Who Should be Michigan's Next Defensive Coordinator?

What a ride the last month has been for Michigan Football. Just 40 days ago we were subjected to hearing national media talk about how poorly Michigan would match up with Alabama. Now, Michigan is the reigning national champion, Jim Harbaugh is with the Chargers in pursuit of a Super Bowl, Jesse Minter is also gone to the NFL, and Sherrone Moore- the man who is undefeated as an acting head coach at Michigan -- is the new leader of the program.

After the gut punch of losing arguably three of the most important pieces on last year's staff in Jim Harbaugh, Jesse Minter, and strength coach Ben Herbert, the staff is slowly starting to come together again under Moore. The moves already made have been primarily internal hires to try and keep continuity and momentum. However, these few weeks are some of the most important for Moore. The staff decisions he makes will dictate the success of the program going forward. It's all a very careful balancing act of keeping what has made the program successful but also getting the most qualified people for the available roles. Some change is inevitable and the former University of Oklahoma offensive lineman now Michigan football head coach will have to figure out how to balance this change with not shifting too far away from what has allowed the Wolverines to reach the top of college football.

The most important staff position left to fill is the defensive coordinator role. Michigan won its national championship this last year in huge part due to their incredible defense. Despite the lack of elite recruiting talent, previous DC Jesse Minter did and incredible job of scheming ways to shut down opposing offenses and allow the players on the defense to play to their strengths.

This is going to be a crucial hire for Moore and here are some of the top candidates to fill the role.

Steve Clinkscale

Steve Clinkscale is Michigan's current defensive backs coach, passing game coordinator, and co-defensive coordinator. Before Michigan football, he served the same role for the Kentucky Wildcats- helping turn them into one of the best pass defenses in the SEC. He's done an incredible job both coaching the defensive backs and recruiting for the Wolverines. Originally from Ohio, Clinkscale has been great at helping the Wolverines win recruitments over the Buckeyes in that state.

On top of all that, Clinkscale has seemingly received Minter's endorsement to be his replacement in the role of DC. The holdup on promoting him into the position is his lack of prior experience with the Raven's defense scheme (which Michigan has implemented the last three years) prior to his time in Ann Arbor. I think that he would have enough experience with it at this point, however, there's no guarantee that this is what he would want to run as a defensive coordinator if given the chance.