Mike Elston new DL coach
BREAKING: #NotreDame defensive line coach Mike Elston is expected to leave South Bend for the same position at #Michigan.
— Tom Loy (@TomLoy247) January 13, 2022
Story: https://t.co/8wNGFam7cJ#IrishIllustrated @247Sports pic.twitter.com/xMDtaDNZRk
January 13th, 2022 at 2:42 PM ^
HOLY SHIT, great hire - he had a ton of studs on their DL, also has experience with their LBs, and crucially, was their recruiting coordinator under Kelly. Needless to say we've lost out on our share of guys to them over the years.
Welcome back!
EDIT TO ADD: To hell with notre dame.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:48 PM ^
Clearly Harbaugh is leaving shortly, I see.
(really shouldn't be necessary, but... /s)
January 13th, 2022 at 3:00 PM ^
This was my first thought. If there was any chance that he wasn't coming back, surely they would have waited on the head coach higher to let him get whom he wanted for DL.
So this post feels like we got both a head coach and a DL coach, and both are home runs. Should be a posbang!
January 13th, 2022 at 3:08 PM ^
Does Harbaugh make this hire himself? I agree it certainly seems like a positive sign because I doubt Elston would want to come on board if he didn’t know who his boss was going to be. The ONLY other explanation that seems plausible would be if he was told UM would be hiring internally if Harbaugh were to leave, therefore not jeopardizing his spot if we went with a new coach who would want to bring in his own staff.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:21 PM ^
The head coach handles the hires, the AD approves the hires. Even with the “internal hire” scenario, that would imply Michigan knows Harbaugh is 100% gone, they know who is taking over, and THAT coach would be making this hire. The sum of which wouldn’t happen without it getting out into the public. That’s three bits of juicy info that would get leaked.
This is 100% Harbaugh making the hire.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:39 PM ^
It's Harbaugh's staff. To go anywhere where the head coach position is open is a gamble. And for a guy who had a pretty nice gig at ND, there would seem to be little reason to take that gamble, even if he is going to his alma mater. (He's had chances to come here before and turned us down.)
January 13th, 2022 at 3:08 PM ^
Can’t say it’s a sure thing until a new deal is announced.
But this is a very strong sign.
Seems like a great hire on multiple levels.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:11 PM ^
Also a coach wouldn’t come here if he thought the head coach was leaving as he may not be coming to a job then
January 13th, 2022 at 3:14 PM ^
J, upvoting your post, I noticed your name, making me curious if a "humich" is like a samich.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:09 PM ^
Sam Webb agrees with you
January 13th, 2022 at 3:30 PM ^
Sorry, it’s hard to tell who you are responding to. What Sam’s opinion on this?
January 13th, 2022 at 3:19 PM ^
I'm more excited about him if he really is their recruiting coordinator. I know lots of Domers were optimistic they'd be able to be legit national title contenders soon because they recruiting had taken an uptick in 2022 and I believe especially 2023
If you can recruit a kid to South Bend, no reason we can't poach a few of them to Ann Arbor. We're real similar
January 13th, 2022 at 3:27 PM ^
The schools are similar, Ann Arbor and South Bend are nothing alike though.
January 13th, 2022 at 4:22 PM ^
Agreed
January 13th, 2022 at 3:31 PM ^
If you can recruit a kid to South Bend, no reason we can't poach a few of them to Ann Arbor. We're real similar
That is complete and utter bullshit; Ann Arbor is nothing like South Bend. South Bend is a shithole, while Ann Arbor is consistently rated one of the best cities in the country...
January 13th, 2022 at 4:19 PM ^
Remain calm. I have been in both cities. I know.
I'm saying the schools, the football traditions, climates, etc. are real similar and the stuff that probably attracts kids to Notre Dame is stuff you can easily use to attract kids to Ann Arbor
January 13th, 2022 at 3:36 PM ^
Ehh, not really. I think you’re underselling the sway that Notre Dame has with the elite Catholic high schools, especially for the kids who are actually Catholic. Other schools can pull those kids too, but that helps ND out a bit with some kids.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:40 PM ^
Yep, he was the defensive line coach, recruiting coordinator and run game coordinator.
January 13th, 2022 at 4:45 PM ^
Elston brings that reputation and was interim D-Coordinator. The biggest sign Harbaugh is likely staying is that this hire cost ALOT! The increase in assistant coaching salaries was a big want of Harbaugh.
January 13th, 2022 at 5:44 PM ^
January 15th, 2022 at 2:14 PM ^
Sounds very good.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:43 PM ^
Wow. I almost started a thread about this today because there was a small amount of speculation out there but I didn’t want to get my hand slapped. Great hire!
January 13th, 2022 at 3:05 PM ^
Hand slap avoided - let the posbang commence!
January 13th, 2022 at 3:07 PM ^
I will slap your hand for this.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:43 PM ^
I don’t understand this hire, why would a coach leaving for the NFL do this? /s
Jokes aside, how good is this hire? I can’t say I know anything about the ND coaching staff.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:45 PM ^
He’s a very highly thought of recruiter. Big upgrade in that department over Nua.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:00 PM ^
Excellent, falling upwards is good. Very good.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:06 PM ^
I was gonna say, is this another Mo Linguist -> Steve Clinkscale transition where we actually end up with a better coach?
January 13th, 2022 at 3:25 PM ^
I won’t pretend that I follow ND enough to really judge his “coaching” abilities, but I have heard how good he is on the recruiting trail.
ND fans seem pretty upset by this, so I’m assuming that means he’s a pretty damn good coach.
January 13th, 2022 at 4:12 PM ^
Jerry Tillery, Stephen Tuitt, Louis Nix III, and Sheldon Day we’re all phenomenal lineman under him. I think he had a defensive line with two all-Americans at the same time on it. He can coach and he can recruit. He’s been to the playoffs twice.
This is a huge step up from Nua and also a big surprise. Michigan was going after a few southern guys that had ties to Mike because Harbaugh believed Elston didn’t want to leave Notre Dame. He’s tried to hire him a few times.
Nua was a recruiting liability and was a so-so coach. Elston is a Mattison equivalent if you ask me. Michigan best lines of the last 30 years had Mattison around for them. Elston is in the same ball-park and should help bring in some higher end guys.
January 13th, 2022 at 6:52 PM ^
Maybe like Mattison with respect to recruiting/coaching but hopefully not on the repeated traitor bit.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:33 PM ^
Speaking of Clink, Sam brought up something interesting on the show yesterday (I think, might have been day before) that I had forgotten about. Clink's contract states he will get some kind of co-coordinator designation if our pass defense was top 20, and it was. Wonder how that will shake out, but then again Sherrone Moore was also promoted to co-coordinator before this season and that worked out pretty well.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:50 PM ^
Clink's contract states he will get some kind of co-coordinator designation if our pass defense was top 20, and it was.
This is one of the factors Sam Webb mentioned yesterday in his extended comment throwing cold water on the notion of Robinson coming here. Robinson wouldn't leave TAMU simply as a lateral move to be DL here—he'd have to be offered a staff position sweetener like CO-DC, but Clink already has his hands on that now.
The other is money—Robinson was making over $800K, and apparently he just got bumped to over a million. That was very unlikely to happen here.
January 13th, 2022 at 4:42 PM ^
Clinksdale is a great coach and I probably should ignore this since I am happy with him but can we say with certainty he is a better coach than Mo Linguist?
January 13th, 2022 at 6:55 PM ^
I was looking at the reddit thread on this, and the ND guys seem to think the head coach and another coach were the ones who reeled in the bigger names for ND. However, they were very high on him developing talent.
January 13th, 2022 at 3:44 PM ^
A quick glance at ND twitter and message boards show their fans are freaking out about losing him so that's a great sign, on multiple levels.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
So Harbaugh hired a guy without promising to still be here? Things feel good.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
I've been hoping for this out loud for a long time, especially when we were unsure of Nua. Slam dunk hire and an upgrade. The man is a beastly recruiter!
January 13th, 2022 at 3:26 PM ^
On good authority, Elston reached out to UM.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Seems like solid hire.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Great hire. Elston>Nua. LFG.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
*In Brian Kelly voice* FAAAAAMLY
January 13th, 2022 at 3:06 PM ^
I haven’t even won all my gaaames yeeet
January 13th, 2022 at 3:16 PM ^
Which one?
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Was expecting the A&M DL coach, but this is even better
Quite a few 2023 top 100 guys committed to ND that had Elston as their primary recruiter and I'm also pretty sure that Michigan admissions would take ND credits...
January 13th, 2022 at 2:46 PM ^
Webb said Robinson is getting a raise to stay at A&M. $875,000 to 1.3 million per year.
January 13th, 2022 at 2:57 PM ^
For a DL coach. T. Boone Pickens, am I in the wrong profession!
January 13th, 2022 at 3:30 PM ^
He needed that bump to make sure he made more than the incoming freshman
January 13th, 2022 at 2:44 PM ^
Wait, wait, wait. Twitter hounds had Elijah Robinson pegged for that job. Am I gonna have to take what they say with a grain of salt from now on?
January 13th, 2022 at 2:45 PM ^
chiro chiro chirp