After Kyle Whittingham noted the size of Oregon's NIL budget, Dan Lanning responds with a dig at Michigan's $10 million buyout for former OC Jason Beck
· Yahoo Sports
Oregon coach Dan Lanning was well aware of what Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said about his program’s budget earlier in the week.
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As the Wolverines travel to Eugene to play the No. 16 Ducks on Saturday, Whittingham was asked about Lanning on his weekly coaches show Monday night. Whittingham complimented Lanning, but also made sure to note that Oregon has a healthy NIL budget, too.
“Outstanding football coach, defensive-minded coach, that’s his background,” Whittingham said. “But tireless recruiter, really does a great job recruiting — it doesn’t hurt that you have 50-plus million dollars at your disposal to, in essence, outbid everybody. Not everybody, but a lot of people. But that’s not his fault, that’s a credit. That’s a credit to their pgoram and their dedication and desire to win and the support they have.”
“And so that’s — because NIL is really the name of the game in recruiting these days. It’s shifted so much. It used to be the facilities you had and the tradition you had and all these other things and now it’s ‘well this is all great, but these guys got 100 grand more for me.’”
Wednesday, Lanning was asked about Whittingham’s comments. And while he made sure to call the former Utah coach a “hall of fame coach,” he also brought up Michigan’s NIL budget along with its recent staff change.
“Man, I’ve got nothing to say to Coach Whit other than I think he’s an unbelievable coach,” Lanning said at his news conference. “And I get it, they’re spending more money on the coaches they’re letting go, so maybe it makes it hard to sign players, but I know they’ve signed a couple guys that we weren’t able to compete with what they decided to do and maybe a lot of that money is tied up up for them in another player, I don’t know. But Coach Whittingham is an unbelievable coach, he’s a hall of fame coach, I’ve got nothing but respect for him.”
The coach being let go is, of course, offensive coordinator Jason Beck. Michigan fired Beck on Sunday, a day after the offense scored a lone touchdown in a 15-6 loss to Michigan State. Beck came to Michigan with Whittingham from Utah after the 2025 season, and is owed $10 million since he was fired in the first year of his contract.
The Wolverines dropped to 5-4 with the loss to their in-state rivals as they have three ranked opponents remaining over their final three games of the season. After visiting No. 16 Oregon, Michigan gets No. 4 UCLA at home and then goes to No. 20 Ohio State.
Losses in all three of those games will prevent Michigan from heading to a bowl game for the first time in a full season since 2014. That was the final season of Brady Hoke’s tenure.
Freshman Tommy Carr is reportedly set to start for the Wolverines for a fourth straight game, though Bryce Underwood could also get some extended playing time. Underwood has not seen significant playing time since he was benched in favor of Carr at halftime of a comeback win over Penn State.