Michigan Football: Mike Hart has been offered, more changes on defense

Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh is still working on finalizing his staff. But reports are that he offered Mike Hart a job and that Mike Zordich is out.

Mike Hart is one of the greatest running backs in the history of Michigan football and soon, if he decides to an accept an offer from Jim Harbaugh, he will be back at his alma mater.

I’ve said numerous times that Harbaugh should go hard after Hart, including after he signed his extension last week and according to Chris Balas of The Wolverine (subscription required), Hart has been offered the job.

Balas says he has multiple sources telling him about this offer and it’s something you kind of saw coming. There has been talking that Jay Harbaugh is shifting to special teams, which could open the door for Hart to be the running backs coach.

However, as I have also said, I don’t think Mike Hart is leaving as Indiana’s associate head coach/running backs coach unless he gets a big offer and a nice title from U-M.

At the very least, I don’t see him taking a demotion just to coach at Michigan, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he carries the assistant head coach title with him in Ann Arbor.

That’s if he takes the job.

Of course, it would be a tremendous hire for the Wolverines if they were able to get Hart in the fold. Not only would he be an upgrade coaching the position, but he’s a tremendous recruiter. He would also help with some of the culture issues that have taken hold in recent years.

New coaches in the secondary

We have known for a while now that Michigan football would likely be hiring a new safeties coach after some off-field issues with Bob Shoop.

But now, according to Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider, Mike Zordich is on his way out too, as Webb tweeted, “It appears Zordich will be on the move.”

I don’t think this should come as a huge shock. Zordich has done a solid job and developed some really good players, even sent a fair share to the NFL. But he’s not a dynamic recruiter and with a new defensive coordinator, it makes sense to find a new position coach there.

Zordich was pretty aligned with Brown in terms of the man-to-man philosophy and he’s great at teaching that technique. He will find a job and there are already rumors that other programs are looking at him.

Maybe Mike Macdonald, who is expected to be named defensive coordinator for Michigan football, has a cornerbacks coach in mind from the NFL or someone with ties that understands what he will want and remember, Macdonald has coached the secondary as well as linebackers.

The name Tim Banks has been floated a bunch for the safety job but I can only imagine him taking that job if it included the title of co-defensive coordinator, which he has at Penn State.

As with Hart, as much as Banks probably loves the state of Michigan, I don’t see him joining the staff to take a demotion.

We’ll see what happens, but with players flying in and out of the transfer portal like crazy, Michigan is missing a big opportunity, meaning all these moves need to be finalized sooner rather than later.