Discussing Michigan's Coaching Staff

For the second year in a row, Jim Harbaugh made a lot of changes to his coaching staff. How will all of that look in 2022?

Heading into the 2021 season, Jim Harbaugh's staff, especially on defense, was almost entirely new. There were a lot of question marks surrounding the staff, the schemes and the overall potential for the team. Harbaugh and crew answered them masterfully resulting in a win over Ohio State, a Big Ten title and an appearance in the College Football Playoff.

Now, it's all happening again. 

There's not as much turnover heading into 2022 with just three new faces on staff as opposed to six in 2021, but some of the moves have been pretty significant. With Josh Gattis down in Miami, Sherrone Moore is taking over as the top play caller. Moore was on staff last year as the offensive line coach and co-offensive coordinator. Now, he's labeled as the head OC with Matt Weiss now labeled as the co-offensive coordinator to go along with his quarterback coaching duties. Mike Hart is still handling the running backs as a position group but now he's also the run game coordinator, whatever that means. Ron Bellamy has been moved over to wide receivers from safeties, which suits him better as a former WR, and returns him to his original post, even though it was extremely short lived the first time around.  And finally on offense, former Michigan offensive tackle and analyst Grant Newsome has been hired as an on-field assistant in charge of the tight ends. Newsome is as sharp as they come. Even though this is his first job as a position coach, he should thrive.

On defense the big change is at defensive coordinator. After one very successful year, Mike Macdonald is back in the NFL as the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens. Enter Jesse Minter. The former Vanderbilt defensive coordinator also worked for the Ravens, which should allow the defense to remain pretty similar, schematically. Minter will be tasked with plugging in a lot of new pieces, but there's talent there to work with. After a successful season as cornerbacks coach, Steve Clinkscale is now co-defensive coordinator along with Minter. One of the bigger moves of the offseason was the hiring of Mike Elston to replace Shaun Nua as defensive line coach. Nua took a job with USC opening the door for Elston to return home. Along with coaching the D-line, Elston will also oversee all recruiting efforts as the recruiting coordinator. And finally Jay Harbaugh, who has been all over U-M's coaching staff, will now coach safeties. He'll retain his duties as Michigan's special teams coordinator as well.

Here's how the entire staff looks on paper:

Offense:

• Sherrone Moore – Sanford Robertson Co-Offensive Coordinator/Donald C. Graham Offensive Line Coach

• Matt Weiss – Sanford Robertson Co-Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks

• Ron Bellamy – Wide Receivers

• Mike Hart – Run Game Coordinator/Running Backs

• Grant Newsome – Tight Ends

Defense:

• Jesse Minter - Defensive Coordinator

• Steve Clinkscale - Co-Defensive Coordinator, Cornerbacks

• Mike Elston - Defensive Line

• George Helow - Linebackers

• Jay Harbaugh – Special Teams Coordinator/Safeties

After what we saw in 2021, you have to give Harbaugh the benefit of the doubt that it will all come together again in 2022. Fortunately for Michigan, the schedule sets up nicely to work bugs out and get things humming along before the rubber really hits the road.