Michigan football promotes Grant Newsome to offensive line coach, sources say

The former Wolverine player, who has spent the last two seasons as tight ends coach at U-M, will be promoted to offensive line coach, multiple people with knowledge of the situation told TMI. As OL coach, Michigan hopes Newsome can continue the excellence built by Sherrone Moore, who last week was elevated to head coach.

Newsome played offensive tackle at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh from 2015-16, before a serious knee injury prematurely ended his playing career. After earning two degrees from U-M, he returned to the football program in a formal coaching capacity, first as assistant tight ends coach (2018-19) and then as tight ends coach (2022-23).

Coaching wasn’t a given for Newsome, who holds a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree from Michigan. In 2019, he interned for U.S. Representative Debbie Dingell in Washington. Jim Harbaugh has long spoken of how Newsome would make a great U.S. President someday and tells stories of how the 26-year-old turned down careers in finance and politics to pursue football.

“[Grant Newsome] is the tight ends coach now, but already grooming him to be the offensive line coach,” Jim Harbaugh said last fall. “And then, once he has maybe a year or two under his belt as offensive line coach — just like Sherrone Moore — he’ll be the coordinator. And then, at that point, when we can’t give him any more money or any more titles, somebody will snatch him up to be a head coach.

“Mark my words, and mark them well. That will happen.”

Harbaugh continued his praise of Newsome in an interview last fall: “He’s going all the way. He’s going to the highest level of coaching and head coaching. It’s not a matter of if, but when. I still think he’s the youngest full-time coach in Power 5 football and I think all of Division I. I don’t know for sure. He’s just a guy that’s checked every box from the time he stepped on campus as a freshman. I think he’s still our highest GPA. Wicked smart, but extremely hard working and gets along with everybody. Players respect him, like him. All the other coaches love him. He’s just so precise — he could’ve been doing anything.”

“There’s no: ‘Oh, well, I’m here, but if the job down the street opens up, then maybe I won’t be.’ This is where I want to be,” Newsome said. “Obviously, the dream is to be the head coach here someday.”

Newsome’s commitment has been rewarded with a promotion to offensive line coach for the defending national champions. And he will have his work cut out for him, as the Wolverines replace their entire starting five — Drake Nugent, Zak Zinter, Trevor Keegan, LaDarius Henderson and Karsen Barnhart are all off to the NFL, as is sixth man Trente Jones.

But, as Harbaugh and Moore both stated repeatedly throughout the 2023 season, U-M’s depth at offensive line ran some 10 players deep. And after the unit won back-to-back Joe Moore Awards in 2021 and 2022, then led the Wolverines to a national championship, the program begins 2024 optimistic about its talent and its coaching.