Michigan football's offensive coaches bring much-needed continuity to Wolverines

The Wolverines will have a lot of new faces on the football field in 2024, but the offensive coaching staff stayed largely intact this offseason...

Matt Lounsberry | Aug 8, 2024

Michigan safeties coach Ron Bellamy watches warmups next to wide receiver Ronnie Bell before the Rutgers game at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor on Saturday, Sept. 25, 2021. / Junfu Han via Imagn Content Services, LLC

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Michigan Wolverines

Amidst all the change this offseason brought, Michigan football's offensive coaching staff largely stayed intact. Outside of running back coach Mike Hart, who head coach Sherrone Moore replaced with Ohio State's Tony Alford, every offensive on-field assistant coach remains with the program.

Moore hands offensive coordinator duties over to quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell, tight ends coach Grant Newsome moved to offensive line, Ron Bellamy remains at wide receivers coach and Moore brought back former analyst Steve Casula as the Wolverines' new tight ends coach. While some seats have been shuffled and two new faces have entered the building, Bellamy told reporters on Thursday the staff has had excellent chemistrsy in their first several months together.

"Amazing," the wide receivers coach said. "Awesome staff, man. We all have full alignment, the continuity within the staff. Obviously, Coach Campbell, myself, Grant and Coach Casula, we've all worked together before. Different capacities but we've all worked together. Coach Alford comes over and he's a big brother. I've known him for quite some time, obviously me coming from the high school world. He's come in and he's been the big brother, the old man of the group, I like to tease him. What an acquisition for us bringing Coach Alford here, he's been great for us."

Moore had high praise for Alford at Big Ten Media Days as well.

"With Tony, man, just an unbelievable human being," the head coach said. "A person I’ve known for a very, very long time, respected for a long time, and respected throughout the business for what he’s done in the recruiting department, how he’s coached, where he’s coached, and who he is. So for us, it was just a great fit of a great person first, and then a great coach and teacher second."

If there's a question mark about Michigan's offensive staff, it's how different the Wolverines may look on that side of the ball with Campbell, a quarterbacks coach, holding play-calling duties rather than Moore, a former O-line coach.

"I think he’s gonna do an unbelievable job," Moore said of Campbell. "He’s creative, he’s smart, he’s detailed, and he’s gonna find every way to attack defenses. And you know, even more ways than I did. So I’m excited to watch the offense evolve."

Bellamy echoed Moore's comments this week, noting Campbell's intuition and ability to stay a step ahead of a defense.

"He's an outside-the-box thinker," Bellamy said. "He's sharp, man. I love working with Coach Campbell. He's a great coach and he's an even better man and I think the kids gravitate towards that. I think a lot of times where guys are very creative, very smart guys, a lot of guys do what looks cool or whatever. He plays to the strengths of our players. We have a coordinator that can do that and just find different designs of getting guys the ball, getting open space and playing to the guys strengths. The offense can thrive mentally. Kirk has done a phenomenal job with that. Everyone loves him. We love him because of his approach to the game, he's always ready, prepared, detailed and he challenges us as position coaches to do the same and it trickles down to the players. It's something that we harp on every day."

Michigan opens the 2024 season on Aug. 31 with a home tilt against Fresno State (7:30 p.m. ET / NBC) at the Big House.

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