Michigan is hiring Georgia’s John Collins as assistant director of recruiting, a source tells 247sports. Spent the last two years at Georgia as a personnel and recruiting analyst.

Submitted by 42-27 on March 27th, 2024 at 2:22 PM

Link to tweet.

Homerun hire.  The only reason why Georgia was any good at recruiting.  The brains behind Kirby Smart.  Best analyst of all time.  Etc.

/s

Honestly no idea.  More Georgia recruiting influence/knowledge can't hurt, though.

smotheringD

March 27th, 2024 at 5:34 PM ^

But he was there when Kirby fielded a generational defense that pretty much shut our offense right down in the semifinal game.  He can tell Sherrone how they did it at Georgia and Sherrone can explain it to Ward.

It will be interesting to see how we work to preserve our culture in the changing world of NIL.

C'mon back Keon!

Blue Middle

March 27th, 2024 at 5:40 PM ^

AGREE.

The best way to judge a new football coach in their early days is by whom they hire.  Sherrone, so far, is killing it in that department.

Look at some bad hires: Matt Patricia, Rich Rod, Brady Hoke...they all hired their friends or kept current staff instead of getting the best people.  Sherrone has hired some friends, but he's also gone outside his circle to poach proven talent (Wink, Alford, Morgan) and brought back some faces that had moved on (BJM, Casula).

I'm very optimistic.  While I think it may take him a couple of years to lock in his style and best practices (ie, who calls plays?  what works best for him in recruiting?  how does he manage NIL?) and get the machine rolling (remember, it took Harbaugh--a coaching master--six years to get there) his start looks promising.

Blue Middle

March 28th, 2024 at 12:10 PM ^

they all hired their friends or kept current staff

Reading is hard, isn't it?  Hoke's best hire was someone he knew (Mattison) but wasn't on his staff.  Rich Rod and Hoke both incorrectly assumed that their current staffs would be good enough at Michigan (since they had been good enough at previous stops) instead of looking for the best talent.  Patricia hired his friends, and his staff was one of the worst groups I've ever seen in the NFL.

Sherrone took recommendations from people he trusted to hire Wink and Morgan.  He largely promoted from within on offense or hired known quantities who had demonstrated success at Michigan.  Alford was someone he knew, but he still had to go poach him from a rival; same with Scruggs, even though that didn't work out.  He also had to go get BJM to make a lateral move.

If you can't see the difference between the way Moore has built his staff compared to Hoke and Rich Rod (and certainly to Matt Patricia), you're not honestly looking.

93Grad

March 27th, 2024 at 2:34 PM ^

It actually Kinda sounds like a home run  just based on the Georgia experience alone.   Glad to see Sherrone is beefing up recruiting any way he can. 

True Blue Grit

March 27th, 2024 at 5:02 PM ^

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.  Fortunately, most people have forgotten about him.  But not those who were students during his reign of terror in the Ann Arbor area.  Fortunately, I came in to U-M after that period.  

EDIT:  I didn't realize Collins (now going by the last name Chapman) is unfortunately, still alive in a correctional facility in Jackson, MI.  

mGrowOld

March 27th, 2024 at 2:37 PM ^

I wonder who gets to tell John about our NIL program and admissions department?

A guy coming from Georgia is going to have his head explode when he learns how ours works compared to what he's used to.

FrankMurphy

March 27th, 2024 at 2:42 PM ^

Honestly, I'm really impressed with the overwhelming majority of hires Sherrone has made so far. Obviously time will tell on whether they pan out or not, but almost every single one seems like a home run. The lone blemish is Scruggs, whose DUI issues were known before he was hired. But I'm glad that was swiftly dealt with and that he's no longer part of the program.