Linebackers coach Alex Whittingham spent eight years with the Kansas City Chiefs before joining his father, Kyle Whittingham, at Michigan. He just opened up about what working under Andy Reid actually taught him.

Speaking on Michigan's In the Trenches podcast, Whittingham was asked what it was like to learn under Reid and what he took away from that experience.

"It was a great experience working for him," Whittingham said on the podcast on July 1. "Great is kind of underselling it a little bit. I can't really state how much I learned from him."

When he said he couldn't state how much he learned, that's someone who genuinely means it. He did point to the one quality he saw from Reid every single day that stood out above everything else.

"Just the consistency and passion that Coach Reid had day in and day out," Whittingham said on the In the Trenches podcast. "You gotta be consistent at that level with those long seasons. You can't be up and down."

Eight seasons is a long time to be in one place in the NFL. Whittingham remained with the Chiefs from 2018 right through to 2025, witnessing five Super Bowl appearances and three championship rings across that run.

He watched Reid handle winning streaks, a pandemic, deep playoff runs, and back-to-back title defences. The Chiefs went 95-37 in the regular season across that stretch.

Whittingham also pointed to the connection between Reid and his own father, which he had noticed over time.

"Seeing the similarities between him and my dad and how they come from that LaVell Edwards coaching tree from way down the line," he added.

Reid played at BYU under LaVell Edwards in the late 1970s. Kyle Whittingham's father, Fred Whittingham, was also part of that program as a coach, which is where the roots of that connection go back to.

Now, as a coach himself, Alex Whittingham is faced with an LB room at Michigan that needs a revamp.

Alex Whittingham inherits a Michigan linebacker room that needs rebuilding fast

This being his first stint as a coach at the college level, Alex Whittingham is using all of his NFL experience to develop a fresh set of linebackers.

The linebacker group at Michigan has seen significant turnover in 2026. Ernest Hausmann, Jimmy Rolder, and Jaishawn Barham all departed for the NFL this spring, while Cole Sullivan transferred to Oklahoma, per Maize n Brew.

Michigan's most experienced returning linebacker heading into 2026 is Troy Bowles, who played 12 games on defense last season.

"We watch a lot of Chiefs tape because that’s where [Alex Whittingham] came from. Just looking at guys like Nick Bolton and Drue Tranquill," Bowles said, per Maize n Brew, pointing to elite linebackers Whittingham coached directly in Kansas City.

Do you think Alex Whittingham's NFL experience is what Michigan's linebacker room needs heading into 2026? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Farheen Fathima

Edited by

Arundhoti Palit