Michigan Football: 3 Thoughts on Wolverines new defensive staff

Grading the hires

These hires seemed like traditional hires to me by Harbaugh and I’ll explain what I mean. Outside of Hart, none of these guys are especially huge names.

But they have that NFL track record, which going back to his first coaching staff, is something Harbaugh obviously likes. It’s a positive for recruiting, but that’s where some of the best minds in football are and in a guy like Macdonald, Harbaugh hired someone who was on his way to becoming an NFL DC.

Harbaugh has always had this interest in establishing a sort of NFL mindset at Michigan and that’s probably a good thing. This program has churned out lots of NFL players in the last six years and it’s something it can sell to recruits.

Each of these new hires, Hart included, are proven winners. They are going to be hungry to succeed and they will bring the fresh ideas this staff has desperately needed.

Obviously, every coaching hire is a risk and you never know how it’s going to play out. But I think Michigan football added multiple guys who will be future head coaches and that’s a win.

With no new offensive coordinator, the onus will be on Josh Gattis, Hart and Harbaugh, with him now coaching quarterbacks, to get things turned around there.

But you add those three guys, Sherrone Moore and Ed Warinner and that’s a pretty good offensive staff too. In terms of recruiting, this could be the best staff Harbaugh has had in place. As far as the results on the field, we’ll have to wait until 2021, but this feels like a step in the right direction.

Final Grade: B+

Harbaugh did a great job retaining Moore on the offensive side of the ball and adding Hart. On the defensive side of the ball, someone like Derek Mason could have been a great fit, but Macdonald and Linguist might be the perfect combo at DC, yet it will be their first time coordinating a defense, so because of that and the timing of it all, the grade drops a little. Still, I’d say this is a win.