New Charlotte coach Biff Poggi job-juggling as Michigan preps for College Football Playoff

When you hold two jobs in an industry in which one job demands 80 hours a week, something has to give. “I’m sleeping so (much) less,” Biff Poggi said. “I hope that my 62-year-old self can handle it. But I’m having a lot of fun.”

Poggi is the new coach of the Charlotte 49ers. Poggi still is the associate head coach of No. 2 Michigan. Poggi is trying to do what new coaches do while still tending to his duties with the Wolverines as they prepare for a College Football Playoff semifinal against No. 3 TCU in the Fiesta Bowl on Dec. 31.

“Associate head coach” is relatively new to the coaching staff directory, a title that might designate the official second-in-charge, or might be jewelry for an assistant’s résumé, or might be a mood modifier for an aggressive career-climber. In Poggi’s case, the associate head coach has been the right-hand man to Jim Harbaugh in the way that Wendy Rhoades kept Bobby Axelrod centered, and if you don’t watch “Billions,” my apologies.

For the rest of you, if Mensa had a branch for emotional IQs, Poggi would be in it. It may be a coincidence that since he returned to Michigan 18 months ago, the Wolverines have a record of 25-2. Probably not. It may be a coincidence that Harbaugh has broken through to the upper echelon after six seasons of not-quite (or, in the case of the 2-4 season of 2020, not-close). Probably not.

In the five-plus weeks since Charlotte’s green and white supplanted maize and blue as his favorite colors, Poggi said, “What I am doing, I would say, is emotionally being there for the players and some of the young coaches. … Really, I think for the players who are here, the continuity of seeing an old Italian guy walking around, giving them a pat on the back, is probably important. You just don’t want to have a guy disappear on them.”

He went to the movies with the o-linemen. He is always available for dinner, or a text, or a stick-your-head-in-the-door connection. Poggi compared himself to Nana, the watchful St. Bernard in the animated 1953 “Peter Pan” film from Disney. “Kind of like a nursemaid, just to make people feel better,” he said. “That’s all. I don’t want to leave the kids right now. That’s the deal.”

That is not how football coaches speak. It may be more accurate to say Poggi coaches people. As a young high school teacher and coach, he transitioned into finance and made himself wealthy. Once he had money, he returned to become a successful high school coach in his native Baltimore. He bankrolled the program at Saint Frances Academy, an old, beatdown Catholic school in the oldest, beatdownest section of Baltimore, and developed it into a national high school power. Wolverines All-American running back Blake Corum played for Poggi at Saint Frances. On the first day of the early signing period Wednesday, 12 of 28 new 49ers (incoming freshmen and transfers) listed Saint Frances as their high school.

The recent history of job-juggling during the playoffs illustrates that it’s doable. Four coaches come to mind – Tom Herman at Ohio State (2014), Kirby Smart at Alabama (2015), Jeff Scott at Clemson (2019) and Dan Lanning at Georgia (2021). All four stayed on as lame-duck coordinators, and all four left for their new jobs with national championships.

Poggi isn’t doing any game-planning for the Horned Frogs, but he still has a couple of full loads.

“My thing is, if Jim were to ask me to leave, I would have done whatever he wished,” Poggi said. “But he’s been great. We talk every day. He’s also helping me with Charlotte. He’s asking me about coaches, what are you doing with this or that, have you thought of this guy, or that guy, all these kinds of things. He’s been incredibly helpful.”

Poggi works both jobs from the second floor of Schembechler Hall, where the color green is normally not welcome.

“While our kids are in classes here is green time,” Poggi said. “And then once they start getting in the building, it’s blue time. The nights are blue time with talking to kids on the phone and texting with kids that are here. Going out to eat or a movie or whatever, just shooting the breeze with them. After that, it’s green time at night – calling recruits, working on coaches, calling donors and alumni and things like that.”

Poggi took the Charlotte job for the same reason that most guys become head coaches – Charlotte offered it to him. He made a run at UConn last winter. But Charlotte it is. Poggi won so many games at St. Frances that the local private schools quit playing him. Poggi won’t elicit the same reaction from his opponents in the American, where Charlotte moves next season. Most new coaches can’t get to their new job soon enough. Poggi is fine with waiting until January 10.