Athletic’s Chiefs beat writer: Michigan zeroing in on Joe Cullen for DC
Per The Athletic’s Chiefs beat writer Nate Taylor on today’s Athletic Football Show (at 24:07 in the podcast), U of M is hoping to hire Chiefs D-line coach Joe Cullen for defensive coordinator as early as today. Interesting that an NFL beat writer would single out Michigan despite other reports indicating NFL interest from the Seahawks.
https://open.spotify.com/episode/731Mqk8NlB0wEOVP2IMtKY?si=mRavRqxVQCKXyyf8ol93MA&t=1447
February 7th, 2024 at 2:49 PM ^
Is this seriously the best we can do?!? He may be a perfectly fine NFL D-Line coach, but he has almost no experience as a DC or as a college level coach/recruiter.
February 7th, 2024 at 3:03 PM ^
A quick glance at his wikipedia says he has 16 years of college coaching experience. Guessing he has recruited during that time. Light on actual coordinating duties sure, looks like 5 years as a DC (4 in college and 1 almost year at Jacksonville with Urbs).
So I'd say he has a good deal of college coaching experience, quite a bit more than Macdonald and Minter did. And not sure why that matters - football is football and this dude has a lot of experience coaching it.
The reality is that no NFL level DC is gonna come in and be a great recruiter but that's not why he'd get hired. Moore will have plenty of other good recruiters on staff to make up for that.
February 7th, 2024 at 3:06 PM ^
I'm not as worried about the recruiting side of thing since neither Minter nor Macdonald were huge recruiters. My recollection was that Don Brown wasn't a big recruiter other than identifying low ranked guys on the Northeast who would outplay their rating.
Even Sherrone Moore took a bit of a step back from recruiting it seemed when he became offensive coordinator. Other than offensive lineman it didn't seem like he was recruiting other positions. Whereas early he was the lead recruiter on guys like Dax Hill.
February 7th, 2024 at 3:14 PM ^
Sherrone went to Oklahoma. Probably why he'd be lead crooter on an Oklahoma kid...
February 7th, 2024 at 3:12 PM ^
93, I'm gonna be honest here - I've plain gotten cynical in the last month.
Recruiting (and retaining) top 100 players will now be done by comparing offer sheets. From 101-300, a combination of ties to schools, coaches + offer sheets. And as we've seen coaches bolting willy-nilly over the past month, the tie to coaches better not be the primary bond!
February 7th, 2024 at 3:16 PM ^
you could've said this about Mac and it would have been even more explicitly true
February 7th, 2024 at 3:07 PM ^
Hope is not a strategy.
February 7th, 2024 at 3:39 PM ^
Should hopefully be able to keep the DL intact if this hire does come to pass. Chiefs had a pretty darn good DL this year.
No idea if he can recruit or not, but honestly these days, your NIL does 90% of your recruiting for you for any recruit who's going to win you anything. If you're not willing to pay them, more often than not, they're going somewhere that will.
February 7th, 2024 at 3:41 PM ^
Moore is going to pair him with elite recruiters. Probably a younger co-DC type who will take over when Cullen returns to the pros after a hopefully successful stint here.
February 7th, 2024 at 6:20 PM ^
Will Tay Tay come visit him here? She seems to really like guys from the Chiefs.