Friday February 6th AM Update >> Sources share this is now a done deal. Esposito is leaving to join Jesse Minter’s staff in the NFL, as our John Brice reported last night.
The Baltimore Ravens are continuing to amass a new coaching staff with some of the best and brightest assistant coaches in college football.
The latest? Sources tell FootballScoop that the Ravens are working to hire away Lou Esposito from the University of Michigan to Jesse Minter’s first-year coaching staff.
Specifically, sources shared, Esposito will coach the Ravens’ defensive line under Minter.
He arrives in the NFL after spending the past two seasons at the University of Michigan, which had indicated its intention to retain Esposito as a top defensive assistant even as the Wolverines transition into a new era of coaching under legendary former Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham.
The Ravens offered Esposito a contract late Thursday afternoon, but sources indicated to FootballScoop that Michigan was extremely interested in retaining Esposito, a college coaching veteran with deep Michigan ties.
A former standout-player at the University of Memphis, Esposito has coordinated defenses at the college level — he had a seven-year run as Western Michigan’s defensive coordinator under Tim Lester and then Lester’s successor, Lance Taylor — while he previously had served as defensive coordinator at NCAA Division II powerhouse Ferris State.
Esposito also brings with him head coaching experience from a five-year run at the NCAA D-II level for St. Joseph’s, a now-defunct program in Indiana. He won 29 games in five years as head coach at St. Joseph.
During that time at St. Joseph’s, Esposito ultimately assembled what has proved to be a phenomenal group of coaches who worked under him. Current Pittsburgh Panthers defensive coordinator Cory Sanders was on that staff, and among others who immediately followed at St. Joseph’s include just-named Arizona Cardinals head coach Mike LaFleur, as well as Jason Phillips — a long-time college offensive coordinator who’s worked at Alcorn State and Norfolk State, as well as Troy University and other stops who’s also set to run a college offense again in 2026.
Whittingham had made Esposito one of the few coaches he intended to retain at Michigan, which largely cleaned out the entire coaching staff in all phases after the Wolverines fired disgraced former head coach Sherrone Moore in early December.
Following a length search, Michigan tabbed Whittingham shortly after it was announced that Whittingham would depart from the University of Utah upon the completion of his 21st full season atop the Utes program.
However, it was announced that Whittingham was ending his tenure at Utah — but not stepping away from coaching.
Soon thereafter, Whittingham agreed to take over at Michigan — and then signed a five-year contract the day after Christmas that was set to pay Whittingham an average annual salary of more than $8 million.
Esposito now prepares to join Minter’s Ravens staff, which also just recently added highly regarded ex-Notre Dame defensive backs coach Mike Mickens.
