As far as what Michigan football will be in 2024, it’s something of a mystery.
Most who paid attention coming into the 2023 season weren’t exactly shocked that the Wolverines went 15-0 and won the national championship. Given the returning players and coaching staff, despite multiple coaching suspensions (Jim Harbaugh for six games and Sherrone Moore for one), the leadership on the team from the player level appeared to be one that could carry the maize and blue to the promised land. And that ended up being the case.
But the roster has had a great deal of turnover: Most starters on the offense have moved on. The defense features numerous returning players, but the entire coaching staff on that side of the ball moved on. So what will give in 2024?
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg put together a thinkpiece about the coaching additions around college football (subscription required) and when it comes to the maize and blue, he sees a ton of upside — though a group that’s hoping more to reload and have continuity than anything else.
Michigan’s staff has a bit more continuity, at least on offense, where new coach Sherrone Moore promoted quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell to fill his role of coordinator and shifted tight ends coach Grant Newsome to fill Moore’s other main responsibility, the offensive line. Both moves make sense for continuity, but Campbell, in particular, will be watched as he has more influence over Michigan’s offense. Campbell worked well within the Jim Harbaugh-constructed offense and helped J.J. McCarthy last fall, but he also comes from the Joe Moorhead tree and could try some different elements to attack defenses, especially as Michigan figures out a murky quarterback situation.
Michigan’s entire defensive staff is NFL-bound, and Moore is turning to longtime NFL assistant Wink Martindale to lead the unit as coordinator. Martindale served as Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator under coach John Harbaugh and had Michigan’s past two defensive coordinators, Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter, working under him. The Wolverines’ Ravens-based defensive structure probably won’t change much. The 60-year-old has not coached in college since 2003, when he was Western Kentucky’s defensive coordinator, and the personnel landscape has changed dramatically. Michigan will need to make smart position coach hires around Martindale, but is set to benefit from the return of players such as cornerback Will Johnson, safety Rod Moore and linemen Mason Graham and Kenneth Grant.
Perhaps the most interesting part is his note about Kirk Campbell — elevated to offensive coordinator — having come from the Joe Moorhead tree. Moorhead — whether at Penn State or Oregon — was thought to be something of an offensive genius. Michigan has had another come from his tree, Josh Gattis, who won the Broyles Award in 2021, but otherwise got mixed reviews for his tenure in Ann Arbor.
On defense, the question, more so, will be what will Wink Martindale do? Of course, the scheme the past two years was heavily influenced by what he ran with the Ravens, but it is somewhat different. Will he acclimate to the existing scheme or will the existing scheme acclimate to him? With other unannounced hires — defensive tackle coach Greg Scruggs, linebacker coach Brian Jean-Mary and defensive back coach LaMar Morgan — how will their work with the players match their predecessors? The Wolverines saw great things from Mike Elston and Steve Clinkscale, specifically, so it will be incumbent on the new staff to work well with the existing personnel.