Bowls over, hires in process. The most important thing that happened during the bowl game was Kyle Whittingham saying that his staff would be “80-90 percent done” by the weekend, which heavily implied Whittingham was zeroing in on his first choices at various spots, and indeed this day has seen announcements—or close enough—start to roll in.
Per Kyle Whittingham himself Michigan will hire Jason Beck as OC, so that rumored Utah push was unsuccessful. This seems almost certain to bring along Utah WR coach Micah Simon, who’s followed Beck various places. Webb reports that Ron Bellamy is not returning and has been told that directly, so with no other WR coach names really on the board (a brief Ross Douglas moment has now passed) you have to assume that Simon’s coming along. UPDATE: Zenitz now reporting that Simon is in the boat.
Meanwhile Steve Lorenz says he’d put a Crystal Ball in on OL coach Jim Harding. With Freddie Whittingham coming along that would complete your offensive staff. That staff:
- OC: Jason Beck
- RB: Tony Alford
- WR: Micah Simon
- TE: Freddie Whittingham
- OL: Jim Harding
Folks are also reporting the Koy Detmer Jr hire…