Defensive coaches announced; Hart outgoing. Michigan has finally finished asking every one of their new defensive hires if they have ever run a vacuum refurbishment company with many negative reviews and officially announced them:

Moore's first staff is led by Don "Wink" Martindale, U-M's Matt and Nicole Lester Family Defensive Coordinator, who brings 19 years of NFL coaching experience to the program. Martindale was the architect of the defensive scheme that Michigan has run for the past three seasons and will continue to utilize as the framework for its 2024 unit.

The staff includes defensive line coach Greg Scruggs, linebackers coach/run game coordinator Brian Jean-Mary and defensive backs coach/pass game coordinator LaMar Morgan. The Wolverines have also added former defensive back Brad Hawkins as a graduate assistant coach.

There has been some chatter online about how Martindale didn't quite run the Ravens Defense as Michigan fans understand it via the lens of Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter—he was much more blitz heavy and ran more man defense—so the explicit statement that Martindale is here to change nothing is interesting. Reassuring? I don't know.

Also in "change nothing, do the same thing," LaMar Morgan is here largely on the recommendation of one guy:

"LaMar is someone that I have enjoyed getting to know through this process. He came highly recommended by Jesse Minter and I saw why he is respected as an top notch defensive backs coach during our conversations. He is an excellent teacher and communicator, and his passion for football and for helping young men achieve their goals showed through in his interview. I am excited to have LaMar mentoring our defensive secondary and coordinating the passing game."

Minter-recommended G5 DC becoming secondary coach: okay.

Unfortunately, Angelique Chengelis is reporting that Mike Hart will not return as a running backs coach next year. Hart does not have an instant landing spot elsewhere, and it's well past the usual coaching carousel, so it seems like this was a decision from Moore. There had been rumors about a lot of conflict between Harbaugh and Hart… but there are rumors about conflict between Harbaugh and everyone. 

[After THE JUMP: squeeze the money tree until it withers]

Private equity, the sport. If you were wondering what the Big Ten and SEC were getting together to talk about, it was the usual: screwing everyone else in the name of more money. Ross Dellenger:

 

In a proposal socialized with administrators this week, the Big Ten and SEC would combine to earn about 58% of the CFP’s base distribution — a figure that will certainly grow in participation distribution as their individual schools earn more revenue for qualifying and advancing through the playoffs. The figure would greatly exceed the ACC and Big 12’s combined distribution number, which is expected to be around 31%. The remaining amount (roughly 10%) will be distributed to Notre Dame and the 64 Group of Five teams.

The way this has worked with the basketball tournament is that teams—conferences really—get more money based on the number of games their teams play in the tourney. That model makes sense and is more or less fair. Here the two major conferences want to bake in a revenue advantage they were always going to have anyway. The Big SEC wasn't satisfied with ripping apart a 100-year-old conference; the strip-mining must continue until there's nothing left.

Apparently there's been enough anger at the idea of the two byes being reserved for the Big Ten and SEC champions to table that proposal. Not that a conference champion in a league with 18 teams and 9 games is particularly easy to determine. And the pending implosion of the ACC whenever their grant of rights expires or is successfully wrangled by the lawyers means the Big Ten and SEC will balloon to 20, 22, or 24 teams, rendering any idea of a conference championship completely ludicrous.

I guess at that point you can have 12-team divisions and a conference championship at the Rose Bowl, or something.

Cease your coaching wishlists? Sam Webb has said as much but here's CBS's Matt Norlander on the state of Juwan Howard's job:

Michigan. A job a lot of people in the industry believe should open, but one that seems more likely than not to remain Juwan Howard's. Wolverines AD Warde Manuel has vocalized support for Howard who, somehow, only has an eight-win team five days into March. Michigan's record since Howard became coach is 87-70 with a 49-46 Big Ten mark. I also wonder if chief assistant Phil Martelli, who turns 70 this year and has been an important presence, is looking to potentially retire.

Like everyone else, I am completely flabbergasted that Howard could keep his job after this season. Not only is Michigan going to finish last in the Big Ten for the first time in living memory (non-Craig Ross edition), they're going to finish last by four or five games. On top of that, there is almost nothing that could happen next year to get Michigan to a spot where Howard wouldn't be fired. If you assume Dug McDaniel is hitting the portal, the best-case list of returning contributors is Tarris Reed, Nimari Burnett, and Will Tschetter. The end.

It is close to inconceivable that a recruiting class with one top-50 wing and a couple of PGs ranked around 100th plus a second-year George Washington will be enough to close the gap between Michigan and .500, let alone the tournament. The portal can only do so much. Unfortunately I can't find this tweet but I seent it: teams that had 7+ transfers on their team this year top out at .500-ish. Transfers are great when you can punch in Chaundee Brown into a three-and-D role but too many and your team looks disjointed. Like Michigan, except not 183rd in defensive efficiency. Even mercenaries have more dignity than that.

JJ is flying up boards. It has been a delightful offseason on sports twitter, where Michigan State and Ohio State fans alternate between "Michigan lost EVERYONE, it's OVER" and "all these guys suck and should not be drafted." Between this year's Michigan draft class and Connor Stallions it has never been clearer that the vast majority of _SU fans know about as much ball as a hedgehog.

Anyway, Twitter has been awash in draft analysts sitting down to watch JJ McCarthy's film and saying "guys… guys… GUYS" ever more frantically. Here's Dan Orlovsky:

JJ McCarthy

Making the very difficult look simple@GetUpESPN @Espngreeny @richeisen @AdamSchefter @RealTannenbaum pic.twitter.com/xmJvCoX63I

— Dan Orlovsky (@danorlovsky7) March 4, 2024

There's talk about McCarthy leaping past Jayden Daniels:

J.J. McCarthy may be QB3.

It is smoke-screen season, and I very well may be getting hooked by it. But in Indianapolis, I heard significantly more interest and excitement for how high Michigan QB J.J. McCarthy might go relative to how high LSU QB Jayden Daniels might go.

My sense is that Daniels is not locked into an early draft slot and that the league has turned its attention elsewhere. McCarthy is a strong candidate to go before Daniels in April.

Hell, Mel Kiper just had a segment where he said that between Drake Maye and McCarthy for the #2 spot, "I'm talking this morning to people before the show and all I hear is J.J. McCarthy."

Sainristil gauntlet. Just makes it look easy pic.twitter.com/ZNbWWJjkZN

— Billy M (@BillyM_91) March 1, 2024

Other combine stuff. A lot of Michigan players didn't test, preferring to wait for Michigan's pro day. One guy who did was Mike Sainristil:

Mike Sainristil, CB, Michigan: The 5-foot-9, 182-pound Sainristil is at the top of that nickel cornerback group. He solidified himself as a late-Day 2 prospect on Friday, jumping 40 inches in the vertical, jumping 10-foot-11 in the broad and running a 4.47-second 40-yard dash. For a converted receiver, his ball skills and change-of-direction ability really stand out; he had six interceptions in 2023. Teams that are looking for an immediate starter at nickel have to be excited about Sainristil's workout. – Reid

Sainristil is looked at as the top nickel in a year with a ton of nickels:

This is the year to get a nickel corner.

You’ve probably already heard that it’s a great class for offensive linemen (it is utterly amazing) and wide receivers (it’s great, but probably a little gassed at this point). The third position that I think is both rich and deep? Slot cornerback.

The headliner is Michigan’s Mike Sainristil. A two-way player in college who initially landed at Michigan as a receiver, Sainristil switched to defense only in 2022 after the departure of Dax Hill, a first-rounder in that year’s draft selected by the Bengals. At 5-foot-9 and 182 pounds, Sainristil is pretty much limited to the slot on an NFL defense—but he’s quick as a wink, super explosive, and has the ball skills expected of an ex–wide receiver. Only one player ran a quicker short shuttle than Sainristil (4.01 seconds), and he looked smooth as butter in the gauntlet drill.

Also:

• Michigan nickel Mike Sainristil has been a Wolverines fan favorite for his uncanny knack for making huge plays. He’s a favorite of NFL coaches, who rave about his smarts and instincts.

“He’s super smart and was the leader of a team that had a lot of great leaders and then won a national title,” an NFL coach said. “What’s not to love? Well, aside from his size, but the guy just keeps showing up on film.”

His size is a concern at 5-9, 182 pounds, but no one doubts his toughness, and he tested well, running a 4.47-second 40 with a 40-inch vertical and a 10-11 broad jump. He will make an impact wherever he goes.

And there was this quote from Washington WR Jalen McMillan:

“He was pissing me off all game,” McMillan said. “He was calling out formations, calling out routes we were gonna run, lining up in zone — when, in reality, he was in man — and lining up in man … while in zone. He’s a great player.”

My main worry about next year's defense is what happens without Sainristil. Aside from all the plays he made there were all the plays other teams did not make because Sainristil got Michigan in the right defense.

Etc: Donor fatigue is going to set in. Revenue sharing ASAP, please. Louis Riddick on ball-knowers. Details of how Alabama sniped DeBoer in two days.