stephen adegoke
A pair of headlines involving Michigan Football this Friday, the reported hiring of LaMar Morgan as defensive backs coach and the decision of S Keon Sabb to enter the transfer portal. We'll check off both of these in today's short combo piece:
Introducing: LaMar Morgan, DBs Coach
If you read my piece about the new coaches on Wednesday and then tuned out until today, you are probably stunned since I introduced a DBs coach in that piece, Stephen Adegoke. Well, as it turned out, after Adegoke accepted the Michigan job, DeMeco Ryans of the Houston Texans put on the full court press to keep Adegoke's services. As it seems to go these days, if a college team finds themselves seriously bidding against the NFL for a coach's services, they are usually going to lose that battle, as Michigan did. Thus, we have a new new DBs coach to introduce:
Michigan is hiring Louisiana defensive coordinator LaMar Morgan as defensive backs coach, sources tell @247Sports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) February 16, 2024
Morgan impressed Michigan during the interview process and came recommended from ex-Michigan DC Jesse Minter, whom he worked with at Vanderbilt.… pic.twitter.com/rYiiXy4O8M
Morgan was one of the two finalists alongside Adegoke for the job, so it was a pretty easy pivot for Michigan when they lost Adegoke. And while some may view Morgan as "Plan B" his profile offers lots of reasons to get excited. While Morgan is not nearly as young as Adegoke, he is still under the age of 40, keeping the theme of this very young staff. He was a safety for the University of Louisiana-Lafayette in the mid-2000s before going into coaching, which began as a GA under James Franklin at Vanderbilt in 2012-13, the last time the Commodores were any good. From there Morgan moved on to be a DBs coach at Western Carolina in 2014-15, then coached by Mark Speir, followed by a stint at University of Louisiana-Monroe in 2016-17. After that he did a year at Houston as the safeties coach under Major Applewhite (2018) and then returned to his alma mater Louisiana-Lafayette as an assistant head coach/cornerbacks coach.
Morgan held that job down for two seasons (2019-20) before leaving for one year to take his first P5 job, as cornerbacks coach of Vanderbilt under new DC... Jesse Minter. The two worked together for one season but when Minter departed for Michigan, Morgan headed straight back to ULL, where he got to be his alma mater's defensive coordinator under new head coach Michael Desormeaux, in addition to coaching the safeties. For the past two seasons Morgan has coordinated ULL's defense, the team finishing 29th in SP+ defense in 2022 and 107th this past season. What do we take away from that? Probably not all that much, as there was likely a bit of a talent decline with another year removed from Billy Napier's juggernaut teams that went 23-2 between 2020-21.
[AFTER THE JUMP: More news]
Things Discussed:
- The coaching staff is finally all younger than Brian (this happened sometime in the Bronze Age; he was looking around like "I thought stone tools were fine, but okay I guess we're all going into this mining business.")
- Clink: It wasn't about the money; he needed to be the DC, and Sherrone needed experience. If he was only staying for the buyout it wasn't going to be great for either party.
- We're going with guys who watched the Usher performance at the Super Bowl and didn't recognize any of the songs.
- Stephen Adegoke: Rising star. Getting a Mo Linguist a little earlier than we got Mo, but need to worry that an NFL team will come for him in a year or two. Guy is 28. Was a Michigan GA in 2021, NFL position coach in three years. Jesse Minter trajectory. Ryan doesn't want to let him go. When's the last time an OSU coach left for a better job?
- Losses to coaching changes despite NCAA rule that allows your team to get raided in these situations: Amorion Walker (Ole Miss NIL), Jalen Smith (literally every coach he knew is gone), and normal attrition.
- Casula: Great recruiter, needs to answer for his offensive analyst job in 2019, because Gattis was terrible.
- NIL: Sea change. Michigan's new partnerships and hiring GMs for the football program and an NIL GM for Athletics are going to ward off the poaching efforts. Could have done it earlier and maybe kept JJ.
- Saw how Alabama's roster got raided, and they had to hold off on announcing the Seahawks had hired away their OL coach and OC until their portal had closed—Michigan hasn't had that.
- Huge impact. You hear what Bryce Underwood is making ($3M) per year at LSU and think what will someone pay for a one-year rental on a DT who changes the entire shape of your defense?
- Michigan's NIL program can now show recruits they'll have sustainability. ROI for the investors too.
- Why are our donors different? Because they're not money-launderers.
- Basketba—oops we're out of time.
[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]
Last year I did an offseason series looking at changes via NFL decisions/coaching changes/transfer portal for every team in the B1G. While I hope to still do that, it hasn't yet felt appropriate when Michigan is going through major changes of their own on. Instead, it feels like a better idea to do a piece looking at some of the changes that have been made to the coaching staff we have yet to cover at MGoBlog, as well as some NIL and off-field staffing news.
Introducing: Greg Scruggs, DL Coach
Though not yet official, it appears that Wisconsin DL coach Greg Scruggs will be joining Michigan's staff. Insiders on both the Michigan and Wisconsin side have confirmed the news and Josh Henschke tweeted on Tuesday that Scruggs has begun calling Michigan players to announce his arrival. Seems like it's happening.
In which case, what's the story with Scruggs? Firstly he's 33 years old, beginning a theme of many of these coaches that Sherrone is targeting being on the younger side. Scruggs is from Cincinnati and played at St. Xavier in Ohio, home of Michigan DL recruit Ted Hammond, among many other players. Scruggs played his college ball as a defensive end at Louisville, competing on the 2010 and 2011 teams coached by Charlie Strong, that featured young Sherrone Moore on staff as a GA. That is the basis for Scruggs' relationship with Moore, which was then followed by Scruggs' transition to the NFL. He was a 7th round pick by Seattle who played some in 2012 but then was mostly a reserve piece after that, seldom competing in actual games (he did, however, participate in a photoshoot where he modeled kilts). After winning Super Bowl LI from the sidelines with New England in February 2017, Scruggs called it quits as a player and went into coaching.
Scruggs returned to his hometown as a coach, joining Luke Fickell's staff at Cincinnati for the 2018 season. He spent two years as Director of Player Development, before getting the DL Coach job for the 2020 season. Over two seasons running Fickell's DL, Scruggs coached some talented players who were dominant within the American Athletic Conference. The 2020 Cincinnati defense featured one 1st Team All-AAC lineman and two 2nd teamers. The 2021 defense didn't have any 2nd teamers, but had two 1st Team All-AAC linemen. Among the players to earn honors under Scruggs were Curtis Brooks (6th round pick), Myjai Sanders (3rd round pick), Marcus Brown, and Elijah Ponder. The latter two went undrafted but Ponder got a cup of coffee as a UDFA in Tampa and recently signed in the CFL. For an American Athletic Conference team, Cincinnati had talented, strong defensive lines and Scruggs had a hand in coaching and developing those.
[AFTER THE JUMP: the other hires]
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