It was not easy for Jack Tuttle to make the decision to retire from football, the game he played for so long, but when your body defeats you, there are few options.

Tuttle, a Michigan quarterback who transferred before the 2023 season from Indiana, announced late last October after making his only start for the Wolverines, that he was medically retiring from football. Tuttle, who had been cleared for a seventh season, underwent ulnar collateral ligament surgery in his right (throwing) arm, but never fully healed. In his retirement statement, he also said he had suffered five concussions.

“Man, I really tried,” Tuttle said of trying to get back to playing form after his surgery. “We really did try to get it going. It’s to no one’s fault at all — ligaments don’t heal sometimes the way they originally were.”

Still, it wasn’t easy to accept.

“It’s frustrating,” Tuttle said recently. “There’s a lot of people in Schembechler Hall that have really played and played until the wheels fell off the car, so to speak, and it’s unfortunate because there is that dream for everybody to go to the next level and do that. But you can’t always control everything, so what I can control is staying in the sport I love and trying to be the best coach I can possibly be.”

Tuttle always has planned to move into coaching. He attended the recent Michigan High School Football Coaches Association clinic in Lansing to support Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, who was one of the main speakers, and said he should know before spring practice in mid-March if there’s a spot on the staff for him.

“I’m really hoping so,” Tuttle said about staying at Michigan. “Things are looking great. I’m excited. I know Coach Moore has a plan, and I believe in it. I believe in him. I trust him, and I trust (new offensive coordinator) Chip Lindsey and all the guys on staff, so I’m extremely excited.”

Lindsey was working for Arizona State when he recruited Tuttle, so they’ve known each other since 2016.

“I’m just finally stoked that we’re at the same spot,” Tuttle said. “I’m really looking forward to it. I know we’ve got a great team. We got a real chance at it.”

One of the reasons Tuttle said he transferred to Michigan before the 2023 season was because he felt he would have a strong shot at taking the first steps toward a coaching career. But his primary reason was to help win a national championship and provide competition and depth in the quarterback room that included Alex Orji and Davis Warren, and to back up J.J. McCarthy. Michigan would go 15-0 and win the national title.

He said he felt he pushed McCarthy in winter conditioning, competing at everything including sprints and weight-room work.

“And giving a little crap talk every day,” Tuttle said, smiling, “just bettering each other, physically, mentally. He taught me things, and then going into practice, it was things like, who can complete more balls? Like we’d always be competing in those ways, and the whole quarterback room would be, but man, it was fantastic. … The end of the year, had the elbow injury, which was unfortunate, and never really recovered from that fully. But it’s OK, because when I came here, I had the intention to get into coaching, and I’m excited for that opportunity.”

Tuttle believes his experience as a college quarterback, playing the game and also dealing with injuries and understanding all the levels of being a player, will help him as a coach.

“I know how to deal with in-game conditions,” Tuttle said. “I’ve been there, seen what it’s like to be in the pocket, seen windows flashing. People think it’s easy to play quarterback. People think it’s easy to play receiver, but when you’re standing in the pocket as a quarterback, we all know like, it’s not like TV. It’s not like TV where you can see the whole field, like everything’s a beautiful picture for you.

“It’s bits and little cuts of windows that you can see through these 6-6, 6-7, 300-pound linemen. So people don’t really realize that, but I do. I’m very thankful I do understand that, and I can help and coach these new quarterbacks or receivers or whatever I’m doing, because I know what it’s like actually in game and how to improve their circumstances and their chances of winning a football game.”

Michigan started three quarterbacks during the 2024 season that ended 8-5, with back-to-back upsets against Ohio State and Alabama. Davis Warren started the first three games and the final six, Alex Orji, who has transferred to UNLV, started three and Tuttle one.

Warren suffered a torn knee ligament during the bowl game that Tuttle described as “heartbreaking,” but is returning for his final season. The quarterback competition this spring will be interesting with freshman Bryce Underwood, the No. 1 recruit in the country, Mikey Keene, a transfer from Fresno State, and sophomore-to-be Jadyn Davis. Tuttle likes the potential of the group.

“Mikey seems like a great guy, Bryce, obviously, fantastic kid,” Tuttle said.

“I’ve known him for a while, since he was a junior in high school from all the seven-on-seven tournaments.

“And then Jadyn Davis, what a guy. I really think he’s a competitor. He’s doing everything he can to improve his body, his mind, his reads, whatever it may be, and I’m excited about what he’s going to do and what all these guys are going to do in spring ball.”