Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore hired Louisiana-Lafayette Ragin’ Cajuns defensive coordinator LaMar Morgan to be the defensive backs coach for the Wolverines. Morgan spent the past two seasons as the Ragin’ Cajuns defensive play caller. He replaces safeties coach Jay Harbaugh (Seattle Seahawks) and cornerbacks coach Steve Clinkscale (Los Angeles Chargers).
Morgan played at Louisiana, so to pull him away from his alma mater – for a “demotion” to a position coach role – is somewhat significant. He made 111 tackles, 4 interceptions, and 9 pass breakups through his career playing safety, which wrapped up in 2007. He started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt under James Franklin from 2013-2014 before spending two seasons as the defensive backs coach at FCS Western Carolina. For the 2016 and 2017 seasons, he was hired as the Louisiana-Monroe defensive backs coach. He then spent one season as the defensive backs coach at Houston before returning to Louisiana-Lafayette from 2019-2020 as defensive backs coach. He worked as the cornerbacks coach at Vanderbilt in 2021 before going back to ULL for the 2022-2023 seasons.
If the past is any indication, Morgan will not be at Michigan any longer than two seasons. Louisiana-Lafayette also went from #13 in yards per play allowed in 2021 – when Morgan was coaching corners at Vanderbilt – to #24 in 2022 and #47 in 2023. Those two seasons were the first two after then-rising star Billy Napier left to be the head coach at Florida, so there has been an overall dropoff in that program.
Morgan’s expertise as a play caller may be in question, but he did coach under Jesse Minter in 2021 when Minter was the defensive coordinator at Vanderbilt, so he should be able to slide in pretty smoothly as a helper for new defensive coordinator Wink Martindale. This past season his defense ranked #26 nationally in interceptions, and they ranked #14 in 2022.
Morgan is from Texas and has spent much of his career in the South, so it would make sense to have him recruit down there. Michigan doesn’t historically have a ton of success recruiting places like Louisiana or Texas, but they’re hotbeds of talent, so it makes sense to try. Interestingly, Michigan now has two Louisiana connections on staff with Morgan and wide receivers coach Ronald Bellamy; the former spent a ton of time coaching there, and Bellamy grew up there.
Michigan’s staff is now completed, though there remain some questions about running backs coach Mike Hart, who has been on a leave of absence recently:
- HC: Sherrone Moore
- OC/QB: Kirk Campbell
- RB: Mike Hart
- WR: Ronald Bellamy
- TE: Steve Casula
- OL: Grant Newsome
- DC: Wink Martindale
- DL: Greg Scruggs
- LB: Brian Jean-Mary
- DB: LaMar Morgan
- STC: J.B. Brown
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