Following the surprise firing of former Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, the Wolverines acted swiftly to install Biff Poggi as the interim head coach with a bowl game left to play and to keep the roster from entering the transfer portal.
However, that’s only going to stop the bleeding momentarily. What’s clear is that one of the five best jobs in college football is wide open at one of the most inopportune times in the calendar. Most of the great coaches available in this cycle have been hired, but there’s one thing that Michigan has going for it: it’s Michigan.
Most coaches are going to take the call. Here are the five I think Michigan should reach out to first:
5. Brian Kelly (Former Head Coach, LSU)
Brian Kelly spent four seasons at LSU before being fired in October. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)
Among coaches with the experience and the resume to foot the ask from a program like Michigan, Kelly is one of the only men without a job who would not look the least bit out of place as the next head coach in Ann Arbor. He’d have the most wins of any active coach if hired with 297, and is 12th all-time among coaches with 10 seasons at four-year institutions.
He’s developed champions at the Group of 6 and Power 4 levels, including leading Notre Dame to the national title game in 2012 and the College Football Playoff semifinals in 2020. He developed former LSU and current Washington Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels into a Heisman winner and first-round NFL Draft selection.
If the job is to keep QB Bryce Underwood in maize and blue, hire a coaching staff that can develop and recruit in the fashion the Wolverines have grown accustomed to and have Michigan back to competing for the Big Ten title and playing in the CFP, Kelly is an available man who can do that. While he has not been the best public speaker for his programs, he has castigated his players on national TV and has shown a willingness to negatively criticize media members, he can win games. And that is ultimately the job.
“I’d be shocked if he didn’t inquire, and I’d be even more shocked if they don’t kick the tires on (Kelly),” an industry source told me.
We’ll find out.
Being the head football coach at Michigan is one of the most prestigious jobs in sports.
4. Matt Patricia (Defensive Coordinator, Ohio State)
In his first season as Ohio State’s defensive coordinator, Matt Patricia helped the Buckeyes achieve an undefeated regular season. (Photo by Aaron J. Thornton/Getty Images)
After taking some time off, all Ohio State defensive coordinator Matt Patricia did was field the best scoring defense in the sport. The Buckeyes are the only team in FBS holding opponents to less than 10 points per game (PPG) at 8.2, and are on pace to become just the third team in the last 35 years to hold opponents to less than 9 PPG in a single season. He developed at least one 2026 NFL first-round prospect at every level of his defense this season — Caden Curry, Arvelle Reese, Caleb Downs — and helped lead the Buckeyes to their first undefeated regular season in six years.
The defense has held all but five opponents to 10 points or fewer, and the No. 2-ranked Buckeyes still look like a threat to defend their 2024 national championship in the 2025 College Football Playoff.
But, while Patricia has head-coaching experience, it’s not the kind many want to laud. As head coach for the Detroit Lions, he finished 13-29-1 without a single winning season. However, that’s more head-coaching experience than others in front of him on this list. And there’s every chance that Patricia has learned from those three years in Detroit and can adapt while bringing his scheme to Michigan.
It’s not unlike Michigan to hire Ohio State assistants in similar roles. This would be a step that would not only make Michigan stronger but might also serve the added purpose of weakening its most hated rival.
3. Glenn Schumann (Defensive Coordinator, Georgia)
Glenn Schumann has helped Georgia to three National Championships since taking over as defensive coordinator. (Photo by Jeffrey Vest/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
If the Wolverines are looking to hire one of the best assistant coaches in America for the last decade and pick up the next head-coaching jewel to come up under both Nick Saban and Kirby Smart, they’ll fly south of the Mason-Dixon Line to make Georgia defensive coordinator Glenn Schumann say no to being the next head coach in Ann Arbor. From 2009 to 2022, he served as an assistant, administrator, coach, or coordinator for national championship contenders between his time with the Tide and Bulldogs.
“If you want a ball coach as your head coach,” a Power 4 assistant coach told me, “Glenn is that guy.”
Unlike many, Schumann forwent playing college football, enrolled at Alabama and talked himself into a job as a student assistant coach for Saban in 2008. That means he has won national championships as a student at Alabama, a director of football operations at Alabama, an outside linebackers coach, an inside linebackers coach at Georgia and a defensive coordinator at Georgia.
When Smart became head coach at UGA, Schumann was his first hire. And, in 2015, Smart told anybody who would listen why he made that move.
“He knows our system,” Smart said. “He’s been a part of the process over there. Really knows the process and understands what I want. Really been my right-hand man for four or five years over there. He’s been a great asset to the organization. He’s in a really good role over there and ready to develop and become a good coach.”
Schumann coached a Butkus Award winner in Nakobe Dean, a Thorpe Award winner in Deandre Baker, and a total of 15 first-round NFL Draft selections in his 10 seasons in Athens. Since interviewing for the defensive coordinator position for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2023, Schumann’s name hasn’t been mentioned for many openings, but it should. The last star defensive coordinator at Georgia prior to Schumann was Oregon coach Dan Lanning, and that has turned out to be quite the boon for one of Michigan’s fiercest rivals over the last two years.
2. Bryant Haines (Defensive Coordinator, Indiana)
Bryant Haines helped Indiana win the Big Ten title game in his second season as the Hoosiers’ defensive coordinator. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
If Michigan is looking to build around a winner who has proven he can coach and win in what is one of the toughest conferences in the sport, the Wolverines might look just south of the Michigan border. They have always prided themselves on being tougher than any opponent they face.
Running the football at Michigan is less a strategy and more like a religious tenet. Playing tough, imposing defense is less a philosophy inside Michigan Stadium and more an immutable law — like gravity.
Bryant Haines has lived through and won with both of those thoughts close to mind and displayed them on the field.
Haines is the only defensive coordinator in the country who stopped Ohio State’s efficient offense, winning the Big Ten Championship Game because of it. With him leading Indiana’s defense, the unit ranked 12th in yards per play allowed (4.57), No. 6 in the country in yards per game allowed (257.2) and second in scoring defense with just 10.85 points allowed per game in 2025.
IU’s run defense was spectacular this season, too. Eleven of their 13 opponents were held to under 100 yards rushing and five of them failed to average better than 2.5 yards per rush — including No. 2 Ohio State, which rushed for just 58 yards in their loss to the Hoosiers in the Big Ten Championship.
The reigning AFCA Assistant Coach of the Year has worked under Curt Cignetti since his days at James Madison and each of the last two years at IU. He’s a significant part of the Hoosiers going 24-2, with four All-Big Ten First Team players on this year’s roster en route to IU’s first Big Ten title since 1967 and first No. 1 ranking in history.
1. Jesse Minter (Defensive Coordinator, LA Chargers)
Jesse Minter oversaw Michigan’s defense when the Wolverines won the National Championship in 2023. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images)
Jesse Minter makes the most sense for Michigan to target first and to try to convince him to take this job, especially given the circumstances in which the Wolverines find themselves: They are trying to hire a coach for one of the best jobs in football at the end of the hiring cycle.
At this point, it’s important to target someone you know and have a relationship with, as well as someone who understands the culture that Michigan must maintain to compete for championships. And the last time that Michigan did either of those things, Minter was the Wolverines’ defensive coordinator. He orchestrated defenses that stopped offenses run by Ohio State head coach and play-caller Ryan Day, as well as Alabama head coach Kalen DeBoer (then at Washington) in 2023, when the Wolverines won the Big Ten title, national title and finished the season 15-0. In his two seasons at Michigan, Minter’s defenses held opponents to 13.1 points per game, which was the best of any FBS team.
The only downside to hiring Minter is that he has no head-coaching experience. But given that he’s spent the last four years working for Jim Harbaugh, who was the head coach at Michigan (2007-2010, 2015-2023) and is head coach for the Chargers, there’s a belief within the program that “(Minter) would take as easily or even more easily to the job than (Sherrone Moore),” an industry source told me.
RJ Young is a national college football writer and analyst for FOX Sports. Follow him @RJ_Young.
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