Michigan football recruiting under Sherrone Moore, defensive coordinator search: 2024 updates by top insiders
The Michigan Wolverines are 2024 College Football Playoff national champions, but the program is in for a transition after Jim Harbaugh left to return to the NFL with the Los Angeles Chargers. Starting quarterback J.J. McCarthy is also leaving the program to enter the NFL Draft and the Wolverines will have some holes to fill up and down their roster. New Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore is tasked with keep Michigan football recruiting intact and he’ll put the finishing touches on his first recruiting class with 2024 College Football National Signing Day scheduled for Wednesday.
Moore is also looking to get a jump on the Class of 2025, with three hard commitments on the Michigan recruiting board and dozens of other offers out. Who will Moore target to round out the Class of 2024, how can Michigan get a jump on the Class of 2025 and who will join Moore on the Michigan football coaching staff? If you want to see the latest Michigan recruiting news and updates on the defensive coordinator search, be sure to see what the proven team of insiders are saying at The Michigan Insider, the 247Sports affiliate that covers Michigan.
The team at The Michigan Insider is providing on-the-ground updates on every development in the defensive coordinator coaching search, including insights from Sam Webb, Steve Lorenz, Zach Shaw and Alejandro Zuniga. The unrivaled insider team has the latest Michigan recruiting news and the inside scoop on the Michigan coaching search.
The team at The Michigan Insider already has several recruiting updates from Moore’s first week on the job, along with a list of candidates for the defensive coordinator opening. Head to The Michigan Insider now to see the latest news.
Sherrone Moore Michigan recruiting and coaching updates
A trio of Michigan coaches stopped by the school of 2025 five-star defensive lineman Nathaniel Marshall earlier this week. Marshall was considered a priority for Harbaugh’s staff, and that has carried over to the new regime. He has offers from some of the top schools around the country, and he has already visited Ann Arbor on several occasions, including the weekend of the rivalry win over Ohio State.
Marshall is the top player in Illinois for the 2025 class and is the No. 22 prospect overall, according to the 247Sports Composite rankings. With nearly 30 schools already giving him offers, Moore’s staff has shown that they want to keep Marshall a priority. He spoke with The Michigan Insider regarding his last visit to Ann Arbor, and the team of experts also has insight about when his next visit to campus will be.
Another player that Moore and his staff visited in the past week is 2025 four-star tight end Da’Saahn Brame in Kansas. A top 100 prospect according to 247Sports and the No. 4 tight end in the Class of 2025, Brame is coming off a prolific season where he caught 46 passes for 942 yards and 13 touchdowns as a junior and he’s already piled up 33 scholarship offers.
He has tremendous size at 6-foot-6 and 235 pounds and both of his parents were also Division I athletes at Kansas State. The Wolverines regularly utilize multiple tight ends in their power running formations and the program has produced several tight ends who have gone on to make an impact in the NFL. Could Brame be the next in that line and what does Moore and his staff need to do to win his services over programs like Alabama, Oregon, Kansas State and Colorado? There is currently a 247Sports Crystal Ball prediction for Brame, which you can see here.
As for the coaching staff, Moore is reportedly promoting tight ends coach Grant Newsome to offensive line coach. Newsome has been viewed as a rising star for several years, and he continues to make huge leaps as a young coach. He played on Michigan’s offensive line under Harbaugh from 2015-16 before suffering a knee injury that ended his playing career early. Newsome returned to Michigan in a formal coaching capacity as an assistant tight ends coach in 2018 before being promoted to tight ends coach in 2022.
The 26-year-old turned down potential careers in finance and politics to pursue football, which drew public admiration from Harbaugh last year. Michigan is replacing its entire starting offensive line, so Newsome has a big task ahead of him in his first year on the job. Read more about Michigan’s new offensive line coach here.
There are also some details about potential defensive coordinator candidates emerging from The Michigan Insider. Minter bolted for the NFL when Harbaugh offered him the defensive coordinator position in Los Angeles, leaving Moore with his first major decision as head coach. The Wolverines had the consensus No. 1 defense in college football last season, winning the national title by holding Washington’s top-ranked offense to just 13 points. Defensive line coach Mike Elston and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale are both options if Moore decides to promote from within.
Michigan also hasn’t been immune from players entering the transfer portal. They include three-star defensive lineman Reece Atteberry and three-star tackle Noah Stewart, who both entered the portal in recent days. However, one four-star commit had a strong take about his Michigan football offer, while the coaching staff is pursuing a star quarterback.
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