Michigan’s Hiring Of Michael Johnson Bolsters California Recruiting Pipeline
Michigan's hiring of Michael Johnson is in line with the method Jim Harbaugh has operated with on the recruiting trail since taking over as head coach of the Wolverines.
Michigan’s hiring of Michael Johnson is in line with the method Jim Harbaugh has operated with on the recruiting trail since taking over as head coach of the Wolverines.
Leave it to Jim Harbaugh to make headlines. It wouldn’t be a normal week if he didn’t.
The latest attention-grabbing move out of Ann Arbor came on Monday with the announcement that Michigan would be hiring Michael Johnson to its coaching staff. Johnson is the now-former head coach of The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale, California, but the reason his addition to the staff is so notable lies in the fact his son, Michael Johnson Jr., is a highly-touted dual-threat quarterback in the 2019 recruiting class.
While anti-Harbaugh activists can shake fists and raise pitchforks, Wolverines fans can rejoice in the subtle fact their head coach has an ulterior motive here. And it’s becoming somewhat of a calling card for the Michigan head coach.
If Michigan does end up landing Johnson’s commitment in the 2019 cycle — or rather when it lands him — the talented quarterback will fall in line behind former blue-chip passers in Brandon Peters, Dylan McCaffrey and whoever signs with the Wolverines in the 2018 class (Dorian Thompson-Robinson, perhaps).
We may now be able to label this as Harbaugh’s go-to finishing move. In the 2016 cycle, Michigan signed 3-star linebacker Devin Bush Jr. and hired his father, former Florida State Seminole Devin Bush Sr., to its coaching staff. In the same class, the Wolverines signed 5-star defensive lineman Rashan Gary and then brought on his former head coach, Chris Partridge.
Like the hirings of Bush and Partridge, Harbaugh is again hitting us with some classic misdirection. While easy to focus on the surface-level benefits of simply signing Bush, Gary and (potentially) Johnson, there is a deeper meaning to the coaching staff additions.
Partridge has quickly become one of college football’s elite recruiters, and was even named as Campus Insiders’ Big Ten Recruiter of the Year for the 2017 class. He gave Michigan an advantage in signing Gary, and then went on to reel in Aubrey Solomon, Cesar Ruiz, Luiji Vilain, Ambry Thomas, Kareem Walker, Drew Singleton, Jordan Anthony, Oliver Martin and a few more big-name prospects over the past two recruiting cycles.
Hiring Partridge not only established a pipeline to New Jersey, but it gave the Wolverines a universal threat on the recruiting trail.
As for Bush, his hiring gave Michigan an in with the Sunshine State. In that 2016 haul, the Wolverines signed five other Floridian recruits in addition to Bush Jr. Beyond that, there are 38 Florida prospects being targeted by Michigan in the 2018 class.
With Johnson now joining the coaching staff, Harbaugh is tapping into his Stanford days, as The King’s Academy is about a 20-minute drive away from Palo Alto. The Wolverines can now increase the flow of talent from California to Ann Arbor. And it wasn’t like they were exactly lacking there before.
Just like that, with three hires, Harbaugh has covered the recruiting trail along both coasts with two points of the triangle being anchored down in a pair of the country’s three largest recruiting hotbeds.
Gary, Bush Jr. (and possibly Johnson) are focal points – and rightfully so, given their exceptional abilities. However, their collective talent also obscures the shrewdness of Harbaugh’s pipeline construction and the long-term dividends provided by Michigan’s staff additions. It’s just good, old-fashioned misdirection.
