With revamped staff, Michigan players have ‘ecstatic’ new energy

The Michigan football team has a revamped staff. After a lackluster 2-4 season, head coach Jim Harbaugh made major changes on both sides of the ball, adding 6 new assistants in all — 2 on offense, 4 on defense. Every assistant that was hired this cycle was under 39 years of age. With the relatively young age of Michigan’s staff, a new energy is building in Ann Arbor.

“We got a young staff and I love all the coaches that coach Harbaugh brought in. It’s kind of a different energy around Schembechler (Hall) these days,” defensive end Aidan Hutchinson said on Tuesday. “Everyone’s excited, everybody’s just fired up to keep working on this defense and get out there and practice it.”

Running back Hassan Haskins echoed Hutchinson’s comments. “It’s definitely a different vibe. I feel like everybody this year on the team amped their game up, amped the energy up in practice and anything really. It’s definitely a different vibe in the building and we can all feel it as a team and as a staff,” Haskins said. “It’s just something you just feel. As soon as you walk in the building you’re happy to be here, happy to be around each other. The energy is up.”

Hutchinson went on to point to how the team has been practicing in ways he feels they haven’t during his time at Michigan. “Everyone in this building, every single coach, it’s kind of ecstatic and you can kind of feel that high energy in practice,” Hutchinson said. “In practice I’ve seen some energy, some thing I haven’t seen in three years of being on this team. Just those little things that you can tell guys just want to play ball, guys are just fired up. Whether that be the new coaches, whether that be they just love football, but you can tell in practice that there’s a different type of energy around Schembechler.”

“Every single day we come out to practice is joy, fun, everybody’s laughing with each other, everybody’s having a good time. Bring a lot of energy to the practices, to the meeting rooms,” safety Brad Hawkins said. “Everybody’s willing to learn, everybody’s willing to teach. Learning different things from NFL guys, guys that came from different programs, just learning different things. It definitely brings a lot of enthusiasm to the program, to practice and things like that.”

After the 2020 season it appears the spirits within Michigan’s program have been lifted and there’s more positivity now than there was then. With the new hires come new schematics, new personalities, and it sounds like new energy as well.