Matt Weiss's computer crimes opened an interesting spot on Michigan's coaching staff. That created an OC opening for what should be the most loaded offense in college football: Hey, wanna coach JJ McCarthy and Blake Corum and Roman Wilson and the best OL in the country for a few years? Harbaugh's coaching tree is also extensive enough now that several very interesting names, including Ravens OC Greg Roman and former assistant/recruiting ace Chris Partridge, recently became available.

All of that now can be interpreted as a stunning endorsement of the internal candidate they elevated instead.

It's expected that co-OC/OL Sherrone Moore will assume the coordinator title outright, though that's quite a lot to have on one guy's plate.

Via Sam Webb on our WTKA show, Biff Poggi had interest in taking Kirk Campbell with him to Charlotte this offseason. It's at least plausible that Harbaugh promised an on-field coaching position if Campbell stuck around, or it may just be that Campbell sensed the opportunity. Insiders also report that JJ McCarthy in particular was 100% on board with elevating Coach Campbell. Analysts aren't involved in recruiting, but presumably Michigan's top QB target Jadyn Davis was sold as well.

[After THE JUMP: A little analysis]

Campbell arrived at Michigan last season after serving for two years as the OC and quarterbacks coach at Old Dominion and quickly became one of the program's favorite analysts. Ironically, that was on recommendation of recent Michigan OC Josh Gattis, who was just fired from Miami (YTM) today after just one season in the same capacity. Campbell was a Penn State analyst under Rickey Rahne, another longtime Franklin associate, when Gattis was WRs coach in Happy Valley. When Rahne took the head coaching job at ODU, Campbell actually spent a game as interim QB coach for Penn State before joining Rahne as OC/QBs coach.

ODU's 2020 season was canceled by the pandemic, but they managed to outperform (very low) expectations in 2021, producing a 1,000-yard receiver in Ali Jennings III and leaning heavily on PSU transfer TE Zack Kuntz. ODU finished 2021 ranked 11th/14 in Conf USA in pass efficiency and 9th in the conference in overall offense. They were 35th nationally in sack rate, and 57th in rush efficiency, however, and Hayden Wolff grew last year into one of the conference (USA!!!)'s better QBs. Not sure if this is relevant, but Wolff also accounted for 20% of team rushes despite not being much of a run threat.

What is relevant is ODU started recruiting very well by its standards under Rahne and Campbell.

Prior to Penn State Campbell was OC and assistant HC at Div-II Alderson Broaddus for five years, and helped that GMAC startup program win the conference's first title.

Partridge was such a successful Harbaugh hire the NCAA made a rule against hiring any more guys like him, though he didn't work out at DC at Ole Miss. [Eric Upchurch]

Still, the most impressive part of Kirk Campbell's resume has to be that Michigan chose to elevate him over some of the other options on the table (or rumored to be). As we said last Thursday on the radio, it was probably very tempting to Harbaugh to use the open spot to bring back Chris Partridge, while shifting Jay Harbaugh to quarterbacks. That Partridge might have assured their chances with Old Miss transfer CB Davison Igbinosun also must have added to the temptation. Hopefully they're still able to get Partridge back in some capacity.

It was also tempting to shop around when circumstances meant they would probably have some interesting takers. While big names like Ravens assistant Tee Martin and 49ers QB coach Brian Griese were thrown out there, Sam Webb used a precious phone-a-Jim to confirm Harbaugh hadn't spoken to either of them($). Via just about everybody, Gattis was never remotely an option given the nature of his departure last year.