U-M AD: Harbaugh’s exit won’t impact probes

Dan Murphy, ESPN Staff WriterFeb 14, 2024, 01:55 PM ET
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Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel said Wednesday that he doesn’t expect Jim Harbaugh’s departure will have a significant impact on the two open NCAA investigations into potential rule violations during Harbaugh’s time as the Wolverines’ football coach.

Harbaugh took a job with the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers in late January after winning a national title at Michigan to cap his nine-season tenure at his alma mater. The NCAA opened a pair of investigations into Harbaugh’s program during his final two years on the job — one related to alleged recruiting violations during the pandemic and another about an alleged illegal scouting operation. Manuel said he has not received any updates from the NCAA on either case in recent weeks.

“Their investigation is ongoing,” he said. “I don’t think [Harbaugh’s departure] will change any of their investigation. It just will continue to move forward, and we’ll see where it goes from there. We’ll continue to work with them. We’ll continue to support their efforts to investigate.”

Manuel, who spoke to reporters while introducing a new business partnership designed to increase name, image and likeness opportunities for Michigan’s athletes, also said he has been pleased to see the progress that new head coach Sherrone Moore has made in building his coaching staff.

Michigan lost several assistant coaches in the wake of Harbaugh’s departure — including the entire defensive staff and strength coach Ben Herbert, who followed Harbaugh to the Chargers. Manuel said Wednesday that Michigan had already planned on adding “a couple million dollars” to the budget for football assistants before Harbaugh’s departure, and that he and Moore both made efforts to retain as many coaches as possible.

“I won’t go into details, but all those discussions have occurred,” Manuel said. “People made choices to leave. It wasn’t because of a lack of effort on our part to keep people here.”

Manuel said he didn’t begrudge any of those former staff members looking for other opportunities, and that their exit gave Moore a chance to establish an identity for the team that he wants, especially on the defensive side of the ball. According to ESPN sources, Moore recently hired former New York Giants defensive coordinator Wink Martindale to have the same position in Ann Arbor.

Moore promoted quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell to offensive coordinator and shifted Grant Newsome, the team’s tight ends coach, to overseeing the offensive line, which Moore handled the past three seasons. Michigan also promoted special teams analyst J.B. Brown to special teams coordinator, replacing Jay Harbaugh, who is a son of Jim Harbaugh and took a position with the Seattle Seahawks.

Although Martindale and others are expected to join the staff, Michigan has announced only one outside assistant coach hire so far — tight ends coach Steve Casula, who had been UMass’ offensive coordinator. Moore promoted Justin Tress to replace Herbert and oversee the team’s strength and conditioning.

Along with adding money to the assistant coaches pool, Manuel said he has been working for many months to be as aggressive as possible in pursuing ways for their players to make money through NIL deals. He announced a new partnership Wednesday with Learfield and Altius Sports Partners that will bring an executive general manager to Michigan’s campus to coordinate and increase NIL opportunities for Wolverines athletes in all sports.

Manuel said he “will take” the criticism he has received from Michigan fans who think the school has been too conservative in their approach to NIL thus far, but that he thinks the school has been active in trying to promote opportunities for its athletes. Solly Fulp, who serves as Learfield’s executive vice president for NIL operations, said out of the 100-plus schools his company works with on NIL, Michigan is one of the top five schools in number of deals completed by their athletes.

Manuel said he sees this new partnership as a “long-term investment” to put Michigan in position to make the most of the evolving ways in which college athletes can make money. He said he believes schools will be sharing more revenue with their athletes in the near future.

“The timeline is quickening by the day,” he said. “It’s a realization that we have to continue to think about what we provide for our student-athletes. I think it’s going to happen more quickly than not.”

ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg contributed to this report.