Sources have confirmed that contact has been made with two previously mentioned targets, former Wisconsin defensive coordinator and current Illinois defensive analyst
Jim Leonhard, and former Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator
Clint Hurtt. Agent sources I’ve spoken with think it will be tough to pull either away from the lure of the NFL, but Moore at least has Michigan in the mix (though more so with Hurtt than with Leonhard).
The internal options, i.e.
Mike Elston and
Steve Clinkscale, remain viable. Elston is one of the coaches Moore is battling to keep from making the jump with Harbaugh. There is good news today on that front, as Elston is on the road with Moore today recruiting. While that’s not a definite sign he’s sticking, it’s certainly encouraging.
A name from the “Ravens tree” to put on the radar is also a coach from the “Minter tree” named
John Egorugwu. He has served as the New York Giants inside linebackers coach for the last two years under defensive coordinator Don “Wink” Martindale (who he also worked with during his brief stint with the Ravens in 2015 and 2016). Egorugwu left the organization the same year Minter arrived (2017) to join the Buffalo Bills as a quality control and later assistant linebackers’ coach. (That’s where he connected with Giants coach
Brian Daboll, and that connection likely contributed to him surviving Daboll’s breakup with Martindale earlier this month). Egorugwu left the Bills in 2021 to be Minter’s linebackers coach at Vanderbilt. Both men left for their current (and in Minter’s case, soon to be former) positions in 2022. Egorugwu is someone who is well versed in Michigan’s current scheme, and who coaches a position group that currently doesn’t have one.