Michigan Football: Shaun Nua off to a strong start on the recruiting trail

Michigan football released the details of Shaun Nua’s contract Tuesday and so far, with some success recruiting, Nua looks like a good investment.

When the Michigan football program lost defensive line coach Greg Mattison to Ohio State, it caused a little bit of a panic among Wolverines fans. Not only because he is great at developing talent, but also because of his ability to recruit.

However, Michigan football filled his position with former Arizona State and Navy defensive line coach Shaun Nua, a former defensive lineman in the NFL for the Steelers and Bills and while Nua has been on the job for the last couple weeks, his contract details weren’t released until Tuesday.

Nick Baumgardner of the Detroit Free Press reported that Nua has agreed to a two-year deal with the Wolverines that will be worth $800,000. He will earn a base salary of $400,000 in each of the next two seasons. He will also be eligible for a $25,000 bonus or a bowl-game bonus.

The contract also includes stipulations like Anthony Campanile’s that will try to prevent Nua from leaving Michigan football for another program in the Big Ten East. If he leaves to take a job with below a coordinator with any team from the Big Ten he would owe 50 percent of his salary back to Michigan football as a buyout.

However, Nua would be able to leave for any defensive coordinator job outside Big Ten East (Ohio State, Penn State, Rutgers, Maryland, Indiana, Michigan State) without having to pay any penalty. If he leaves for another non-coordinator job outside the Big Ten, he would UM 25 percent.

All that information came from the memorandum of understanding that Baumgardner got through a Freedom of Information Act request. Overall, the contract is very reasonable and after what Nua has done on the recruiting trail already, it looks like a nice addition.

While there isn’t a ton of evidence of what Nua has done on the recruiting trail, he met with some of Michigan’s top defensive line recruits for 2020 and 2021 during junior day this past weekend in Ann Arbor and at least one defensive lineman had positive things to say about the new coach.

The player is three-star defensive tackle Bryce Austin, who is ranked No. 314 in the 2020 class and also is the No. 22 defensive tackle. After receiving an offer from Michigan football and meeting with Nua, the Wolverines are now in his top five. Here’s what Austin said about the new coach to the Michigan Insider:

"“I liked him a lot. For the little bit of time I talked to him, he was just telling me about how he moved from Arizona. He said he stayed in Pittsburgh before (when he played for the Steelers), so he is kind of used to the cold. He said he was going to be blowing my phone up and talking to me all the time. He wants me to come back up there for camp and come back to the school whenever I want, so I can sit down and talk to him.”"

Nua, who coached at Navy before joining Herman Edwards staff at Arizona State last season, didn’t have an extensive reputation recruiting because it’s a little different at Navy compared to a place like Michigan.

However, Nua did help the Sun Devils land a couple of key recruits, including a four-star quarterback and one thing he’s known for, is an ability to develop a strong relationship with players, which can be huge in the recruiting process.

It’s very early with Nua and the jury is out on his ability to develop players but so far, on the recruiting trail, he seems to be a good investment.