The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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SPECIALISTS 114 ■ THE WOLVERINE 2026 FOOTBALL PREVIEW Hollenbeck handled the holding last year and should again, while long snappers Nico Crawford, a grad student, and sophomore Gavin Magorien will vie for snapping du- ties. Crawford came from Pitt, where he played in all 13 games as the team's long snapper, while Magorien comes to U-M after a season at Marshall where he played in 12 contests. "Nico had been through our camps. He's been solid for a long time," Kornblue re- ported. "He has a good body for it [at 6-2, 235 pounds], and he's got the framework there to be successful." As for the rest of special teams? It's up to Coombs to get the buy-in, and there were a lot of positives this spring. There's opportunity for guys who might not con- tribute in other ways, but even the starters are competing here. Sophomore Andrew Marsh is expected to handled kick and punt return duties after finishing 27th nationally in the former (23.6 yards per return) and showing promise with 4 punt returns for 45 yards (11.3 avg.) after taking over later in the season a year ago. Freshman Salesi Moa will likely get an opportunity here, too, and senior Smith Snowden has also expressed interest. Overall, Coombs said, he likes what he's seen and expects his group to be successful. "I love the way that the position players have embraced special teams, and that will make us better," Coombs said. "It's where fundamentals are taught to the team, and these kids have embraced it. Nobody came to Michigan to be the right guard on punt, but somebody's got to be the right guard on punt. "Now you're taking a really good player, a highly recruited kid, and you're saying, 'OK — now you do this job.' If they're not motivated to do it, and they're not excited about it, they're not going to do very well. There are seven guys on every NFL ros- ter that only do special teams, and people forget that's so important. But I like this group. I like it a lot." ❑ [FYI] ❱ The Wolverines finished 36th in the country in BCF Toys' special teams efficiency ratings, an opponent-adjusted possession efficiency data set representing the scoring advantage per non-garbage possession that a team's non-offensive and non-defensive units would expect to have on a neutral field against an average opponent. Michigan ranked fourth in 2024, 27th in 2023, second in 2022 and third in 2021. ❱ Michigan's last 60 field goals have been kicked by players who transferred into the program — James Turner (18-of-21 in 2023, Louisville transfer) and Dominic Zvada (21-of-22 in 2024, 17-of-25 in 2025; Arkansas State transfer). Turner (85.7) and Zvada (80.9) rank first and fifth, respectively, in Michigan history in career field goal percentage (minimum 15 attempts). The Wolverines are expected to have another transfer kicker starting in 2026 in sophomore Trey Butkowski, who was an All-ACC performer at Pittsburgh in 2025. ❱ U-M's punt return game was atrocious in 2025, with former wide receiver Semaj Morgan returning 13 punts for 30 yards (2.3 yards per attempt) with a long of 13 yards, ranking 170th in the nation. The Wolverines ranked 122nd in the country in punt return yardage with 18 total returns for 75 yards. The group also ranked 104th in kick return average (18.43 yards per runback) with 23 returns for 424 yards. ❱ Michigan added six new specialists this offseason in Butkowski, UNLV punter Cam Brown, Pitt long snapper Nico Crawford and Marshall long snapper Gavin Magorien out of the transfer portal, and kicker Jacob Baggett and long snapper Jack Treutelaar out of high school. POSITION COACH Kerry Coombs is entering his first full sea- son with U-M after being hired by Sherrone Moore on Dec. 6, 2025. He served as special teams coordinator af- ter Moore's firing through the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl and was retained by Kyle Whittingham. Coombs is in his 43rd season coaching, work- ing at the high school, college and NFL ranks. His last stop before the move to Ann Arbor was Cincinnati, where he served as special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach from 2022- 24. He coached in two stints with the rival Ohio State Buckeyes, working on Urban Meyer's staff from 2012-17, first as a cornerbacks coach and then as special teams coordinator in 2013. He returned to OSU as the defensive coordinator under Ryan Day, a role he held in 2020-21, after spending two seasons with Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans in the NFL from 2018-19. Coombs, a stalwart in the state of Ohio, got his start in coaching at Greenhills High from 1983- 84 before a four-year stint at Lakota High as an assistant (1985-88). His first head coaching op- portunity came at Loveland High from 1989-90 before a 16-season run at Colerain High, where he posted a 161-34 overall record with 10 playoff appearances and five state semifinal runs, includ- ing a state championship in 2004. He graduated from the University of Dayton in 1983 and was a member of the program's 1980 Division III national championship team. RETURNING PLAYERS HUDSON HOLLENBECK • P Gr. • Collierville, Tenn. Ht.: 6-2 • Wt.: 206 • Entering his fourth season at Michigan after transfer- ring in from Mississippi State. • Appeared in all 13 games in 2025 as punter and holder, punting 40 times for a 43.2-yard average with 11 punts of 50-plus yards, 10 punts inside the 20-yard line, 10 fair catches, 3 touchbacks and a 67-yard long. • Also recorded 1 tackle. • Played in two games as a holder and one as a punter in 2024. • Attempted 6 punts for a 46.2-yard aver- age in the ReliaQuest Bowl victory over Alabama with a long of 69 and had 2 punts downed inside the 20-yard-line. • Saw time in one game as the holder on an extra point against Indiana to mark his Michigan debut in 2023. • Did not see game action as a freshman at Mississippi State. • Kohl's Kicking ranked him as the No. 7 prep punter in the nation in 2022. ❱ ❱ X-FACTOR X-FACTOR Michigan's punt return game in 2024-25 lacked execution and poise, but it may have found a solution last season with wide receiver ANDREW MARSH taking over punt return duties late in the year. Marsh took 4 punt returns for 45 yards along with 17 kickoffs for 378 yards last season, including a 51-yard return in the Citrus Bowl. The sophomore wideout is a gamebreaker on offense and could be a field-flipper in the return game under new coaching.