The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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24 THE WOLVERINE FEBRUARY 2022 Home-Run Hire Brings Mike Elston Home Mike Elston spent many successful years at Notre Dame after his playing and early coaching career at Michigan. Now he's back to handle the Wolverines' de- fensive line and build on the success of a Big Ten champion. Some on the outside worried when Shaun Nua — who guided U-M's potent line in 2021 — opted to depart for USC after the season. Those fears were shoved aside when Elston, regarded by some Notre Dame insiders as the strongest Irish position coach, opted to head back to Ann Arbor. Elston played outside linebacker for the Wolverines in the years (1993-96) lead- ing up to Michigan's 1997 national championship. He then served as a student assistant to head coach Lloyd Carr in the '97 season, experiencing the 12-0 title year from up close. He stayed on the Michigan staff in various roles until 2000, then coached at Eastern Michigan (2001-03), Central Michigan (2004-06) and Cincinnati (2007- 09) before going to Notre Dame with head coach Brian Kelly in 2010. Elston rose through the ranks in South Bend to eventually become associate head coach in 2018 and worked as Notre Dame's recruiting coordinator from 2015-17. BlueandGold.com's Mike Singer offered up some solid praise for Elston in a conversation with TheWolverine.com. "As much as it stings for Notre Dame fans, it's the opposite for Michigan fans right now," he said. Singer noted Elston demonstrates an uncanny ability to develop talent and showed it by coaching no fewer than 12 linemen drafted into the NFL. "The thing about him is he always had so much depth of talent stocked in that room, so there was never a situation where the defensive line numbers were too low," Singer explained. "And the defensive line spot for Notre Dame used to be one where Irish fans would be like, 'This is our biggest spot where we struggled.' Elston changed that, and now it's a strength. "You look at their recruiting the past few years — they're getting highly ranked guys, and they're also getting three-star guys who end up being NFL players. "As far as development goes, his track record speaks for itself. Whether it's a five-star or a three-star, or anyone in between, he has a knack of finding the diamonds in the rough or the big-time guys and developing them to their full- est potential. "Elston is definitely one of the best defensive line coaches in the country, and it's a big get for Michigan." — John Borton Number one on the list? Leadership — the type demonstrated by Hutchinson, from start to finish. "The number one thing is that the guys coming back have to learn lead- ership from the guys who are leaving," Karsch said. "There is always going to be talent, but this year's leadership — which was very team-success driven — really helped change the narrative. "As an outside observer, it's my opin- ion that there were some guys in the past that were more worried about the NFL than whether or not they won on a given Saturday. I think this group really was a throwback Michigan team." The leadership extended beyond fourth- and fifth-year veterans, and even beyond every-down performers, Karsch noted. He saw up close the sort of interactions that were not the hall- mark of some recent teams. Those included exchanges at the highest-profile spot on the squad, where so much drama gets naturally in- jected. Redshirt freshman quarterback Cade McNamara and true freshman J.J. McCarthy made sure they remained completely on the same team, and it showed. "Any angst over which quarterback was playing was not exhibited in the attitudes of their sideline demeanor, or anything the quarterbacks themselves have said," Karsch noted. "I bumped into J.J. McCarthy's parents at Ne- braska, and they just said that J.J. abso- lutely loves Michigan. " C a d e n eve r co m p l a i n e d . C a d e never showed bad body language. I heard other people talk about angst, but I never saw it reflected in the two quarterbacks. I saw them support each other. J.J. never stopped smiling, and Cade never stopped leading. "I never heard it in the locker room. I never saw it on the sideline. I'm not omnipresent. I'm not everywhere at all times. But I personally never saw any- thing I would even remotely call tense." That's how you win, noted another Doug possessing considerable knowl- edge on the topic. Former Michigan All- Big Ten offensive lineman Doug Skene boasts no fewer than five conference championship rings. Skene will also be looking to see what the returning Wolverines learned from Elston has built a reputation as an excellent developer of talent, coaching 12 defensive linemen that were drafted by NFL teams. PHOTO BY CHAD WEAVER/COURTESY BLUEANDGOLD.COM