Steve Casula, Wolverine

 

Steve Casula

Michigan has hired Steve Casula to coach the tight ends, replacing Grant Newsome, who moved from tight ends to coaching the offensive line.

Casula spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator at UMass under former Michigan defensive coordinator Don Brown, who is the head coach for the Minutemen.

UMass was #118 in yards per play before he arrived in 2021; they then dropped to #130 in 2022 but jumped to #59 in 2023. Surely some of that jump had to do with the transfer portal, where the Minutemen benefited from former Clemson/Georgia Tech QB Taisun Phommachanh, former Rutgers RB Kay'Ron Adams, former Arizona WR Anthony Simpson, and former Michigan WR George Johnson III, among others. But that's still an impressive leap in the span of one season.

Casula is being brought in to coach the tight ends, which he's overqualified to do. He's spent a good amount of time as an offensive coordinator (Davenport from 2014-2016; Ferris State from 2017-2018; UMass from 2022-2023) and even served as interim head coach at Davenport. One of his proteges as a coordinator/quarterback coach was former Detroit (MI) Cass Tech quarterback Jayru Campbell, who won the Harlon Hill Trophy for being the most outstanding player in Division II back in 2018.

Casula was an analyst at Michigan from 2019-2021, so he's familiar with the area and the program. He should be able to hit the ground running, and there's no reason to think that Michigan's tight ends won't continue to be successful.

Michigan's coaching staff as of today:

• HC: Sherrone Moore
• OC/QB: Kirk Campbell
• RB: Mike Hart
• WR: Ronald Bellamy
• TE: Steve Casula
• OL: Grant Newsome
• DC: Wink Martindale
• DL: ???
• LB: ???
• DB: ???
• STC: J.B. Brown