Curtis Blackwell on Michigan hiring new Director of On-Campus Recruiting Kayli Johnson: 'It's a game changer'

The reshuffling of Michigan’s coaching staff has also trickled down to the recruiting department, where new faces are at the helm this offseason.

The predecessors before the current regime transformed how recruiting was initiated at Michigan, and head coach Sherrone Moore‘s significant commitment to attacking the trail means expanded roles for some and adding hires who yearn to tackle the objectives ahead, like Kayli Johnson, who was reported last month as the new Director of On-Campus Recruiting.

“She’s a very enterprising young lady,” SoundMind SoundBody founder and director Curtis Blackwell told The Wolverine. “She knows how to network, very easy to get along with, very diverse. Grew up in Detroit, went to school in Gross Pointe. She’s the type of young lady who can fit in any environment. Also, within that, she’s kind and really considerate. I think those are the type of skills that you got to have when you’re working recruiting because there’s a lot of hospitality, and she’s very good at accommodating and looking out for people. I think that’s going to be something that’s going to make her a big addition to the University of Michigan football staff.”

Kayli takes over a position that Christina DeRuyter, who has moved into an operations role, was lauded for because of her planning and organizational efforts. Now, Johnson will push forward those endeavors in an impactful manner.

“Actions speak louder than words,” Blackwell said. “Christina has done a great job. She’s A1. Christina is the best. Having her on board to help bring about Kayli just shows the continuity of the program. Bringing somebody like Kayli on board just shows their commitment to the Metro Detroit area, to the state of Michigan, Southeastern Michigan, and really the whole region. They brought in somebody who knows and gets it. It shows that was a priority in the process in terms of who they could have brought. They could have brought in anybody for this position. But the fact that they brought Kayli in shows that it’s important and significant for them to have someone who has those relations. I think that is a big signal of what the recruiting department is going to embrace and how they’re going to accommodate individuals from this community.”

Blackwell has gotten to know Kayli very well on a personal level over the years because of his deep ties to her family.

“She was always the type of person that was going to make sure that she followed up and got the job done,” Blackwell said. “She never wanted to leave things incomplete. Kayli was the type of person I would call a perfectionist because she didn’t want to stop a job until it was done the right way. I remember working with her on different projects, and Kayli would always give it all she had. But it was just that athlete, that competitive spirit. Kayli played every sport growing up. She’s a competitor on and off the field. Kelly was a multi-sport athlete, pretty high GPA. Off the field, she wanted to be the best as well. That’s what you get when you bring her on the staff.”

If Kayli’s last name calls attention to one of the most prominent athletes on Michigan’s roster, fascination would be correct as first-team All-Big Ten and All-American cornerback Will Johnson and the former are siblings.

Sports is a common theme for the family. Kayli’s father, Deon Johnson, a co-founder of SoundMind SoundBody, played for the Wolverines in the ’90s. Kayli’s mother is also a Michigan graduate.

Kayli herself competed in track and field at Michigan State and Texas Tech. She became the Big 12 Outdoor Champion in the shot put with a personal best throw of 17.8 meters. Blackwell believes that Kayli bringing her experience as a letterwinner and understanding of the reigning national champions through immediate family to her position on Michigan’s recruiting staff will be felt immediately.

“I think it’s a game changer,” Blackwell said. “Her mom and dad went to Michigan, and Kayli is a Division I athlete. She has a lot of experience working in the college ranks, so she understands the whole game. Then, obviously, her brother is Will. She knows and has been around the camps all her life. She knows all the players. Her daddy and uncle played NFL ball. She gets it. I think she’ll be a huge, huge connection for recruits and individuals all across America because she’s able to connect with people in different ways once she understands who they are and where they’re from, which is a wild card in that position.”

Prior to her hiring at U-M, Kayli served as MSU’s Director of Recruiting Communications. She was also on the Rutgers staff, serving as the Assistant Director of Recruiting Operations. When she competed on Texas Tech’s track and field team, she was a football recruiting and operations intern as well.

With her father heralding such a prominent position on SoundMind SoundBody, based in Detroit, a premier high school recruiting exposure and development academy, Kayli contributed a lot to the betterment of the organization, including but not limited to the camps that SMSB put on all over Southeast Michigan.

“She worked with us in our summer programs, where she was a coordinator while she was in college finishing up her credits,” Blackwell said. “She would actually help organize the camps. She did everything from making graphics and flyers to running check-in. She was always good interacting with people. She’s the person who you could consider to talk to the coaches because she knew them and she was always at all the workouts. So, she knows everybody. That’s the thing that you can’t really put a dollar value on. She’s a person who can connect with people, and everybody knows who she is. She’s a person who knows the coach from Cass (Tech) or (Detroit) King or the coach from Chicago or LA, and they know of her. That helps out a lot. That’s the type of thing she did for SoundMind SoundBody. She’s always able to connect with people.”

Kayli’s connections to Michigan’s backyard on the recruiting trail because of SMSB are vast, but Blackwell can visualize the broader scope in what she’ll bring to the table for the Wolverines.

“She’ll definitely make sure that’s happening,” Blackwell said. “That’s going to give Michigan an advantage because anybody who’s going on campus knows they have someone they can reach out to and connect with. So, that’s the most obvious aspect of it. I mean, her dad is one of the co-founders of SoundMind SoundBody, so that’s really a no-brainer. I’m looking at it from a bigger standpoint beyond that because you’re getting a person who’s connected to Detroit and national. I mean, think about it: If a recruit is on campus and their family is there, she could talk about it from any perspective. Her personally as a Division I athlete, or she could talk about what her brother is doing, or she can talk to them firsthand candidly about the experience from a family standpoint on what’s it like to be a Wolverine. That’s an absolutely phenomenal, unique perspective.”