mike elston

According to reports, Michigan DL coach Mike Elston is headed to the L.A. Chargers to join Jim Harbaugh's staff: 

Michigan DL coach Mike Elston is expected to take the same job with the #Chargers, per source.

Elston, who previously coached at Notre Dame from 2010-2021, played an integral role in the Wolverines’ success the last two seasons. Now he follows Jim Harbaugh to L.A. pic.twitter.com/MQaUcoFS86

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) February 6, 2024

A player at Michigan from 1993-96, Elston had a long coaching career before joining the Wolverines in 2022. He coached most famously at Notre Dame, where he spent 2010-2021, first on special teams duties before moving to the defensive line. His work with ND drew wide acclaim and it was perceived as a major win when Harbaugh added Elston to the staff before the '22 season, after DL coach Shaun Nua joined Lincoln Riley's new USC staff. Over the past two seasons, Elston has helped coach and develop one of the most dominant defensive lines in Michigan history, one that ran roughshod over the Washington offensive line in the National Championship Game. 

The past week or two was a seeming battle between Michigan and the LA Chargers for Elston's services, but just like Ben Herbert, Harbaugh won out. Elston's vacancy means that's another coach that Sherrone Moore will have to hire, as the staff looks more and more like a nearly brand new one, rather than continuity from the previous regime. Moreover, Moore will have to work quickly to ensure that Michigan's defensive line is not raided by other schools in the portal, now that Elston has moved on. 

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The second of two Hellos from the past couple days after Jaden Smith yesterday, today we're covering DT Owen Wafle from New Jersey. Originally a Notre Dame commit, Wafle was in the Irish's 2024 class for a year before suddenly de-committing in May without ever having visited Michigan. The crystal balls swung towards the Wolverines, he finally took his OV to Ann Arbor this past weekend, and the foregone conclusion became official. Let's break it down: 

GURU RATINGS 

Wafle is one of those prospects right on the cusp of 4* status, not there in the On3 consensus because they weight their own ratings heavily and are the outlet most-down on Wafle, while he is there in 247. According to Seth's five-star scale, Wafle is a 4* by the slimmest of margins, registering at 4.01. In our database of every Michigan DT commit since 1990, Wafle is almost smack-dab in the exact middle, 32nd out of 68. In terms of his measurements, there's slight disagreement about whether he's 6'2" or 6'3", while the weight discrepancy between 247/Rivals (290) and On3/ESPN (~270) is simply a matter of recency. As we will detail in the scouting section, 290 is the updated number, as Wafle has added weight.  

[AFTER THE JUMP: Strong, quick, and hard-working]

This week Michigan landed their first 2024 recruit in some time in DL Ted Hammond from Ohio. Hammond's recruitment moved pretty quickly and when rumors initially broke that the Wolverines would be getting a commitment from Ohio, there were several other players top of mind that were more likely to be the commit than Hammond, simply because they'd been recruited for much longer. Instead it was Hammond, a name who only started to be circulated recently, and it didn't take long for Jim Harbaugh to get the job done. Today we will be saying hello to the newest pickup: 

GURU RATINGS 

Hammond checks in in the "somewhere between 3.5* and true 4*" territory, inside the top 400 but not yet cracking the top 300, where you'd be an accepted 4*. Among all DTs that we have in our database back to 1990, Hammond sits pretty much smack dab in the middle in terms of rating, not a blue chipper but not a stab in the dark. He measures in at an accepted 6'5" and somewhere in the 260 to 270 range in terms of weight, already a solid size for a junior.   

[AFTER THE JUMP: A solid prospect]