Michigan Football: Breaking down hire of Albert Karschnia for recruiting

Michigan football has reportedly replaced Courtney Morgan with Albert Karschnia, the Director of Player Personnel for the Central Michigan Chippewas.

With Courtney Morgan’s departure to Washington recently, Michigan football was in need of a replacement. They reportedly have found their guy, hiring Central Michigan’s Director of Player Personnel Albert Karschnia, according to a tweet from MLive writer Aaron McMann.

His reported title is Director of Recruiting Operations. Karschnia is a Michigan native and alum who had previously worked for the Wolverines in an off-field capacity.

Karschnia is perhaps most notable for writing an inspiring letter to Coach Harbaugh thanking him for providing his first opportunity in the recruiting industry. He worked for two seasons as an assistant at Michigan before departing to take the job at Central Michigan in 2018.

During his time directing the Personnel department in Mount Pleasant, the Chippewas have seen a very successful run, both on-field and off-field.

Albert Karschnia’s track record was strong at Central Michigan

The Chippewas’ 2018 recruiting class, Karschnia’s first class there, ranked 121st nationally according to the 247Sports Composite Team Rankings, and 8th in the MAC, but steadily improved in each consecutive season, rising 103rd the following year.

These past two classes have seen the Chippewas land top-100 classes nationally, an objectively good result for a MAC program, pulling in the 87th ranked class in 2021 (2nd in the MAC), and the 79th ranked class this past cycle.

The Chippewas have also seen improved play on-field recently, going 19-13 with two MAC West titles these past three seasons under former Michigan assistant Jim McElwain.

While there are no specific parameters for the name of Karschnia’s apparent role, Director of Recruiting Operations, it likely will pull many of the same responsibilities that Courtney Morgan had as Director of Player Personnel, namely, identifying and scouting potential high school prospects, speaking with their coaches to gain valuable insight and background information, and working directly with on-field assistants to develop successful strategies for each individual recruitment.

How it fits with the current Director of Recruiting Aashon Larkins and Director of On-Campus Recruiting Christina DeRuyter is not yet confirmed.