Podcast: NIL momentum, new NFL Combine record, defensive staff moves and more Michigan football talk
On this episode of TheWolverine.com podcast, TheWolverine.com‘s Clayton Sayfie and Chris Balas discuss NIL developments at Michigan, new defensive coaching staff hires, the 18 Wolverines invited to the NFL Scouting Combine and more.
Watch this episode in the video player above or on our YouTube channel. Listen in the embed below or search ‘The Wolverine’ wherever you get your podcasts.
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Michigan athletics announced Wednesday partnerships with Altius Sports Partners, an NIL consulting firm, and Learfield (furthering an existing partnership). Additionally, there have been some recent large donations from anonymous individuals to the Champions Circle collective, helping the Wolverines pick up some steam in the NIL space.
“One of my buddies who was up at Northwestern and watching how they did it on the basketball side of things said, ‘Everybody thought, hey, Northwestern, if you want to poach some kids, go to Northwestern. They’re probably not getting anything.’ Well, Altius was one of the reasons why their bigger kids stuck around,” Balas said. “And that’s been a long time coming at Michigan. First, it was supposed to be out west — William Morris Endeavor — and that didn’t pan out. They were supposed to be a pioneer there, and for whatever reason that didn’t work.
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“But Altius has been around now for a while, and Michigan has been in the works with them for a while. Better late than never, I would say.
“But the bigger news was that Champions Circle is really starting to get the donations here. A couple of really big ones from anonymous donors that are getting them up to where they need to be to not only retain their roster, which is something that Sherrone Moore is going to need. He’s going to have to hit the ground running here, and he needs his players on board, especially after losing guys like [strength and conditioning coach] Ben Herbert. There were some kids that were questioning whether or not they were coming back. And then they go out in the portal and find some pieces that could make this team really, really good.
“I understand — and people keep telling me — well, you don’t lose that kind of talent, 18 guys to the NFL Combine, and come back and have a good year. You can have a good year! There’s nothing that says with the talent returning that you can’t have a good year. There’s a lot of really good talent on this football team. Are they going to be national championship contenders? Probably not, and that’s OK. But you can make the playoff. You can sneak in, in the 12-team playoff, in my opinion, if you find a quarterback. So, that’s big news.”
