Grant Newsome discusses 'six-year interview' for offensive line coaching job, many changes with Michigan staff

While Grant Newsome certainly had other opportunities he could have taken after the 2023 season and two years at Michigan Wolverines football‘s tight ends coach, he was offered a promotion and returned to U-M as the new leader of the offensive line room.

That’s the position group Sherrone Moore, now the 21st head man in U-M history, coached for the last three seasons, and Newsome — a trusted agent — was the obvious pick to replace him.

“I’ve been very fortunate that I was Sherrone’s assistant for two years in the tight end room — when he was the tight ends coach and I was a student assistant, technically — and then worked with him when I was the grad assistant and he was the offensive line coach,” Newsome said on the ‘In The Trenches’ podcast with host and former Michigan All-American left tackle Jon Jansen. And then being fortunate enough to work for him when he was offensive coordinator and offensive line coach and I was the tight ends coach. 

“We’ve worked side by side for six years now. I think he’s got a pretty good sense of who I am as a coach and as a person and all that. When the move happened and he became the head coach, he said, ‘Hey, I want you to coach the offensive line,’ and I said, ‘perfect.’ I don’t know if it was a traditional interview, but you’d like to think that I kinda had that six-year interview. It’s been an honor to work for him, and so excited to be able to continue that.”

Newsome was set to have a promising career as an offensive tackle at Michigan and perhaps in the NFL, until a cheap shot from a Wisconsin defender in 2016 led to a career-ending right leg injury. He medically retired in 2018, becoming a Michigan student assistant, and has quickly risen the ranks as a coach. The 26-year-old was the youngest on-field assistant coach in the country when he became tight ends coach in 2022.

“It was an unexpected journey, and you go from playing and having a pretty bad injury and not knowing what you’re going to do with your life,” the Michigan assistant said. “Started coaching thinking I would do it while getting my master’s degree and then go off and do something else in the world, and then next thing you know, seven years, later, I’d be the offensive line coach here.

“It’s a tremendous honor, and one I don’t take lightly. I fully understand the responsibility to uphold the standard that’s been in that room since when you played and even well before that and when I played and then now with what Coach Moore has done the last three years.”

Newsome didn’t just coach while he got a master’s degree in public policy at the University of Michigan. He decided that coaching was his calling, despite receiving strong interest from Wall Street and Washington D.C, including following an internship with United States representative Debbie Dingell. He didn’t just choose football as a career, but he took advantage of the opportunity to do it at Michigan.

“It’s Michigan,” Newsome said of why he has continued to coach. “It’s easy to say that, but I think until you’ve been a fan of Michigan or especially for the guys like myself who have been fortunate enough to wear the winged helmet, it means something. And it means something more than just a job, just a pay check. This is home.

“There’s a responsibility that comes with that — to try to continue that tradition and uphold that standard that all the previous players and previous coaches that have ever been in this building [created]. 

“Once I started coaching and I really felt that, I just couldn’t walk away from it. Just a tremendous opportunity to be able to still be here and now take over the offensive line.”

Grant Newsome’s promotion one of many changes for Michigan coaching staff

Newsome was promoted to offensive line coach, and quarterbacks coach Kirk Campbell has added offensive coordinator responsibilities. The offensive staff will be different this fall than it was last season, but the major changes come on the defensive side of the ball, where Moore is tasked with replacing every assistant coach. Don ‘Wink’ Martindale and Greg Scruggs are the reported hires for defensive coordinator and defensive line coach, respectively.

“I would say, it’s obviously change,” Newsome said.” But the conversation that I’ve had with other people in the program is that change is not always a bad thing. Obviously, Coach Minter, Jesse, was incredible and one of the best defensive minds in football, but I know when it’s made official that the person that Coach Moore is going to bring in [is hired, he’s] is going to do a heck of a job.

“It’s not always a bad thing to have change, because that’s just another perspective, another voice, maybe another style of coaching — and that’s not a slight to any of those guys on the defensive side who have left, because they’re obviously all great coaches and that’s why they’re going where they are. But I think it’ll be a cool opportunity for the program to bring in some different voices and different perspectives, and hopefully it’ll only make us better.”