Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore has announced that Kirk Campbell will no longer serve as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Given the offense’s struggles this year, this wasn’t a huge surprise.

Candidate names have been floating around our sources over the past few weeks, and now that the position is officially open, we want to break down some of the names we heard early in the process.

There appear to be three categories of candidates:

Offensive minds with new experience as head coaches. Established best-in-the-game coordinators. Aspiring young playcallers.

Candle has done an excellent job as Toledo’s head coach, but he has probably taken the program as far as it will go. Miami and Ohio State showed interest in Candle as OC last season, and he was reportedly a candidate for HC at Michigan State.

He checks a lot of boxes at Michigan. An offensive mind with experience in leading a balanced distribution of power. He brings head coaching experience to help Moore focus on recruiting and offensive line. Candle is well-liked by high school coaches in Ohio and Michigan and would be a monster recruiter in his own right.

Mullen has been out of coaching for a few years, but his offense has evolved from a new fad to the standard of college football. Mullen had success at Mississippi State and performed well at Florida, but there was tension in his recruitment. He, of course, comes from the Urban Meyer family and trains his offenses in Utah and Florida.

His offense could mesh well with power run and spread pass concepts. Running back coach Tony Alford’s best seasons came with a Mullen offense at Ohio State University. Like Candle, he brings experience as a head coach. While he may not have much interest in recruiting, that isn’t a major obstacle since Moore is the recruiter at Michigan.

Wilson was Ohio State’s offensive coordinator during its offensive explosion under Urban Meyer. After Ryan Day was brought to Columbus, he moved to the head coaching position at Tulsa. Before that, Wilson was the head coach at Indiana, and let’s just say it didn’t end well there.

Wilson was the OC for Moore when he played at Oklahoma, so there’s a connection. Whether Wilson would want to coach at Michigan and whether Michigan would hire Wilson are big questions.

This would be a huge move from Moore. Denbrock just returned to Notre Dame for a second stint after briefly meeting with Brian Kelly at LSU. Denbrock is widely considered one of the top three offensive coordinators in college football. He’s an excellent play-caller, can recruit, and has plenty of NFL pipeline players to talk about.

A Michigan native, Denbrock originally met Kelly while coaching at his alma mater, Grand Valley State. Denbrock was at LSU when Jadyn Daniels won the Heisman, so Bryce Underwood would likely approve of the move. Denbrock could become tight ends coach while Casula moves to quarterbacks.

Moore has already tried to get people out of Notre Dame. Could he do it?

If you want to make your new quarterback recruit Bryce Underwood happy, a guy like Joey Halzle will do it. Under his leadership, Tennessee’s QB game progressed rapidly. Three straight seasons with passers over 3,000 yards. But will Michigan be eliminated from the running game? They also led the SEC in rushing during that period. Halzle also coached Dillon Gabriel at UCF.

Halzle is a former Oklahoma quarterback who happened to play with former Oklahoma offensive lineman and current Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore. Of course, that same connection is why he’s at UT with Josh Heupel, so that’s no trump card.

People fell in love with Marion’s go-go offense. Sources tell us some Power 4 coaches are concerned about whether it’s too “effective” for the next level. That there would have been some adjustment. The offense mostly runs outside and inside the zone with RPO concepts. The conflict could come from the fast style.

Marion was a rumored candidate at Oklahoma and Florida State and is considered the leading candidate at Wisconsin. In the past, Michigan has used a committee approach on offense, with each coach bringing their own flavor to the game plan. Could Michigan do this with Marion as the play caller, but with a modified version of its plan?

That name started gaining traction on the Saturday before The Game when Bruce Feldman mentioned his name as a potential candidate. Craddock was the strong-offense playcaller at Troy before following Jon Sumrall to Tulane.

Craddock has particularly impressed with the performance of Darian Mensah this season. Craddock previously followed Chad Morris at SMU and Arkansas. Things weren’t going particularly well back then, but he was also the youngest OC in college football at the time.

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