Michigan has hired Vanderbilt's defensive line coach, Larry Black, to be the next defensive tackles coach for the Wolverines. The position was previously held by Lou Esposito, who departed recently for a job with the Baltimore Ravens, where former Michigan defensive coordinator Jesse Minter is now the head coach.
Black played defensive tackle at Indiana from 2009-2013 and is the older brother of former Michigan defensive tackle Jibreel Black, who made 72 tackles, 14 tackles for loss, 7 sacks, and 3 forced fumbles from 2010-2013. Larry himself got an undrafted free agent contract with the Bengals when he left the Hoosiers.
The elder Black has since coached at Notre Dame (graduate assistant), Toledo, and Vanderbilt. He was the defensive line coach for the Commodores from 2022-2024 but added "run game coordinator" to his title for 2025. Vanderbilt ranked last in the SEC in yards per carry allowed in 2022 and 2023, but they moved up to #14 (out of 16) in 2024 and then #7 in 2025. A similar path existed when it comes to sacks, where they went from last in 2022-2023 to #11 in 2024 and #7 in 2025.
Black has been rumored to be interested in the job the past couple times a defensive line coaching job has opened up at Michigan, but other people were hired. It's unclear what the connection was (if there was one) between Black and new head coach Kyle Whittingham, but Black will now pair with defensive ends coach Lewis Powell to tag team coaching duties on the defensive line.
Welcome. Scout, recruit and coach these young men up!
ReplyDeleteI am genuinely interested in seeing how the whole team functions as a cohesive unit this coming season. I have the same sense I did going into the 2015 season, when Harbaugh took over. In particularly, I'm genuinely curious to see how the following look:
ReplyDelete(1) Offensive line unity -- I don't expect world-beaters, but to have a unit that looks 'good' in both rush and pass would be nice, with no obvious holes
(2) Defensive line push -- we didn't really see that last year. Again, I doubt we'll replicate the Graham/Grant era, but to see increased pressure would be nice.
(3) Offensive Scheme Balance -- there are weapons available, will they be used in a balanced way?
(4) Defensive Scheme Approach -- the LB corp is a bit weak, so how the DC tunes the systems to compensate will be interesting.
It's probably a year away realistically, but the OL actually being world-beaters is something I am optimistically hoping for. Not counting on, but hoping for, in a best case scenario.
DeleteGuarnera and Sprague have flashed elite play and gained a ton of experience '25. Link is even more experienced and has good size and solid run blocking and feels like he might find a "home" at OG after some shuffling. Babalola and Frazier have talent. Flexible depth with Norton. Efobi also has gotten some run and looked viable at worst.
3 seniors who should be at the point of ascending and 3 juniors who could be ready to make a leap. Harding is supposedly elite and that's plenty of clay to mold. Would not take a miracle to turn any of these guys into all conference performers.
I'm reminded of the 2021 season where the lessons learned by guys being thrown into the fire in 2020 were leveraged into a surprise leap from the OL as a whole.
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On defense I am more concerned with the DL than the LBs. The talent level is just not up to Michigan standards on the line, unless there are some big surprises from guys like Nate Marshall or Palepele. It's a longshot but new coaches (Black and Powell) could perhaps pull new abilities out from the group. Things are not Ben-Mason-at-DT level bad but there's not much in the way of proven performers, especially with Daley being such a big health risk.
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As always, the lines will determine the teams outcomes. Will be very interesting to see how things are evolving in the spring.
I'm not a football expert, so some of the nuances of the game elude me somewhat. If I focus just on the defense, the question that comes to my mind is this: can the staff cobble together something that's 'good enough,' where points-per-drive on the offensive side can overcome (enough) whatever points-per-drive-allowed the defense averages?
DeleteI keep hearing about the LB room being weak, and Thunder already said before that it can't really be schemed around. I think some weakness on the DL (interior and edge) can be schemed around by superior LB, but we're lacking there. Does the new DC roll dice and blitz S or CB, leaving receivers uncovered? Or do they lean on their coverage to hold up until the weak(er) DL finally gets some pressure? I have no idea, but I'm curious to see what we see.
On the offensive side of the ball, we have weapons -- Underwood, Marsh, Marshall, Hiter, etc. -- so a one-dimensional offense is inexcusable. The problem of QB coaching is (hopefully) being addressed, so (hopefully) Underwood makes the F to So leap.