Sorry to bring up bad memories Husky fans, but we have to talk about Michigan. Looking up the name Jerret McElwain isn’t easy, as 99% of searches come back under his father, Jim McElwain. The son of the former Alabama offensive coordinator and Florida head coach made a name for himself with the Wolverines after he was named as their Director of Scouting in May of 2021.
Earlier this week, it was announced that he would be leaving Michigan to take the same position with Washington, just like Director of Player Personnel Courtney Morgan. That alone should be considered a big-time win for the Huskies, stealing a big piece of a scouting department from a blue blood program. Over the last few years, Michigan has had a resurgence both on the national scene, and on the recruiting trail. A lot of that credit can be given to Morgan, but McElwain deserves his fair share of credit as well.
Identifying talent at the high school level is an incredibly tough task, and is something that Washington was arguably the best in the country at under Chris Petersen. McElwain could help get the program back to that level of success on the recruiting trail. Two notable prospects that were developed by Michigan during McElwain’s time in the program are former three-star recruit Hassan Haskins, and former four-star recruit (and future first-round pick) David Ojabo. Before you get mad at me in the comments, Aidan Hutchinson was not considered in this exercise due to his deep family ties to the program (plus the fact that he was a consensus top 150 recruit).
McElwain has been on staff with Michigan since 2018, and the school signed three top-10 recruiting classes during that time period. His only year as the Director of Scouting was 2021, and the class of 2022 is currently ranked ninth in the country. If the Huskies truly want to compete at a national level, three top-10 classes in a four-year period would be a great step towards making that a reality. This is an addition that can’t be understated for head coach Kalen DeBoer, who needs to keep up with the recruiting giants that USC and Oregon are building.
