Michigan Friday: So The Staff Is Complete?

Sounds like Michigan is sort of set on both sides of the ball with its coaching set:

Offense:

Gattis: OC and WR's

Hart: RB 

Warinner: OL and Running Game Coordinator 

Moore: TE 

?: QB 

Jay Harbaugh: Special Teams 

Defense

Macdonald - DC 

Linguist - CB's and Co-DC 

Helow: Safeties 

Nua: DT

Jean-Mary: LB

Ben McDaniels is still on Mgoblue.com but reportedly out the door.   My expectation was that Jimmy would be taking on the QB coach role.   Maybe they're waiting on Chad Henne to retire to announce he is Michigan's next QB coach.  (that is a joke and I'm not reporting news!! :)) 

• Greg Mattison is retiring at the end of the month, I hope it was worth it to leave Ann Arbor for a DC role that wasn't really a DC role in Columbus for a couple of years. 

• Michigan Basketball plays Purdue tonight at 7:00 tonight on FS1  

Michigan Thursday: Defense Staff in Place

Michigan Football program confirmed the hiring of Co-DC Mo Linguist and Safeties Coach George Helow.   We looked into Mo yesterday, here is some background on George.  

George worked as a intern or defensive graduate assistant for Saban at Alabama, Florida State, and for Kirby Smart at Georgia.  Helow's then moved to Colorado State in 2016 and became the Safeties coach until 2019.   He then spent last season at Maryland as the OLB coach.  George worked with new DC Mike Macdonald at Georgia and this is clearly his choice.  

Both coach Nua and BJM will remain on staff. 

Nua - DL

BLM = LB's

Linguist = CB's and Co-DC 

Helow = Safeties 

MM = Co-DC 

I like that they kept Brian Jean-Mary as he is great on the recruiting trail and like the new hires.   The one question mark is Coach Nua on the DLine.  He has yet to show he can develop or recruit at the high level that is expected.   I think his contract and his ability to grow in that role kept him in place.   We just need him to get a little closer to his ceiling next season.  

This group needs to hit recruiting hard and the transfer portal.  In what seems bad timing, CA 5 star CB Domani Jackson is announcing on Saturday.   He grew up a Michigan fan but the timing of  this announcement and Michigan just getting his position coaches and DC's in place the last week, means he is probably looking at USC. 

Coach Mo already is busy shooting out offers to CB's in the 2022 class.  

Wolverine Wednesday: Need Mo Defense

Michigan had a highly rated defense and a famous DC.   They beat a lot of teams, just not good ones.   The simplicity of his scheme and unwillingness to change made this defense a mess in the last 2 seasons.   Michigan has gone to a youth movement with new energy and new ideas.  

Mike MacDonald is off of one of the NFL's best defense and now he will be paired with a known great recruiter Co-DC Maurice "Mo" Linguist the current DB coach of the Dallas Cowboys. Mo's NFL experience is not the story as he has only been with the Cowboys for 1 year. He has experience recruiting Texas for Texas A&M, Minnesota, Iowa State, and Mississippi State. He played CB at Baylor and grew up in Dallas.

This seems to be a great hire and mixing a guy that is very strong in defensive scheme with a strong recruiter. A similar example might be the hiring of Juwan Howard with Phil Martelli.

Mo is 36  Mike is 33  Don Brown is 65.

Sam Webb expects one more coaching hire for the Wolverines.   BTW: Coach Mo went on an offer spree last night in the state of Texas for players in the 2022 class, mostly defensive backs.   He is hitting the ground running!

• Michigan Basketball got back on track after its first loss of the season.  Teams are now double teaming the post to stop Hunter and leaving warm-up type 3 point jumpers for the rest of the team.  Mike Smith got the scoring started, Livers added 20 points, Franz had a strong 15, and Brandon Johns had his highest total of the year with 11 points.   This team clearly likes playing at home and will focus playing Purdue this weekend.  

• Michigan also lost another player to the portal yesterday.  Often inquired and rarely played DE,  Luiji Vilain has entered the portal.   There was high hopes for Vilain but he really saw the field and now will look for another opportunity.  The impact to the team moving forward is minimal. 

• One guy that we seem to over look is OT transfer Willie Allen.  Big Willie played at Louisiana Tech and will compete for a starting tackle position next season.  He just enrolled and will be a graduate transfer for the Wolverines.   I like players named Willie (since I can call them Big Willie), I like he has starting experience and is 38 years old.  

Michigan Tuesday: Like a Good Bottle of Wine, Gone To Fast

24/7

It's hard to know what really is going on inside Schembechler Hall and why things turn out the way they do.   Michigan for example has some weird problem turning highly ranked RB's into college football stars.  The lower ranked guys seems to perform better then the 5 stars, Michigan's new RB coach is a clear example and so is Haskins on the current roster (who was originally going to be a LB at Michigan). 

This situation is why it isn't surprising that Zach Charbonnet is leaving Ann Arbor and in the transfer portal.  Michigan fans fell in love with the talented RB last year has he ran for over 700 yards and scored 11 TD's as a freshman.  He was known has a hard worker in the weight room and great teammate.  

Then the shorten 2020 season happened.  He started off with a bang with a long run against Minnesota and then we never saw him again.   Was it the too crowded RB room?  Was it an injury? Was it something else?  As he only had 19 rushes for 124 yards for the entire year.   With that lack of production and Donovan Edwards coming in, it was a given he was going to jump into the portal and look for another school.  

If I had to guess, he is probably going back home to UCLA or USC.  I wish him nothing but the best and hope he gets a 1000 yards next season in the PAC 12. 

• Speaking of Michigan's crowded RB room: Christian Turner is transferring to Wake Forest.

• If those two items didn't ruin your Monday, maybe this bit of news will:  Zavier "Flash" Worthy is not enrolling early.   There seems to be an issue with his paperwork.   The internet does not believe its a grade issue.  He is still expected to enroll this summer. 

• More good news?  OSU WR Chris Olave will be coming back to Columbus next season as there is a crowded WR Draft class. 

• Tennessee has fired Jeremy Pruitt for breaking NCAA Rules Violations.  Seems are old friend Eric Gray was part of some illegal activity.  Also Aubrey Solomon says Hi.   Seems Pruitt's learned activity at Alabama didn't translate to UT, as he broke the first rule of Fight Club. 

• There are reports that Michigan is hiring George Helow as its new Safeties coach.  If this is confirmed, we will go deeper into his background later this week. 

• Michigan will not be adding Jesse Minter from the Ravens (will be Vandy's new DC) and Christian Robinson who is staying at Florida with a new role and a jump in pay.