Michigan Wolverines Football: Pep Hamilton Leaving The Program
Michigan passing game coordinator and Assistant Head coach Pep Hamilton is leaving the program, as expected.
As we reported Jan. 9, Hamilton had been flirting with the NFL again:
“While nothing's happened (yet), and some (not us) feel it's now trending to where Pep Hamilton will be back at U-M next year, remember it wasn't until late February last year that Tim Drevno left after it appeared he was facing a demotion. Ed Warinner was brought in to coach offensive line, and that one worked out very well.
“From everything we've heard, Michigan is working on a big raise and more responsibility for Warinner this year. Alabama and others have reached out, but he's told people he loves it at Michigan, and we expect him to be heavily involved in the offense in addition to continuing his offensive line coaching.“
What that means for Hamilton, we don't know ... but we do know there was a lot of angst last year about Drevno, and for no reason.
“Let it play out. We all know about passing game coordinator/assistant head coach Hamilton's huge salary, but that didn't prevent movement with Drevno last season.”
While we’re not sure of Hamilton's landing spot, several told us within the last few weeks this was still a strong possibility, and today we got word it’s a done deal.
The writing seemed on the wall when head coach Jim Harbaugh hired Josh Gattis as his new offensive coordinator, taking him from Nick Saban at Alabama last month.
We weren’t sure what that meant for offensive analyst Ben McDaniels, but Harbaugh said during Peach Bowl press conferences he hoped to keep McDaniels on as receivers coach beyond the bowl game.
“We'd like to make that permanent. He's really done a nice job,” Harbaugh said.
Gattis, however, coaches wide receivers … McDaniels is expected to coach quarterbacks. He worked in that capacity for his brother, Josh McDaniels (now the offensive coordinator at New England), when his brother coached the Denver Broncos.
Hamilton still has two years and over $2 million remaining on a four-year deal. Again, we’re not certain where he’s headed or if Michigan bought out the remainder of his contract.
Watch for more on this development in the hours to come …
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