Michigan Wolverines news: U-M steals OSU RB coach, decision on Juwan Howard is coming 'in short order'

Wednesday was a great day to be a fan of the Michigan Wolverines. Well, at least a fan of the Michigan football team.

There were a bunch of rumors about Michigan football making a "jaw-dropping" hire for its open running backs coach position, following the departure of Mike Hart.

Nobody knew what the insiders meant by "jaw-dropping" until it was announced that Michigan football had hired away Tony Alford, the Ohio State running backs coach, for the same position with the Michigan Wolverines. It's an incredible win for Sherrone Moore, and one with a lasting impact.

Alford is thought by many to be one of the best running back coaches in the country. He's been elite as a recruiter over the years and has done a stellar job developing talent at Ohio State. Alford was originally hired by Urban Meyer but he will complete the Michigan football coaching staff of Sherrone Moore.

What's even better is that this background check was done quickly, or so it seems. I wonder if the background check as being done, so this could be announced like it was, meaning Alford was coaching spring ball at Ohio State at the same time he was waiting for a background check. I'm not sure if that's true but based on the timing of this announcement, compared to the other assistant coach hires, it seems plausible.

Either way, it was awesome and we'll have more thoughts on what it means for Michigan football later today.

Decision on Juwan Howard "will come in short order"

We don't know if the Michigan Wolverines will have a new head coach next season, but we will find out "in relatively short order" according to Michigan AD Warde Manuel according to a report from Alejandro Zuniga of 247 Sports.

Michigan basketball ended its season with a nine-point loss to Penn State in the Big Ten tournament. The Michigan Wolveriners went 8-24 and set a program record for losses. It was also the second straight year of missing the NCAA tournament.

It seemed like Howard would return until a few days ago, when John U. Bacon reported that Manuel "might not be willing to protect" Juwan Howard. But soon enough, we'll know or at least we should.