ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a proverbial shot over the bow, not unlike what Ryan Day did to Michigan football when he took over Ohio State.
As an interim head coach turned head coach, Ryan Day took over the Buckeyes and stole away two coaches from the Wolverines for his first year in Columbus. Now, new Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, who also was an interim head coach promoted to the head role, is returning the favor by stealing away running backs coach Tony Alford from OSU.
Alford replaces former running backs coach Mike Hart who departed the program this offseason. It was a big surprise, but Moore explained why Alford was the right choice to come in for the maize and blue.
“I mean, just his resume speaks for itself,” Moore said. “Who he is as a coach, as a mentor, as a recruiter. But more importantly, as a person.
“Known him for a long time. Obviously, he was on the other side — I don’t fault him too much for that! But I mean, as a person, you just get to know him as a person outside of that. He’s an incredible human being, an incredible mentor, an incredible coach. So we’re just super excited to have him on staff.”
But what made Alford an attractive candidate for Moore beyond the obvious tangibles?
As far as he sees it, having spent nine years at Ohio State and with a long track record of coaching running backs in his career, Alford brings not only experience but a different added perspective that may differ from the status quo in Ann Arbor. Moore feels that that should pay dividends as the regime change for the maize and blue takes shape, keeping the team and staff from getting too comfortable or set in their ways following a national championship season.
“Really, just the experience he has, what he’s done, and where he’s been — it’s just a different perspective,” Moore said. “It’s always good to get a different perspective — and you always do things the way you did it, sometimes you have to change a couple of things here and there but it’s always good to have another perspective and another viewpoint. Just because you did it one way before doesn’t mean it’s gonna work. Because you’ve always done this with us and you can’t do it another way. So just having that perspective from another way is really helpful for us.”
It is somewhat rare to see coaches move from one rival to another, but not unheard of. We mentioned Day usurping Greg Mattison, who has coached at Michigan football, Notre Dame and Ohio State. Al Washington joined Mattison in Columbus, but it was a surprise he coached in Ann Arbor at all, given he was the son of a Buckeye legend.
And most notably, Bo Schembechler was on Woody Hayes’ OSU staff once upon a time while his successor, Gary Moeller, wasn’t just a former Buckeye coach, he was a team captain for Ohio State.