Tag: coaching changes

2022 Michigan Football Staff

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I lose track of what off-the-field staff members are where, when they’re hired, when they leave, etc. There’s so much movement that it can be hard to keep tabs on them all. So I decided to put them all in one post and update it whenever necessary.

ON FIELD FOOTBALL STAFF
Head coach: Jim Harbaugh*
Offensive coordinator/QB coach: Matt Weiss
Offensive coordinator/OL coach: Sherrone Moore
TE coach: Grant Newsome*#
RB coach: Mike Hart*
WR coach: Ron Bellamy*
Defensive coordinator: Jesse Minter#
Co-defensive coordinator/CB coach: Steve Clinkscale
DL coach: Mike Elston*#
LB coach: George Helow
S coach: Jay Harbaugh

OFF FIELD FOOTBALL STAFF
Associate head coach: Biff Poggi
Graduate assistant (QBs): Mimi Bolden-Morris#
Graduate assistant (LBs): LaTroy Lewis#
Graduate assistant (OLBs): Dylan Roney
Offensive analyst: Kirk Campbell
Offensive analyst: Jack Clark
Offensive analyst: Bret Ingalls#
Offensive analyst: Fred Jackson
Offensive analyst: John Morookian#
Defensive analyst: Garrett Cox
Defensive analyst: Doug Mallory*
Defensive analyst: Rick Minter#
Defensive analyst: Joe Staab
Special teams analyst: Bradford Banta
Special teams analyst: J.B. Brown

STRENGTH AND CONDITIONING STAFF
Director of Strength and Conditioning: Ben Herbert
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach: Sean Lockwood
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach: Ben Rabe
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach: Kiero Small
Assistant Strength and Conditioning Coach: Justin Tress

RECRUITING STAFF
Director of Player Personnel: Tom Gamble#
Assistant Director of Player Personnel: Denard Robinson*#
Director of Recruiting Operations: Albert Karschnia#
Director of On Campus Recruiting and Operations: Christina DeRuyter
Assistant Recruiting and Operations Director: Paige Shiver
Assistant Recruiting Coordinator: Jonathan Herd-Bond#
Director of Player Development: Chris Bryant*

*Former Michigan football player
#Hired following 2021 football season

Grant Newsome, Wolverine (again)

Former Michigan offensive tackle Grant Newsome has been named the new tight ends coach for the Wolverines, replacing Jay Harbaugh, who has moved to the defensive side of the ball.

I think this is my first time creating a second post for a guy whose recruitment I also covered. Newsome was an outstanding offensive tackle prospect in the 2015 class (here’s his commitment post). He played in five games as a freshman and then started the first five games at left tackle in 2016 before a brutal knee injury against Wisconsin ended his career. He attempted a comeback, but by 2018 he had retired from football and became a student assistant, working with the tight ends in 2018-2019. He then moved over to help Sherrone Moore with the offensive line in 2020-2021.

This is an internal hire that should pay off with a pretty seamless transition on the field. Newsome has worked with the tight ends and offensive line, and both of the former tight ends coaches – Moore and Jay Harbaugh – are still on the staff. So all that knowledge and experience is still contained within the team. Newsome is also widely well liked and should be a plus recruiter; he’s young, intelligent, affable, and loyal to the program.

I won’t make a separate post for the finalized staff, so here’s how it shakes out for 2022 unless other things change:

• HC: Jim Harbaugh
• Co-OC/QB: Matt Weiss
• RB: Mike Hart
• WR: Ron Bellamy
• TE: Grant Newsome
• Co-OC/OL: Sherrone Moore
• DC: Jesse Minter
• DL: Mike Elston
• LB: George Helow
• Co-DC/CB: Steve Clinkscale
• S: Jay Harbaugh

Jesse Minter, Wolverine

Michigan has a new defensive coordinator in the form of Jesse Minter. Minter comes to the Wolverines after spending one year at Vanderbilt as the Commodores’ defensive coordinator.

Minter is the son of former Cincinnati head coach Rick Minter, and he played wide receiver at Mount Saint Joseph in Ohio. He then spent time at Notre Dame and Cincinnati as a low-tier assistant before becoming a linebackers coach and then defensive coordinator at Indiana State (coincidentally, where several former Wolverines now coach, including head man Curt Mallory). Minter then moved on to become Georgia State’s defensive coordinator in 2013 and was a Broyles Award nominee as one of the top assistants in the country.

Minter was hired in 2017 to be an assistant for the Baltimore Ravens, coaching defensive backs through 2020. After just one season as the primary defensive backs coach in 2020, he was hired away by Vandy to be their defensive coordinator.

Hit the jump for more.

Josh Gattis, Ex-Wolverine

Michigan offensive coordinator Josh Gattis is headed to Miami to be the Hurricanes’ new offensive coordinator under new head coach Mario Cristobal. This is a slightly surprising development for an assistant coach who won the Broyles Award in 2021 as the nation’s top assistant coach.

Gattis was at Michigan from 2019-2021, hired away from Alabama. Gattis had so-so success at Michigan, really. His first two years were mediocre, and even in this season of success, his offense was #24 in total offense, #22 in yards per play, and #16 in scoring. That represents a peak in each category during his three seasons in Ann Arbor.

I was often critical of Gattis. His initial #speedinspace mantra turned into . . . well . . . nothing more than a mantra. He did a poor job of getting speed in space during his first two years. When he finally hit his apogee, it was with the heavy influence of newly hired quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss, who brought a lot of elements of the Baltimore Ravens’ run game. The condensed sets, the tight end motions, the jet motions turning into lead blockers, etc. are all directly from the Ravens’ playbook.

There are various rumors floating around about why Gattis felt his time at Michigan should be over, and I won’t get into them. I’ll just say that this change might be best for both parties.

I have no insight into who the next offensive coordinator might be, but Michigan has a couple potential internal hires that would make sense in offensive line coach Sherrone Moore and Weiss. That being said, Jim Harbaugh does not always seem to make the most obvious choice, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

As for the optics of Gattis leaving Michigan in a huff, well, coordinators don’t stick around forever. There are various things that get in the way, whether it’s hurt feelings, poor job performance, taking what seems like a promotion elsewhere, etc. Keep in mind that the last Michigan offensive coordinator to stick around for three years was Al Borges from 2011-2013. Since then Michigan has gone through Doug Nussmeier (2014), Jedd Fisch (2015-2016), Pep Hamilton (2017-2018). The last offensive coordinator to stay four years was Terry Malone from 2002-2005.

Mike Elston, Wolverine

Notre Dame defensive line coach Mike Elston is reportedly accepting the same position at Michigan. Elston is a former Michigan outside linebacker who got his coaching start with the Wolverines as a graduate assistant for the Wolverines before moving on elsewhere.

Elston made 29 tackles and 4 pass breakups as an outside linebacker at Michigan from 1993-1996. He then became a video assistant and G.A. at Michigan, coached at Eastern Michigan for a couple years, and then latched on with Brian Kelly. Elston was with Kelly at Central Michigan, Cincinnati, and Notre Dame, at various times holding the title of linebacker coach, defensive line coach, associate head coach, co-defensive coordinator, and recruiting coordinator. He’s had a wide array of positions and held some clout in a very good program, so that bodes well for his abilities.

At Notre Dame, Elston coached a variety of quality players, including Julian Okwara, Stephon Tuitt, Sheldon Day, Khalid Kareem, Daelin Hayes, Ade Ogundeji, Isaiah Foskey, Jerry Tillery, etc. While he’s never had a guy as productive as Aidan Hutchinson, he has coached a couple Notre Dame players (Tuitt and Foskey) into getting 11 sacks.

Despite the success of Michigan’s team – and Hutchinson and David Ojabo – in 2021, I think Elston is a significant step up from former defensive line coach Shaun Nua. That’s not just sour grapes because of Nua’s departure for USC; I was long critical of Nua’s developmental abilities, and there has been talk that Ryan Osborn helped out a lot with the edge guys who really exploded in 2021.

Elston has also been a solid recruiter. He’s ranked as the #36 recruiter in the country by 247 Sports for 2022, which is third on the Fighting Irish staff behind new head coach Marcus Freeman and offensive coordinator Tommy Rees. It also would place him third on Michigan’s staff, behind safeties coach Ron Bellamy and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis. I’m not huge into ranking coaches by the recruiting rankings of the players that they may or may not have been recruiting primarily or secondarily; I think that type of ranking is very convoluted and potentially very inaccurate. So I don’t put a ton of stock in the ranking, and I put more faith in the fact that he was the recruiting coordinator for a team that recruits pretty well.