Michigan Football: Grading Jim Harbaugh’s coordinator hires
By Nick Popio
Jim Harbaugh has essentially finalized his Michigan football coaching staff for 2022 with the hiring of Jesse Minter and the re-shuffling of his offensive brass.
Josh Gattis and Mike MacDonald are long gone and have left some pretty big shoes to fill. The duo will go down in Michigan football history as two of the best coordinators to ever call plays for the maize and blue. Both made a very strong, viable case to be Broyles award winners as the top coach for their respective position.
On offense, Michigan football now turns to Sherrone Moore as the man to work hand-in-hand with Matt Weiss. Moore did as good a job as anyone could ask for in the country by tutoring his unit to the Joe Moore Award as the nation’s premier offensive line group.
Weiss molded Cade McNamara into a guy who can be tasked to be the head signal-caller and follow in the footsteps of Tom Brady, Chad Henne, Denard Robinson, and his head coach.
Therefore McNamara performed at a championship level and made the plays he needed to, especially versus Wisconsin, Michigan State, Penn State, and Ohio State.
"I think he's their best and most valuable position coach."@nickbaumgardner talks Sherrone Moore and where Michigan goes with its vacant OC position.
— Michigan On BTN (@MichiganOnBTN) February 8, 2022
Full #B1GToday interview ➡️ https://t.co/9iW6P6IAWy pic.twitter.com/BJKdHmBLUE
In 2022 both Moore and Weiss have a grip on what is expected to be a very explosive offense with almost the entire core returning. Neither of them have been play-callers in the past, but this move should be a continuation of what we saw in 2021 on offense. I would give this grade a high B+ hire, trending towards and A-.
Grading Michigan football’s DC hire
Defensively it’s going to be different. There will be no Aidan Hutchinson, no David Ojabo, no Dax Hill, or no Josh Ross.
That right there alone is a steep mountain of production to replace for anyone calling the shots. So anticipating a regression from these men will be sadly mandatory. Jesse Minter, along with co-coordinator Steve Clinkscale will get to garner that improbable task.
By now every Michigan fan knows what Clinkscale is capable of as his secondary crew did a remarkable job in 2021, making the jump from 2020 under Don Brown.
D.J. Turner grew into the No. 1 corner by the end of the season and is arguably Michigan’s ace returner on defense in 22. Clinkscale also got the most out of Rod Moore and R.J. Moten who will presumably start alongside Turner this year.
Minter on the other hand is coming from a place where coaches just don’t succeed in Vanderbilt. His defense ranked near the bottom in the country. Not one player really stood out for the Commodores last season. Their leading sackers had two apiece and the most turnovers that they got were shared by a couple of guys.
There's good reason to doubt Jesse Minter can run Mac's D. There's nothing on his resume that suggests he's ever coached any of the Cover 7 stuff that Mac made such a huge part of the defense and, crucially, used to slow down the OSU passing game.
— Manuel Excel (@colintj) February 7, 2022
I realize that coaches want to prove themselves by accepting daunting challenges like in the case of Vanderbilt, but working there for even one year was not a smart decision on his part. If Minter would have come directly from the Ravens then this hire would have been applauded by basically everyone who cheers for the maize and blue.
That’s reason for Michigan football fans to be concerned, but thankfully Vanderbilt is nowhere in the vicinity to Michigan when it comes to talent and the overall program.
Next. Breaking down Harbaugh's OC and DC hires. dark
With the help of Clinkscale though, Minter shouldn’t get tested until October when they travel to Iowa. He has enough experience and wealth of aid to forge Michigan into a top 25 defense. He won’t be as elite as MacDonald was, making this a potentially risky C+ hire for me.