Michigan Tuesday: Jimmy's Assistant Coaches

Whether you love or hate Jim Harbaugh you have to admit the guy can hire strong assistant coaches.  It makes a ton of sense why Saban loses basically his entire coaching staff every year.   There isn't a program in the country that wouldn't want Alabama's high level of success over the last 10 years.   So maybe one of the assistants can replicate it at your favorite University.  Michigan has fished from that lake bringing in 2 offensive coordinators with the latest being Josh Gattis.

What is interesting to me, is that Michigan has had nowhere near the success Alabama has on the field and programs come after Jimmy's assistants every off season.   In college, assistant coaches not only have to develop and coach players on the field, they also have to recruit.   You could be an average coach but an elite recruiter and get a pay raise and a promotion from another program.

What I find interesting is two guys:

Chris Partridge:  Jimmy hired Chris to his staff in 2015 from Paramus Catholic HS to help recruit Rashan Gary. Chris prior college coaching experience was one year at the Citadel.  In 2016, Chris was promoted to an on-field coaching position.  During that time, Chris also became a top tier recruiter and teams started to come after him every year, including Saban.   Last week, Kiffin made an offer he couldn't turn down, Co-DC with another Harbaugh assistant DJ Durkin.  That is a pretty quick rise up the coaching ladder from high school head coach to SEC DC.

Anthony Campanile started his college coaching experience in 2012 when he joined Rutgers the team he played for.   He was there through 2015 coaching on both sides of the ball.   He then moved to BC where his highest position was Co-DC in 2018.  Anthony joined Harbaugh's staff in 2019 and in the past week has had offers from BC as it's DC and Rutgers.   BC has moved on and it now seems to be a Michigan - Rutgers battle for his coaching services this season.   (His brother was the interim head coach at Rutgers after they fired Chris Ash)  There were some suggesting that Anthony was going to be a head coach candidate for Rutgers when the deal initially didn't work out with Greg Schiano.   He has been here one year and his career seems to have sky rocketed.

A guy named Nate Woody was on Harbaugh's defensive staff (not an on-field position) this season and got job as Army's DC last week as well.

So with Jimmy having one and probably more coaching positions open, I'm not worried at all about him finding a quality guy to fill the role.  Though it would be nice if some of these quality coaches equaled more wins on the field.

• If your concerned about more guys heading to the transfer portal, I would keep an eye on Chuck Filiaga and Donavan Jeter.   Both lines will have open competition this Spring for starting spots.    

• Michigan is expected to have 10 players enrolling early.  8 are currently enrolled. 

• Khaleke Hudson has been invited to participate in the Senior Bowl.

from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2020/01/michigan-tuesday-jimmys-assistant.html