Now that Brady Hoke has been hired as Michigan's new football coach, he has to quickly assemble a coaching staff. Getting a coaching staff in place is important to make the transition with current players go smoother, and it's also important for recruiting with only three weeks to go until signing day.
Hoke will likely discuss his coaching staff plans at today's introductory press conference at 1 p.m. In the mean time, what we already know is that San Diego State offensive coordinator Al Borges is expected to come to Ann Arbor with Hoke, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Before serving as the offensive coordinator at SDSU, Borges was the OC at Auburn, Indiana, Cal, UCLA, Oregon, Boise State and Portland State. He has been coaching since 1986, so he will bring lots of experience to Michigan's coaching staff if he indeed follows Hoke to Ann Arbor.
On the other side of the ball, it looks like San Diego State defensive coordinator Rocky Long will not be joining Hoke at Michigan. Why? Well, Long has reportedly been pegged as Hoke's replacement at SDSU and is expected to officially be named the Aztecs' head coach today. Obviously with an opportunity to become a head coach out there it's unlikely he will be coming to Michigan as a defensive coordinator.
Per the Union-Tribune, the following assistant coaches left Ball State for San Diego State with Hoke in 2009:
Assistant head coach/running backs coach Jeff Hecklinski, offensive line coach Darrell Funk, linebackers coach Mark Smith and strength and conditioning coach Aaron Wellman all came with Hoke from Ball State.
The only Michigan assistant in the running to be retained is running backs coach Fred Jackson. He has been at Michigan for close to 20 seasons and his son Jeremy is a wide receiver on the team. Jackson was an assistant when Hoke was on the Michigan coaching staff from 1995-2002, so odds are he will be brought back.
The only other person in question as far as whether or not he will be retained is strength and conditioning coordinator Mike Barwis. Although Michigan's entire coaching staff was fired last week, Barwis was not let go. It has been speculated that Michigan would like to keep Barwis around for a variety of reasons, including making the transition smoother for players, but Hoke is expected to bring Aaron Wellman with him from San Diego State. As a result, it looks like Barwis may be on his way out, but nothing is obviously set in stone just yet.