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In the wake of former coach Sherrone Moore’s sudden dismissal, the Michigan football team has emerged with Moore’s successor 16 days later. On Friday, reports confirmed Kyle Whittingham is set to be hired as the 22nd coach in program history.

As the front man, Whittingham is a sharp turn away from the Moore regime.

Moore was a young Jim Harbaugh protégé, picked to keep the good times rolling after Harbaugh’s departure following the Wolverines’ first national championship in 26 years. A dropoff to 8-5 and 9-3 seasons marked a middling start to Moore’s tenure before it ended abruptly by his own wrongdoing — an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. Moore was then arrested after breaking into the staff member’s home.

Whittingham is 27 years Moore’s senior. He recently announced he’d be stepping down as the Utah coach after 21 seasons on the job, following the Utes bowl game on Dec. 31. These past two decades have been the most successful in Utah history and, importantly, haven’t been overshadowed by any major scandals or controversies.

Whittingham also isn’t connected to Harbaugh in a major way, though, Whittingham did spoil Harbaugh’s first game with Michigan in 2015. Whittingham’s entire career and life have taken place in the West. The California native played at BYU then a few years in the NFL before transitioning into coaching. And before he was Utah’s head coach, Whittingham spent 12 years as an assistant. Ironically, he succeeded Urban Meyer, Harbaugh’s kryptonite.

Whittingham will have to learn to recruit not only in the Midwest but nationally with the Wolverines. Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel and the rest of the coaching search team clearly felt Whittingham’s experience and maturity outweigh his unfamiliarity with the school and the region.

The expectation to win at a high level on an annual basis will also loom over Whittingham, who presumably had a great deal of job security at Utah. Whittingham went 177-88 with the Utes, and will coach the Las Vegas Bowl to try and add one more before leaving Utah for the first time in over 30 years. His run also includes two recent Rose Bowl berths and a Sugar Bowl victory to cap off an undefeated 2008 campaign. This season, the Utes are 10-2, rebounding from a 5-7 record last year.

The union of Whittingham and Michigan is something that neither probably envisioned as recently as a month ago. But after Whittingham’s shocking resignation to end one of the longest coaching tenures in college football and Moore’s even more shocking firing, the two parties have agreed for Whittingham to become the Wolverines’ new head coach.

A rocky recruiting and transfer portal period will still likely occur following a dramatic month. But in Whittingham, Michigan has found a veteran coach to attempt to right the ship and — amid an investigation into the program — steer it away from scandals and controversy.