New coach: Steve Clinkscale

During the seven years of the Jim Harbaugh era in Ann Arbor, the head coach has had to make one decision after another when it comes to filling vacancies for an assistant coach. It hasn’t been a season since he didn’t have to replace anyone in the program.

As Harbaugh made every decision over the years, one coach patiently waited for his opportunity, and at the same time he had a chance at the SEC, just a few states away from Kentucky.

Steve Clinkscale finally got this opportunity this intermission when Maurice Linguist, Harbaugh’s second offseason acquisition, put Ann Arbor back in May, just a few months after taking office, to take on the role of head coach at the University of Buffalo.

Harbaugh had to act quickly. The linguist had already been recruiting children for months. A handful of Michigan committed players thanked Linguist.

And acting quickly Harbaugh did. The linguist was appointed head coach of Buffalo on May 8th. And on May 12, Clinkscale was appointed coach of Michigan’s defensive feed game new coordinator / defense coach.

But let’s go back to how Clink, as he is commonly called, got to his current place.

Clinkscale, a native of Ohio, attended the University of Ashland, a private Christian school in the city of Ashland. He played defense in college and started all four years. After graduating, he returned to the football program and coached his defenders from 2001 to 2007. He also coached liners in his final season with the program.

The defending coach supports his entire career and worked in West Carolina (2008), Toledo (2009-11), Illinois (2012) and Cincinnati (2013-15). He then took on the same role in Kentucky in 2016, which he had coached all these years.

He was known before his time in Kentucky, but he began recruiting at a high level while in Lexington, especially in the state of Michigan. Clinkscale often immersed his toes in Mitten State on a recruitment path. The top-rated recruiter who came to Kentucky because of him was Justin Rogers of Michigan, a four-star defense line customer who ranked 52nd in 247Sports. He played high school football in Oak Park, the same school where second-highest player Clink brought Kentucky’s four-star offensive line to Marquan McCall.

During his tenure in Kentucky, Clinkscale obtained letters of intent from student athletes who played in Oak Park, Detroit, Mount Morris, West Bloomfield, Auburn Hills and Ypsilant. Needless to say, he built a presence in the Detroit subway area and is a coach that resonates with high school coaches and players in the area.

It is one thing to recruit well, but a completely different thing to develop these recruiters. But Clink was able to do both of these things at a high level in Kentucky. The Wildcats secondary delivered all 13 team abductions in first-year coaching there in 2016.

Kentucky’s historic season of 2018 was also successful for Clinkscale and defenders. After this season, Mike Edwards, of Kentucky’s All-SEC Security, was selected in the third round of the NFL Draft. Lonnie Johnson, another Kentucky security, was selected even higher in the second round.

By Clinks MGoBlue page, (Kentuckys) The 2019 secondary replaced its six best producers in the 2018 season and continued to rank second nationally in the second least permitted goal attacks (nine) and third in the number of points allowed per game (167.8). The Wildcats were among the top four in the defense over the past three years. They will lead the league in 2019 and 2020, and will also lead the league in the fight in 2020 16, which is good for the third best in the whole country.

Expectations are not high this season for Michigans corner forwarders, and rightly so, because they played poorly this season. But Clinkscale has turned things quickly around defensive backfields in the past. With the ever-growing, distressing, and sometimes listening fans, sighs, and frustration of the same man who hired him just a few months ago, will Clink be able to work his fast magic again in Ann Arbor?