It’s Christmas Eve. The University of Michigan football program officially has been without a coach for two weeks.
As FootballScoop chronicled Tuesday, Wolverines representatives and Louisville head coach Jeff Brohm have conducted preliminary talks while Michigan has vetted the veteran college football leader, per numerous sources briefed on the situation.
Brohm’s Cardinals capped their 10-win 2025 season Tuesday with a win against Toledo in the Boca Raton Bowl.
Per sources, Brohm was set to spend as much as 24 to 48 hours additional time in Florida following the bowl victory; more than enough time for Michigan officials to conduct more conversations with Brohm, as sources noted to FootballScoop.
But a new name, with both collegiate head coaching experience and prominent work as a top offensive coordinator in both the Power Conference levels of college football and the NFL, also has emerged.
Multiple sources, at both the collegiate and NFL levels, shared with FootballScoop Tuesday afternoon into Tuesday night that Michigan had begun vetting current Baltimore Ravens offensive coordinator Todd Monken and intended to speak this week with Monken.
A former head coach at Southern Mississippi who helped Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs program win back-to-back national championships earlier this decade as his offensive coordinator, Monken is a Wheaton, Illinois, native and part of what arguably is the state of Illinois’ first family of college football coaching. His cousin, Jeff Monken, is an award-winning, highly decorated head coach of the Army Black Knights; his brother, Ted, is a prominent high school coach in the Chicago area.
Moreover, Todd Monken has significant coaching experience in the Midwest. He’s served at NCAA Division II power Grand Valley State as well as Eastern Michigan; Monken also previously coached at Notre Dame early in his career. More recently he has served as offensive coordinator of the Cleveland Browns, the Tampa Bay Bucs, at Georgia and with the Ravens.
Though the Baltimore Ravens on Tuesday saw six players selected to the NFL Pro Bowl, the franchise is on the cusp of missing the AFC Playoffs and have, increasingly in recent weeks, been subjected to considerable discussion and NFL reporting on expected “major changes” in the organization.
Earlier this week, veteran head coach John Harbaugh, a former Super Bowl winner, was even asked about his job status; he simply answered that he’s focused on being the best each day to give the best chance for success. Harbaugh did not elaborate on his personal expectations for a return to Baltimore in 2026.
John Harbaugh fielded multiple questions related to his job security yesterday:
“Coaching at any level is a day-to-day job. … I try to do the job, not try to keep the job. There’s no such thing as having a job, it’s just doing a job.”
On whether Steve Bisciotti has given… pic.twitter.com/4OF4SVVgFa
— Bobby Trosset (@bobbybaltim0re) December 23, 2025
But additional speculation has centered on the relationship of Monken and Lamar Jackson, the 28-year-old Ravens quarterback and two-time NFL MVP.
Jackson has battled a litany of injuries this season while he also has statistically had arguably his worst season as an NFL starting quarterback.
Monken, however, has been acclaimed for his offensive acumen; he was a finalist in 2022 for the prestigious Broyles Award, given annually to college football’s top assistant coach. In addition to having coordinated offenses at Georgia under Smart, Monken also was the offensive architect at Oklahoma State, the passing game coordinator at LSU and the offensive play-caller in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Bucs and Cleveland Browns.
Both Monken and Brohm have emerged this week as central figures in a Michigan search that school officials, as FootballScoop has twice reported, told players and their family members that they would like to have wrapped up by Christmas.
Interim head coach Biff Poggi also has sought to position himself for the opportunity to earn the full-time gig; Poggi has called prominent coaches with NFL coaching experience, in some instances NFL head coaching experience, as well as experience coordinating offenses and defenses at the Power Conference levels of college football about the potential to be linchpin figures in Poggi’s projected Michigan staff.
Outgoing Utah coach Kyle Whittingham, that program’s winningest head coach of all-time and a dean among sitting college head coaches entering his final game atop the Utes, also has been persistently linked to the Michigan vacancy; Indeed, sources have repeatedly told FootballScoop that there is support for Whittingham in Michigan circles because of his program’s longstanding physicality, a healthy, winning culture and a background free of issues — the latter being crucial for an entire athletics department presently under investigation amidst allegations of longrunning renegade behavior.
Previously reported by FootballScoop, Los Angeles Chargers defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, who helped Michigan win its controversial 2023 national championship, has been linked to the Wolverines job but sources told FootballScoop this week that Minter’s stock has risen to such levels in the NFL that he could be a head coaching candidate in either the upcoming or 2026 NFL head coaching cycles.
Jedd Fisch, per sources, also has been linked to the job, but Michigan hasn’t “advanced talks with Fisch’ in any meaningful fashion at this point, per sources.
While the Wolverines ready to play Texas in their season-ending Citrus Bowl appearance, the program also is trying to stay ahead of the upcoming NCAA Transfer Portal Window.
Michigan has thus far had three players publicly revealed to have opted out of the bowl game, while Poggi expects as many as 25 to not suit up for the Wolverines; the Transfer Portal opens Jan. 2 and runs through Jan. 16, 2026.
