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Michigan football: Erik 'Soup' Campbell relishing opportunity to coach WRs with Ron Bellamy

Anthony Broomeby:Anthony Broome•05/28/25•

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Ron Bellamy
Michigan Wolverines football assistant coach Ron Bellamy was a wide receiver at U-M. (Photo by Junfu Han-USA TODAY Network via Imagn Images)

The Michigan Wolverines brought back a familiar name this offseason with Erik “Soup” Campbell returning to Ann Arbor as an assistant wide receivers coach to Ron Bellamy.

Campbell returns to Michigan after spending six seasons at Bowling Green as its passing game coordinator and wide receivers coach. He has four decades of collegiate coaching experience, which started at Michigan in 1988 as a grad assistant. He was previously the wide receivers coach and assistant head coach from 1995-2007 before returning as a recruiting coordinator in 2015.

The re-connection is a full-circle moment for the two, given that Campbell coached Bellamy during his collegiate career in Ann Arbor. The explanation for why he decided to return is quite simple, as it turns out.

 ”Because it’s Michigan,” Campbell said Wednesday on the In The Trenches podcast with Jon Jansen. “Well, also, because I had the opportunity to work for Bellamy. That was a big one. Seeing him develop and seeing him grow from a player now to a coach and doing what I had done for 13 years… the opportunity to come back and work with him is exciting.”

Campbell has watched a lot of changes occur in college football, namely on the recruiting trail and with technology. But the long hours that Michigan coaches put in have not changed at all, he says.

 ”We have all the computers. We have all the data, but it doesn’t change,” Campbell said. “Coach Moore here right now just spends all day, all night, watching film and studying the game and getting better, getting ready for the next opponent. So it doesn’t change. That part doesn’t change. As coaches, you’re still gonna work the long hours.

“Recruiting [has] a little bit because now the NIL is a factor, everybody has the means, so to speak. Back in the old days, when you came here for the education and the school and the pride and all that, but now these guys are doing that part of it, but then also that NIL is definitely a factor in some places and some kids.”

The NIL part of the conversation is new, but the basis for Michigan’s pitch is what the institution can do for players at least in Campbell’s eyes.

“You still recruit for the school,” Campbell said. “What is the university gonna do for you? What Michigan does for you is a lot different than a lot of places if you get to stay here and get your degree. But then at the same time, what are the kids looking for? Everybody gets part of NIL, but the so-called big payday is a different story.”

Campbell joins the program at a time when Michigan is undergoing an offensive overhaul under offensive coordinator Chip Lindsey and a revamped quarterback situation. The wide receivers and passing game struggled to get involved last year, but there’s a lot of meat left on the bone.

“ I think this group is a bunch of underachievers [and] the sky’s gonna be the limit for them,” Campbell. “We’ll see how the season goes. And I think we have the talent to make some things happen with Coach Lindsay coming in as a coordinator. I think also having the quarterbacks we have brought in… those things are gonna help the receivers.

“And then we brought some talented guys in here, too, to help us in that group. I think those guys are gonna show that there is a reason why they came here. I think that’s what happens to a receiver crew. You just start to get one or two guys to make a difference and then it gets contagious and more happens after that.”

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