New Michigan football coaches report to recruiting tour
Going into Michigan’s spring game in April, the Wolverines had three commitments in their recruiting class and one of them, defensive tackle Bobby Kanka, scheduled official visits to Tennessee and Michigan State.
There had been a turnover of personnel, particularly on defense, and then Sherrone Moore, who had been head coach since her freshman year, was faced with another surprise when newly hired defensive coach Greg Scruggs was arrested for drunk driving and resigned.
After winning the national championship, Michigan fans wondered how the 2025 recruiting class would fare after what seemed like such a slow start. The good news is that recruits will be able to sign in December, not April.
With the dust settling from the official visit season in June and July being a dead period, Michigan now has a top-10 recruiting class. The new staff, some of whom were untested as recruiters at the top level, have not only been up to the task, but have exceeded expectations.
The first sign of the newly assembled team’s recruiting strength came when four-star defensive lineman Nathaniel Marshall committed after the spring game. Marshall had official visits scheduled to Miami, Alabama and Auburn. Although he eventually went to Auburn for a visit, his commitment to Michigan and his retention during that visit was a testament to defensive line coach Lou Esposito’s recruiting skills, which had been seen at Western Michigan but not yet at the Big Ten level.
“I think they all had a reputation for being good recruiters at their respective levels. The question was whether they could translate that, and I think they were immediately tested in big recruiting,” said Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider. “Lou was the first and I think the two footprint recruits (Marshall and fellow Illinois player Jaylen Williams, also a four-star) were wheelhouse recruits. While I think he deserves a lot of credit, especially for Nate Marshall, the land around Julius Holly is what makes the difference for me.”
Holly, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound edge rusher from Alpharetta, Georgia, was not heavily courted during his junior season but developed into a national recruit during the winter and spring months. Michigan was not an early offer for him and was part of a May spike in his recruitment when Alabama and Georgia also entered the race. Those programs were as formidable as any challenger to Michigan would be because of their proximity and success.
“Julius Holly is outside the footprint and the fact that Lou beat Georgia for him speaks even more to his recruiting ability,” Webb said. “Now you take what they said about you in the footprint and apply it nationally. He already had relationships at Illinois, but that wasn’t the case with Holly. I’m very impressed with Lou. He’s signed three key recruits and Michigan is in the thick of the battle for DJ Sanders (a four-star defensive tackle from Texas). Sanders is coming back for a visit in the fall and Lou has everything to do with that.”
Tight ends coach Steve Casula has landed several key 2026 targets on campus this summer and continues to compete for four-star 2025 prospect Andrew Olesh, who recently announced his commitment to Michigan.
“In the state and in the building at Michigan, people thought highly of Casula,” Webb said. “He became a big recruit with Andrew Olesh. He overcomes the hurdle of Penn State, a big program with as much tight end tradition as Michigan, an in-state program he has ties to. Then Alabama comes along and tells him he’s the best tight end on their roster, and he beats both of them.”
The ability to build relationships and showcase what Michigan has accomplished with the tight ends position has been a key element in that. Casula was previously an analyst at Michigan, so he can say he was involved in that and assure that Michigan’s emphasis on incorporating tight ends into the offense will remain the same.
The two top-ranked players in the class are defensive backs Ivan Taylor and Kainoa Winston. Defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan was the primary recruiter of both players and is quickly establishing himself as a rising star in the industry.
“LaMar Morgan had the hardest task in some ways,” Webb said. “He had no connection to Michigan and nobody in this area knew him. He comes here, learns the culture and the history in a way that is effective enough to sign two of the top three safeties in the country.”
Once again, there was fierce competition for both. Winston had been to Penn State and North Carolina several times. Both programs heavily recruited Winston and had hosted his family on more than one occasion.
“LaMar was able to lure Kainoa and his father in once in the spring and made enough of an impression to move up the list and get him to appoint a referee,” Webb said. “The official visit was the defining moment when he showed his mother the development of her players. Then, because of his relationship with LaMar, the boy and the family believed he could take him further than any other coach he had met, even those he had known much longer.”
Taylor had committed to Notre Dame when Morgan began recruiting him. His father, Ike Taylor, played for the Pittsburgh Steelers and two of his former Steeler teammates, Plaxico Burress and Jerome Bettis, also have sons who chose the Fighting Irish. Given the factors influencing Taylor’s recruitment, a change seemed unlikely, but Morgan built trust with the recruiter and his family.
“With Ivan Taylor, his father was absolutely sold on Notre Dame,” Webb said. “To convince him that the plan was better at Michigan says a lot about what the father thinks of LaMar’s coaching. And Ike was able to do his due diligence there because LaMar was a Louisiana-Lafayette guy and Ike is a Lafayette guy. To pass that litmus test with a guy who has been committed to a high-level institution for some time and whose father was a professional player shows how well LaMar Morgan responded to the bell.”
Michigan currently has 16 commitments for its class of 2025. 247Sports has the class ranked third in the Big Ten behind Ohio State and Oregon.
More information
Profile of Ivan Taylor
Kaiona Winston Profile
Profile of Julius Holly
Allen Trieu covers Midwestern football recruiting for 247Sports. He has appeared on the Big Ten Network’s annual Signing Day show. His columns on Michigan and Michigan State recruiting appear weekly on detroitnews.com.
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