Sam Popper returns to Michigan as Assistant Recruiting Director

After the three-day saga that was the hiring and resignation of Shemy Schembechler, the Michigan Wolverines football team has found a new Assistant Director of Recruiting, one with deep roots in the program.

On Monday afternoon, current Memphis recruiting director Sam Popper announced via social media he had accepted the position at Michigan. Popper espoused it’s been his “dream” to return to the place he got his start.

A quote-on-quote ‘prodigal son’ of Michigan football, Popper was a member of the Wolverines’ recruiting department under Jim Harbaugh until his departure in 2019, when he took the role of Assistant Director of Recruiting for the Oregon Ducks. Since then, he has served similar roles at Akron and his current team the Memphis Tigers, and now returns home to work with current director and former co-worker at Michigan Albert Karschnia.

It was unclear whether or not the position, ostensibly created for Schembechler, would end up actually being filled. With the hire of Popper, however, not only have the Wolverines ended any doubt, they have added a tremendous asset to a recruiting machine that has come into its own this offseason.