Coach Sherrone Moore has learned his lessons. He had an under-the-radar season in 2024, which was temporarily dodged by a routine win over Ohio Day Buckeyes, but it was certainly not enough to back Moore up. Degrading from a national championship to a five losses season came off a punch in the gut to the whole program. So, Michigan fans badly needed an answer for a 7-5 under the coach’s first full season in charge. Are the Wolverines already missing Jim Harbaugh?

Looks like. Harbaugh seems to have moved on from the Michigan saga. In August, he did not serve as the honorary captain for the Wolverines’ season opener. Instead, he continued to prepare for his first season as Los Angeles Chargers coach. Moore had said that Harbaugh called to inform about the decision to not attend Michigan’s August 31 game against Fresno State, when the team celebrated its national championship at Michigan Stadium. Harbaugh reportedly said he wanted to remain focused on his first Chargers team and not take away from the 2024 Wolverines squad.

Notably, a week before this, the NCAA announced a four-year show-cause order for Harbaugh for impermissible recruiting violations during the COVID-19 pandemic. Shortly after this, Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told the 1 Star Recruits podcast that Harbaugh had accepted an invitation to serve as honorary captain for the opener. But although he has left, his footsteps do not seem to be erased anytime soon.

Look at Sherrone Moore’s recent guy to ‘rely on’, Juan Castillo. It remains to be seen if he can play a significant role in a tip-top 2025, but quite intriguingly, the latest Michigan recruit is bringing some huge Jim Harbaugh connections to the table.

Moore reevaluated his blunders and jumped on, taking some serious corrective moves on the 2025 transfer portal class. While sinking $10.5 million into Bryce Underwood remains top of what he could have done, the coaching front comes second in his revamp plan. The addition of offensive analyst Juan Castillo after Chip Lindsey (OC) has currently been running the conversation.

The former UCLA offensive line coach, Castillo, brought over 40 years of NFL and college experience to Ann Arbor. Most notably, he has a tie with former Wolverines head coach Jim Harbaugh. ”He was an offensive analyst at Michigan under Jim Harbaugh in 2019 and also worked for John Harbaugh, Andy Reid, and others. So, he has been all over the place in both college and the NFL and adds a lot of experience to the coaching staff. He will be coming to Michigan as an analyst so great news there for Sherrone Moore and the company,” insider dropped the deets in the latest episode of the Michigan Sports talk. 

Castillo had an incredible 18 seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles. His 13 years as an offensive line coach remained especially striking with the Eagles. His technical expertise and sheer attention to detail involving the players’ growth earned him top-tier success in professional football.

In 2022, Castillo joined forces with the Bruins and was heavily entrusted with revitalizing the front five. He quite fulfilled the purpose, staging some significant improvements in both run blocking and pass protection. The Bruins unmistakably owe their offensive success in the past two years to the former Michigan coach.

The Wolverines bagged a 15th rank in the nation in yards per play (6.09) while rushing for over 200 yards (203.2) and scoring 35.2 points per game under the first season with Castillo. After a 6 year halt, we can only expect a better and bigger output to the table and see Harbaugh’s run-the-damn ball vision turn into a brighter reality under Sherrone Moore.

But Castillo isn’t the only one who is bringing the legendary Harbaugh connection to Sherrone Moore’s struggling offense; Chip Lindsey also has his fair share.

Chip Lindsey shares a huge Jim Harbaugh family connection 

Michigan is clearly not over its beating heart, Jim Harbaugh. Try harder to convince us otherwise, and it still won’t make any sense. Harbaugh left the building a year back, setting an unprecedented standard to match up for Moore, but his shadow still looms large in most of Michigan’s locker room decisions.

The Wolverines seem to be still carrying that passive touch of their former HC while shaping up the future players. Well, Harbaugh can’t come back to make the needs met, but he can, at least, send his clones (the people he worked with closely) to re-implement some of his visions and strategies to retain the top-dog standard.

Before Moore proceeded with Juan Castillo, he brought Chip Lindsey as the new OC, who shared a chunk of his career with Jim Harbaugh’s brother, John Harbaugh, during his tenure with the Baltimore Ravens.

Michigan football is on its way to a huge turnaround, with or without Jim Harbaugh in it. I mean, Chip Lindsey and Juan Castillo can be the next trailblazers in the program, who knows!