Coaching notebook: Tidbits on MSU, Michigan staffs, plus EMU elevates familiar name

For the fifth time in the combined 200-plus years of their existence, Michigan and Michigan State enter a football season both with new head coaches, Pat Fitzgerald leading the Spartans and Kyle Whittingham the Wolverines, respectively, in 2026.  

And, in a fateful twist, it’s now happened each of the last two times the programs have hired head coaches. Michigan State brought in Jonathan Smith before the 2024 season, as Michigan elevated Sherrone Moore into the head job. 

Prior to that, the most recent alignment of head coach hires for the in-state powers came in 1995, when a pair of future national champions got hired: Michigan State brought in Nick Saban and Michigan tabbed Lloyd Carr.

Before that, one has to go back to 1929 and then 1925 before that to find the seasons where the Spartans and Wolverines both had new head coaches. In 1929 MSU needed a coach after Harry Kipke left East Lansing to take the head job at Michigan. In 1925, Michigan got Fielding Yost back into the role after his successor, George Little, left after one season to become Wisconsin’s athletic director, while MSU brought in Ralph Young. 

Which is all to say: It’s not common for the programs to be entering new eras in tandem like this. And the inaugural coaching staffs for Fitzgerald and Whittingham, respectively, have come into focus early in the new year. 

Michigan

There’s a clear type among the new Michigan assistants that Whittingham has brought in:

• Defensive coordinator: Jay Hill (BYU)
• Offensive coordinator: Jason Beck (Utah)
• Special teams coordinator: Kerry Coombs (retained; Cincinnati)
• Offensive line: Jim Harding (Utah)
• Defensive line: Lou Esposito (retained)
• Defensive ends/edges: Lewis Powell (Utah)
• Quarterbacks: Koy Detmer Jr. (Utah)
• Running backs: Tony Alford (retained)
• Wide receivers: Micah Simon (Utah) and Marques Hagans (Penn State)
• Tight ends: Freddie Whittingham (Utah)
• Linebackers: Alex Whittingham (Kansas City Chiefs)
• Cornerbacks: Jernaro Gilford (BYU)
• Safeties: Tyler Stockton (Boise)

That’s six assistants from Utah, plus two more from BYU, to keep with the theme. It’s a natural place for Whittingham to mine for assistant coaches and nabbing Stockton from Boise State fits in that footprint, too. 

The biggest pull from the Utah staff Whittingham just worked with is likely Beck, who helped the Utes put together one of the top scoring offenses in the country in 2025. 

Whittingham’s brother, Freddie, and son, Alex, are both on staff. 

Along with Alford and Esposito — whose son is committed to Michigan in the 2027 signing class — Whittingham is keeping Coombs. He was announced as the new special teams coordinator just days before Moore got fired and arrested, and coached that unit in the bowl game. 

Coombs and Alford make it a pair of former Ohio State assistant coaches now on staff in Ann Arbor, too. 

Those two, along with Esposito, will likely be key for bridging gaps in recruiting the Midwest as Whittingham’s Mountain Time crew gets settled into new surroundings. 

Michigan State

Fitzgerald had a head start on Whittingham for hiring his staff, taking the MSU job in early December. And Fitzgerald has made some splash hires assembling the following staff:

• Defensive coordinator: Joe Rossi (retained)
• Offensive coordinator: Nick Sheridan (from Alabama)
• Special teams coordinator: LeVar Woods (from Iowa)
• Offensive line: Nick Tabacca (from Wake Forest)
• Defensive line: Winston DeLattiboudere III (from Arizona Cardinals)
• Quarterbacks: Mike Bajakian (from UMass)
• Running backs: Devon Spalding (from Wisconsin)
• Wide receivers: Courtney Hawkins (retained)
• Tight ends: Brian Wozniak (retained)
• Linebackers: Max Bullough (from Notre Dame; also co-DC)
• Cornerbacks: Hank Poteat (Iowa State)
• Safeties: James Adams (retained)

There are some notable connections within that group, both to the state of Michigan and amidst the staff. 

Spalding played running back at Central Michigan and Sheridan was a quarterback at Michigan. Bullough, of course, is a former star linebacker for MSU at the early heights of the Mark Dantonio era. He was a rising star on the Irish staff under Marcus Freeman, by many accounts.

DeLattiboudere comes from the NFL, but had coached under Rossi at Minnesota — DeLattiboudere’s alma mater — for a few years prior to that. And Bajakian is a former Fitzgerald assistant, who (infamously, to some) coordinated Northwestern’s offense at the end of their run in Evanston. 

The biggest coup of this group, though, is likely Woods. 

Luring not only one of, if not the best special teams coach in the sport away from a place where he’s surely valued would be a win enough. Add in that Woods is a former Iowa linebacker who played for both Hayden Frye and Kirk Ferentz, getting him to jump across the league to join the Spartans is a big win for Fitzgerald — and for the MSU special teams. 

Mike Hart’s EMU coaching redux

Michigan’s all-time leading rusher and former running backs coach is back where his coaching career began, and will coach the Eastern Michigan receivers this coming season. 

Hart, who served on staff under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan from 2021-23, took a year off from coaching in 2024 before serving as an offensive analyst for the Eagles in 2025. Now, amid some coaching staff tweaks — the Eagles made a defensive coordinator change, too — Hart has been elevated to a full-time assistant role. 

"I am excited to be a part of Eastern Michigan Football," Hart said in a release announcing the hire. "Coach Chris Creighton is one of the best leaders of men I have ever been around, and I look forward to learning and being a part of his program. EMU football and the Ypsilanti community have always held a special place in my heart, and I am excited to help the team reach our goals for the 2026 season."

And while Hart began his career at Eastern Michigan, first as an analyst in 2011 and then as running backs coach in 2012 and 2013, that was under then-head coach Ron English, the predecessor to current Eagles head coach Chris Creighton. 

"Coach Hart is a winner," Creighton said in a release. "He has the it factor. He selflessly helped us this year as an Offensive Analyst and made a positive impact. We know that he will be a major addition as Assistant Head Coach and Wide Receivers Coach."

After his three seasons in Ypsilanti, Hart did a brief spell in Kalamazoo coaching the Western Michigan running backs. He then coached Syracuse’s running backs in 2016, returning to Central New York where he grew up. That season led Hart to Indiana, where he coached under Tom Allen through the 2020 Covid season before joining the staff at his alma mater. 

It’s the first time Hart has coached receivers in his career, but he has at least one good piece to work with in the promising Harold Mack, who burst into the picture midseason as a true freshman.