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:
- HC: Sherrone Moore
- OC/QB: Kirk Campbell
- RB: Mike Hart
- WR: Ronald Bellamy
- TE: Steve Casula
- OL: Grant Newsome
- DC: ???
- DL: ???
- LB: ???
- CB: Steve Clinkscale
- STC: J.B. Brown
Yep, this one hurts
ReplyDeleteI've heard & read blame toward Harbaugh but I just don't see it. None of these guys would be here if it weren't for Jim, and he values them enough to make a bid for their services in LA ... it's on the program to make an offer too good to refuse
Anyway, let's hope Moore can stop the bleeding; set your staff, minimize portal losses and maximize portal gains (esp at QB)
People mad about this are missing the fact that many of these guys would be gone even if harbaugh was back. You win a natty and your staff is going to depart for promotions. Harbaugh lost coaches a bunch of times before.
ReplyDeleteMoore is keeping most of the offensive staff in tact, but defense has to be rebuilt. Hopefully soon.
"many of these guys would be gone even if harbaugh was back"
DeleteNot sure I agree with that. Possibly Minter would be gone but I think if Harbaugh were back that Herbert and Elston would be back and possibly Jay and others. But he's not back. To me the bigger question is whether Harbaugh discussed with Moore that he was going to make a pitch for Minter, Herbert and Elston and others or whether Moore was caught off guard. And to be clear, Jim has the "right" to do it either way but I think his actions may be viewed differently depending on whether he was up front about this.
Harbaugh has probably accelerated the inevitable to some degree but how much is unknowable..
DeleteLook at how much churn Harbaugh has had since he joined. Some of that was a respectful parting of ways but a lot of it was guys getting promotions and moving on up. Mo Linguist didn't even last an offseason. Suddenly he's a head coach.
Next look at Georgia or Alabama and see how much staff churn they go through over the last decade or two. With success comes people wanting your talent and that includes coaches. We hired away Alabama's WR coach to be our OC and now we're in Alabama's position - people want to poach our guys.
I think Minter is a no-brainer. Maybe Elston sticks but given the success he on the DL last year, the leap to the NFL is logical. If not that - a DC role at a different college team. Jaybaugh also deserves a promotion. Herbert, obviously, has thrived here. Why wouldn't other teams want that?
Coaching is a competitive business - the number of guys who are just content to be in the position they are in are very few, typically guys at the end of their careers or who have tasted some higher levels of responsibility and decided it's not just for them.
I'd be worried if these guys were making lateral moves to Notre Dame or LSU or Florida, but they aren't. They're going to coach in the NFL. The guys staying are elevating. The guys who don't fit in either category seem to be in a holding pattern right now -- Clink and Hart. Bellomy is probably the only 1 who isn't moving up or on and he's relatively unproven still and heavily tied to the area.
My point here is that if Harbaugh wasn't making the pitch to these guys someone else would be. Jaybaugh is pretty indicative of that. So is the fact that John hired away McDonald from Michigan.
If Moore is surprised but what is happening well...he shouldn't be.
If I'm disappointed in anything it's not adding Mallory onto our staff. He is so highly regarded it seems like that would have been an obvious move. But now he's gone.
DeleteIt wasn't long ago we could not give away our assistant coaches. Borges. DeBord. Herriman, remember him? I think a future dentist WR for Northwestern just scored again. Drevno, Harbaugh's worst coach. He got two QB's practically killed. Pep Hamilton.
DeleteYeah if you have guys in the same spot for too long there's probably an issue. Generally good coaches are moving up pretty quick if they can. There's exceptions (Iowa DC) but competition and ambition usually go hand in hand.
DeletePep Hamilton went on to be the Texans OC and is now doing TV. Underrated to some, IMO.
Unfortunate but can't blame Harbaugh for hiring his top assistants to help him win a Super Bowl. The idea that he would hire an inferior coach to the Chargers just to help maintain some stability at Michigan was always ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAs a side note, if we see any of our stars transfer, that's the unofficial end of college football for me. Recruiting has already become total mayhem and I was willing tolerate that as a fan, but I can't pretend to care about college football any further if I have to watch Will Johnson / Mason Graham playing for some other team simply because they were offered a bunch of money (which is completely against the rules) and Michigan couldn't / wouldn't match it. This sport has come to demand a lot of it's fans because of the lack of competent governance, but that would be a step too far for me personally.
It's a disappointing change particularly for those of us who don't really like the NFL. but if you're an NFL guy, the college game is becoming a lot more like that now (except without the "socialism" of the NFL draft to level the playing field). If you watch one why wouldn't you watch the other? Just another sport where money is the driving factor for success. But that part isn't all that new if we're being honest.
DeleteI've always been more interested in CFB than the NFL, but the larger issue is that we're operating in a market in which we can't / won't compete. I can live with Michigan recruiting high school kids at an inferior level relative to our direct competition, but I can't live with us losing existing players. At that point the sport just becomes a bit of a joke to me without any ability to police tampering.
DeleteDisagree. We just recruited a bunch of all conference caliber players from our direct competition (e.g., Indiana, Nebraska, Virginia, Stanford) so I don't know how far that logic goes. Michigan is a net benefactor of the portal and that was a big part of our national championship. 9 of our best players were coming from other programs.
DeleteMichigan can compete (and has). That doesn't mean we aren't going to lose some battles. Given how "rich" the program is we should win a lot more than we lose overall. But maybe not during a coaching change...
Managing "tampering" is a complete waste of time IMO. Kids are coming to know they can play where they want, when they want now, just like a college student can go where they want when they want.
It sucks to lose players we want (like Hunter Dickinson or Aubrey Solomon a few years back) but we've benefitted from it FAR MORE than we've lost from it.
The portal helps Michigan, we just need Michigan to own it and embrace it and stop pretending like high school recruiting is the thing like it's 2000 because it's 2024 and many of the best players in the country (Caleb Williams, Caleb Downs) are moving through the portal.
If you don't like that you don't like that (I don't like it) but I think you have to acknowledge that as long as Michigan is near the top of the food chain (and I don't mean top 5, I mean top 25) we will continue to benefit from it.
It's just capitalism baby! The rich get richer and anyone playing too nice will not be rich for long. college football is jumping into the Gordan Gecko era.
If we hang onto all of our stars this year, I'm good with it as well. I'm fine with losing unestablished players to the portal, or seniors looking for a larger role. I'm not fine with Will Johnson transferring because he was offered a substantial amount of money (which is supposedly against the rules).
DeleteOver a long period of time, I don't doubt that Michigan will come out ahead. But my point is that losing a player that we watched develop into a star is far more devastating that grabbing an established player from another school. At some point the enjoyment as a fan is significantly diminished.
We are going to lose starters to the portal. We have in the past and we will again.
Delete"losing a player that we watched develop into a star is far more devastating that grabbing an established player from another school."
It's the same thing it's just your perspective - if you're the winner you are happy and if you're the loser in the transaction you are sad.
I don't get the logic of being "fine" with it when it helps us so much but not "fine" with it when it hurts us. It will. Inevitably. The rules are the rules and you either support them or you don't. They will help us and hurt us at different times. We've already seen this.
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I think the enjoyment of fans is already diminished by the change. We've lost guys like Andrel Anthony, AJ Henning, and Erik All. None of those hurt our team much because we have replacements lined up but I would say we as fans lose something when we don't get these guys sticking through 4 or 5 years. But since we're near the top of the food chain the cost of this bond with players is offset by increased probability of beating MSU, Purdue, Wisconsin, etc.
Hmmm ... almost like HS recruiting & the portal are separate ... and the two are easily recognizable & referred to as separate
DeleteAnother L for the contrarian fibber
Children are cute but sometimes they have to be shushed. The grown ups are trying to talk JE.
DeleteThe portal is responsible for our Natty. Harbaugh has hit it out of the park on the Portal, everyone of those guys were major players.
ReplyDeleteWallace makes that tackle at the 3 against Bama in OT setting up the 4th down. Stewart collapses the RT to stop Milroe. Nugent. Henderson. Hinton is going to be a dude. We got two FAST athletic LB with 2 years left. Barner, all big 10 TE. Everyone is a HIT, they come in and contribute at a high level verse us having to spend years developing. The is the best part, other schools have had to feed them, scholarship them, develop them and then we harvest the crop.
This is my view and I'm a little worried the focus on HS recruiting that Moore is supposedly leading will come at the expensive of the portal.Too early to say of course.
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