Tag: Mike Elston

Mike Elston, Ex-Wolverine

Defensive line coach Mike Elston is reportedly on the way to Los Angeles to coach the Chargers defensive line under Jim Harbaugh. Elston has been Michigan’s DL coach and recruiting coordinator since being hired away from Notre Dame prior to the 2022 season.

Elston is a former Michigan player who had some great success securing commitments from some quality defensive linemen and helping develop some players into studs, including Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant. Even guys like Rayshaun Benny and Cam Goode showed solid improvement in 2023, not to mention edge defenders like Jaylen Harrell, Josaiah Stewart, and Derrick Moore.

The rumor mill has been going about Elston, who reportedly has had an offer on the table from the Chargers for a while but was still out on the road recruiting for Michigan recently. The hope was that he would stay on board to keep recruiting and help Sherrone Moore transition into the next era of Michigan football. Unfortunately, that seems not to be the case.

This is a big loss for Michigan. Not bigger than Harbaugh. Not bigger than Jesse Minter. And probably not bigger than Herbert. But it’s a significant blow to a program whose identity has been built in the trenches, both on offense and defense. It was Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo setting the tone in 2021 – which was admittedly pre-Elston – and then Mazi Smith, Graham, Grant, Harrell, and others in 2022 and 2023. The interior pass rush improved in 2023, which made up for the fact that Michigan didn’t have truly elite rushers coming off the edge. Now you really have to wonder how strong the pull will be for guys to enter the transfer portal if they’re losing their head coach, their defensive line coach, and their strength coach while also being tampered with and offered hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The lone defensive holdout on the staff is co-defensive coordinator Steve Clinkscale, who seems to be an option as defensive coordinator . . . but could also follow Harbaugh to the Chargers. Meanwhile, Michigan is reportedly also pursuing Kansas City Chiefs defensive line coach Joe Cullen, former Baltimore Ravens/New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, and New York Giants inside linebackers coach John Egorugwu, among others.

The current coaching staff as things stand today:

1. HC: Sherrone Moore
2. OC/QB: Kirk Campbell
3. RB: Mike Hart
4. WR: Ronald Bellamy
5. TE: Steve Casula
6. OL: Grant Newsome
7. DC: ???
8. DL: ???
9. LB: ???
10. CB: Steve Clinkscale
11. STC: J.B. Brown

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

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.