Michigan Football: Could Tim Banks be a candidate for DC?

If Jim Harbaugh is back with Michigan football, it’s almost a sure thing he will have a new defensive coordinator and Penn State’s Tim Banks is one possible candidate.

There is still no certainty when it comes to Michigan football and its head coach, Jim Harbaugh, although there was a meeting this week between Harbaugh and Warde Manuel, the AD.

It has been widely reported that Warde is going to offer or has offered Harbaugh a three-year extension at a lower base salary than previous, but with incentives.

Considering Harbaugh hasn’t won the Big Ten title, beaten Ohio State or made the College Football Playoff, it makes sense. Hell, he should get a $5 million bonus just for beating the Buckeyes, because if he does that, the rest will take care of itself.

Obviously, that’s a little out there but unless Jim decides to go the NFL and it seems as though some teams might be interested, it feels like he will be back in Ann Arbor.

The question is, who will be back with him?

It seems like a safe bet that defensive coordinator Don Brown won’t be one the coaches retained. In fact, there is probably going to be a house cleaning on defense.

Brown was notably absent from Twitter on early signing day and leading up to the process, he was even telling recruits Michigan was the right place for them, even if he wasn’t going to be there.

For one, that’s a classy move and that’s why even though Brown’s defenses didn’t always get the job done, you can’t question how bad the man wanted it.

Why Tim Banks makes sense

But if he does leave, who would replace him? One candidate could be Tim Banks, the current safeties coach and co-defensive coordinator at Penn State.

If you don’t know much about Banks, he’s a former Detroit Cass Tech product and he’s been a defensive coordinator in the MAC and at Illinois before taking his current job at Penn State, where he’s been since 2016.

Banks has also had some interesting Twitter activity recently, following a number of Michigan players and coaches and even Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider.

Penn State’s defense has been pretty solid over the past five years and in five games against Ohio State, the Buckeyes haven’t scored 40 points once and only scored more than 30 twice.

Penn State has also finished in the top 30 in scoring defense four times, only missing in 2020 and that includes top-10 scoring defenses in 2017 and 2019.

Beyond that, landing Banks as the defensive coordinator or even for the safeties job at Michigan with a co-DC title, would really help with in-state recruiting, especially in Detroit.

That would be a smart move with Mel Tucker clearly trying to make that a strong part of his recruiting strategy at Michigan State.

Banks might not be the big-name coordinator some fans might want, but he’s been a coordinator or a co-defensive coordinator in the Big Ten since 2012 with some success. He’s a really good recruiter and been part of a really successful Penn State program.

All of the Twitter follows and such definitely make you think there could be some smoke, but until something is finalized with Harbaugh, it’s probably premature to read too much into anything but if he was offered that promotion to DC, you’d think it would be hard to pass up.

And if Don Brown does go, it’s certainly possible that Banks will be on the short list of candidates.