Mike Elston spent 12 seasons on Notre Dame's defensive staff before returning to Ann Arbor, where he played four years as an outside linebacker from 1993 to 1996.
As a featured guest on Jon Jansen's "In The Trenches" podcast, Elston expressed his excitement to be back where it all began 29 years ago.
"My family and I are so excited. I’ve always had my eyes on getting back to Ann Arbor," Elston told Jansen. "My wife came into my office (at Michigan) and she said, "do you remember dreaming about being here?" It's been a special homecoming."
Brian Kelly was at Notre Dame for 12 seasons. Elston was on staff for each one. The two worked together since 2004. Yet when Kelly departed for LSU, Elston stayed.
Shortly after his intentions to steer clear of Kelly's newest venture hit the news, Elston's agent would get a call about his alma mater. After spending the majority of his 21-year coaching career in South Bend, Elston was ready to make a move after all ... but not to Louisiana.
"The moment it happened, my agent called me and asked me if I’d be interested in Michigan," Elston told Jansen. "I don’t want to say what my answer was ... but it started with an ‘H’ and ended with a yeah."
The process was seamless. Michigan wanted one of college football's best assistants, and Elston wanted to come home.
"Coach Harbaugh reached out and that was it. When I brought it up to my wife, she was ecstatic," he said. "It happened very quickly. The feeling was mutual ... they wanted me here, and I wanted to be here -- as quickly as possible."
In 2021, Michigan's scoring defense ranked eighth in the country, and the program sent a defensive player to the Heisman Trophy stage for the third time.
Elston's first assignment will be replacing projected first-round draft picks Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo. Second-year defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald introduced a scheme that shined a light on the duo that became the most feared pass rush in the Big Ten.
Working together, Elston & Macdonald will try to recreate the same pressure Michigan's front did last fall.
"I’m not an ego guy. I come into things with an open mind. With Mike’s defense, they’ve had great success. I’m excited to learn his stuff," he said. "I worked with a lot of defensive coordinators, and I’ve seen it done a lot of different ways. I’ll change it to whatever Mike wants to change it to if it makes sense for the players. We’re not going to reinvent football ... they just made it to the playoff while playing good defense."
Elsewhere on Elston's to-do list is recruiting, a department he led the way in at Notre Dame for the past decade-plus.
While on the podcast, Elston noted the difficulty of explaining to Notre Dame recruits why he chose to go to school at Michigan, typically a school recruiting the same prospect, without harming the Irish in the process.
Now, what used to be an obstacle is a recruiting weapon.
"I can show them exactly why I chose Michigan, and it won’t show any negatives on other schools," he said. " I think it’s very, valuable (in recruiting). Not that it’s more valuable than anyone else, but at least there’s perspective. It’s delicate why I would coach Michigan over Notre Dame and Ohio State."
Elston steps into Ann Arbor with a roster of defensive linemen eagerly waiting to play for him. He's as experienced, established, and proven as any assistant coach in college football. His track record needs no introduction: 11 draft picks, multiple five-stars, and a herd of four-stars with accomplished careers.
As a talent evaluator and player developer, Elston is up there with anyone based on his time at Notre Dame, but this is a new era and a new program, albeit one he knows as well as his last.
He's open-minded, willing to change if needed, and doesn't fear evolution. He's a 'Michigan Man' who understands what the program represents. He blends in with Harbaugh's passion perfectly and complements Macdonald's energy.
"You’re going to see us flying to the ball. You’re going to see them flying to the football with great effort and attitude. Physicality is going to be No. 1."
Harbaugh's reinvented staff in 2021 put the college football world on notice that Michigan is to be taken seriously again on a national level.
Michigan went fishing in South Bend's pond and brought home a monstrous addition to an already loaded staff that's unequivocally the best of the Harbaugh era.
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