Head coach Sherrone Moore announced on Tuesday that he relieved offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell from his duties. Campbell was in his first year as offensive coordinator after being co-offensive coordinator in 2023.
All hail Davis Warren! I’m not going to pretend that Davis Warren is on track to be J.J. McCarthy, but Warren played his best game of the year in going 13/19 for 123 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions. He did not take any sacks and scrambled once for 7 yards. I mentioned on Twitter (before I knew Jack Tuttle would miss the game) that if I were Michigan’s coaching staff, I would start Warren and mix in Alex Orji on every third series. Warren got a bad rap early in the year when he made mistakes while other people (Donovan Edwards, Evan Link, Colston Loveland, etc.) were screwing up; Warren took the blame for the team being bad. Now that the offensive line has improved some and other players have adjusted, Warren looks okay. He’s not a world-beater, but the kid can play a little bit. I’m happy for him that he got a little bit of redemption. Nobody will ever be able to take away the fact that he quarterbacked Michigan to a rivalry victory over Michigan State.
In the wake of quarterbacks coach Matt Weiss getting fired from Michigan for something having to do with computers, Michigan hired Kirk Campbell to be the quarterbacks coach. Campbell spent the 2022 season as an offensive analyst for the Wolverines.
Here’s a brief timeline of Campbell’s career:
2009-2010: WR/TE graduate assistant at West Virginia Wesleyan 2011: WR/TE coach at Tiffin 2012-2016: OC at Alderson-Broaddus 2017-2019: Offensive analyst at Penn State 2020-2021: OC/QB coach at Old Dominion 2022: Offensive analyst at Michigan
One of my former players played offense for Campbell in college and had great things to say about him, even going on to become a high school and college coach himself. (Not that Campbell was the sole reason for that, but at least he didn’t make this kid hate football.)
Overall, it’s tough to glean much from Campbell’s coaching career, considering he’s been an analyst and coaching at smaller schools. It says something that he was reportedly the #1 choice for starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy. It also helps that he has spent seven seasons as a play caller. Even though he likely won’t be calling plays on Saturdays in the Big House, he’s at least qualified to be coaching the quarterback position itself if he can understand how to install and implement an entire offense.
Quarterback coaches under Jim Harbaugh have included Jedd Fisch in 2015-2016 (now head coach at Arizona), Pep Hamilton in 2017-2018 (now offensive coordinator for Houston Texans), Ben McDaniels (now passing game coordinator for Houston Texans), and Weiss. There are mixed reviews for some of those guys, but considering everyone but Weiss has moved up in the world, it’s probably safe to say that Jim Harbaugh can be trusted to find talented quarterback coaches.
