Michigan Football: 4 realistic candidates for defensive coordinator
Now that Jim Harbaugh is officially back as Michigan football head coach, who will be his next defensive coordinator? We look at four realistic candidates.
It has been a strange month or so for Michigan football fans, but the Wolverines got really good news this week when Jim Harbaugh finally announced his return.
It wasn’t that long ago that we were thinking about who Harbaugh’s replacement in Ann Arbor could be. Now that the NFL interest is over and he’s committed to Michigan football, the attention turns to his opening at defensive coordinator.
It’s obvious that Steve Clinkscale is going to be the co-defensive coordinator after reaching incentives in his contract that earned him that promotion. But the Wolverines still need to hire a replacement for Mike Macdonald and it feels like that person will be calling plays.
We previously looked at 10 possible candidates to replace Mike Macdonald, who departed for the Ravens, and now, here’s an attempt to narrow that list to four guys who seem most likely to be coordinating Michigan football’s defense in 2022.
Larry Foote
It seems like Larry Foote, who is currently coaching linebackers for the Tampa Bay Bucs is the top choice of a lot of fans and he should be. Not only was Foote an All-American playing for the Wolverines, but he’s a fast-rising name in the NFL and is poised, sort of like Macdonald was, to become a defensive coordinator.
And according to Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News, Foote is Harbaugh’s top candidate too:
"“As far as replacements, former Michigan linebacker Larry Foote, linebackers coach with the Tampa Bay Bucs, is on Jim Harbaugh’s list.”"
When Bucs OC Byron Leftwich was being interviewed for the Jags job, it seemed like Foote could be the DC if he was hired. He withdrew his name now, so unless Foote takes a DC elsewhere, it’s possible the Wolverines could get him.
The downside with Foote, who has said he would return to Michigan as a head coach or DC, is that he seems more interested in the NFL. Therefore, even if he was hired, he may not stay long.