Michigan hires former Arizona OL coach as offensive analyst

Michigan Football’s assistant coaching vacancies have all been filled at this point in the off-season, but the program is still adding analysts.

Per The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman, Michigan has hired former University of Arizona offensive line coach Kyle DeVan as an offensive analyst.

DeVan, 36, is a former NFL offensive lineman who started for the Colts in the Super Bowl a decade ago against the New Orleans Saints. Coincidentally it was the Saints who gave DeVan his first coaching job in 2015 when he became their assistant offensive line coach. DeVan then headed to Ball State for three seasons where he was assistant head coach and OL coach. Most recently DeVan was at the University of Arizona under head coach Kevin Sumlin. There was optimism when Sumlin was hired, but things quickly derailed.

Usually the analysts Michigan hires are qualified and have had some sort of success in their career. The hiring of DeVan represents yet another example of head coach Jim Harbaugh opting to hire someone to the staff who’s in their mid-30’s, which is youthful for a coach. The hope, at least one of them, is for the team to have more cohesion on the staff with most of the coaches belonging to the same generation. It remains to be seen exactly what tasks will be assigned to DeVan, but he’ll clearly be helping out co-offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Sherrone Moore, who will have a lot on his plate this season.