Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh makes Mike Elston hire official
Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh has officially announced Mike Elston as the program’s defensive line coach. Elston brings 21 years of full-time coaching experience in the Midwest back to Ann Arbor.
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“I am excited to welcome Mike Elston to an already incredibly talented staff here at the University of Michigan,” head coach Jim Harbaugh said. “I’ve followed Mike’s work at Notre Dame for a while, and I have admired his ability to not only recruit great student-athletes, but also his proven track record in developing players for the NFL.
“Mike is a Michigan man, so he will be able to hit the ground running. Help me welcome Mike and his wife, Beth, and their three daughters, Olivia, Sophia and Isabella, back home to Michigan.”
Elston played at U-M from 1993-96, notching 29 tackles over his final two seasons. He was a student assistant coach at Michigan for the 1997 National Championship season, changing his duties to video intern in 1998. He stepped into a graduate assistant role working with outside linebackers for the 1999 and 2000 seasons. Elston then accepted the same position at Eastern Michigan in 2001.
Elston spent three years at EMU, the latter two as recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach (2002-03). He moved to Central Michigan from 2003-06, starting as defensive line coach. The former Wolverine added the role of Co-Defensive Coordinator in his second year.
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From there, Elston moved to become the team’s Special Teams Coordinator in his third season. He moved on to the same role at Cincinnati from 2007-09 before moving on to Notre Dame.
Elston has been part of the staff at Notre Dame since the 2010 season, working with the defensive line in 10 of 12 years. He worked with the linebackers during the 2015-16 campaigns. He was the team’s recruiting coordinator for four years (2015-17, ’21) and was the special teams coordinator for his first two seasons in South Bend (2010-11).
“My family and I are beyond excited to return to the University of Michigan,” Elston said. “I would like to thank Coach Harbaugh and Warde Manuel for this incredible opportunity to join the athletic department and university community. I can’t get to campus fast enough to begin building relationships with the players, coaches, and staff within the football program.”
Elston is the third former Michigan player on Harbaugh’s current coaching staff. Safeties mentor Ron Bellamy and running backs coach Mike Hart were both hired prior to the start of the 2021 season.
