sweet 16s.
It’s clear that his story is reaching its climax.
Burnett is not a star for this Wolverines team. He’s a floor-spacer, a shooter, a trusted veteran who fills in the gaps. But he’s also exactly what makes a team like this click. He doesn’t require the ball, yet can make an impact quickly — like his 11 points Saturday against Saint Louis, including three 3-pointers, and a steal at center court that he took the other way for a contested layup.
He’s also capable of much more — his 31 points against Penn State last month were the most by any Wolverine this season — but he never forces that issue. It’s the player he developed into through the years.
Coming into college as a star, being relegated to a backup, then finding his final form in Ann Arbor. It’s only fitting every aspect of his journey comes to a crossroads as the Wolverines reach their most important weekend so far.
“I mean literally, it’s God,” Burnett said. “It’s so apparent. He couldn’t have drew it up better.”
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.
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