Michigan Football: Could Wolverines lose another defensive assistant?

Michigan football already lost defensive assistant Chris Partridge and it’s possible that Anthony Campanile could be leaving to be a coordinator too.

Around this time of year, there is always some uncertainty as there is often movement among coaches and their assistants. Michigan football has already seen the result of this as the hiring of Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss led to the departure of Chris Partridge.

Partridge was the special teams coordinator and safeties coach for Michigan football as well as one of its top recruiters. He left to the co-defensive coordinator and it’s possible he won’t be the last Jim Harbaugh assistant to leave this offseason.

Another that has been rumored for other jobs is defensive assistant Anthony Campanile, who joined the staff last season after being the co-DC at Boston College. Many thought he would actually go back to Boston College as the sole defensive coordinator but the Eagles went in another direction according to Pete Thamel.

However, that doesn’t mean that Michigan football is out of the woods yet with Campanile, who is also a candidate to be a defensive coordinator at Rutgers under Greg Schiano. According to Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider ($), Campanile to Rutgers is still a possibility.

In fact, Webb has predicted that Campanile will leave. Of course, that was before Boston College made another hire at defensive coordinator which makes the choice a little more interesting.

Remember that Campanile is a New Jersey guy and his brother is going to be on the coaching staff at Rutgers. Schiano’s presence may also make a difference. He’s actually won at Rutgers before, although not in the Big Ten, but he knows what he’s doing, making the job attractive again.

As far as Partridge was concerned, it didn’t seem like Michigan football made any efforts to keep him in terms of offering more money or a promotion. So who knows if the Wolverines would do anything to try and keep Campanile, yet he has been a co-defensive coordinator in the ACC and has done a really good job recruiting in the northeast since his arrival.

Surely, if he does leave, Harbaugh has proven himself capable of replacing assistants with other capable guys. But at the same time, Campanile seems like a guy that could eventually take over for Don Brown as defensive coordinator and maybe Brown would be open to making him co-DC of Michigan football in order to keep him.

No idea if it’s possible or not. Just a thought.