One was fired after a rivalry loss, and the other was cast aside by a new regime. Now, two of Sherrone Moore’s former Michigan assistants are getting a second chance to prove their worth in the SEC. However, joining a new program came with them having to switch roles, but their roles still draw heavily on the expertise they brought to Ann Arbor.

On Sunday, The Michigan Insider’s Brice Marich reported that ex-Michigan TEs coach and co-OC Steve Casula joined the Longhorns as TE analyst, and former special teams coach JB Brown joined as ST analyst.

Both coaches were part of Sherrone Moore’s staff. However, Brown was let go after the 2025 season, while Casula was not retained when Kyle Whittingham took over as the head coach. Regardless, the Texas Longhorns stand to benefit a lot from their experience.

Brown and Casula bring a deep understanding of scheme and player development to their new analyst roles at Texas. Head coach Steve Sarkisian will be able to leverage the new staff members’ knowledge to get deep analytical insights into tight end usage and special teams execution after an inconsistent 2025 season.

Looking back at his time in Ann Arbor, Steve Casula, from 2019 to 2021, served the Wolverines as an offensive analyst, and at that time, he contributed to Michigan’s first CFP appearance and the 2021 B1G title. Thereafter, Casula went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst to sharpen his play-calling edge, returning to Michigan in 2024 as tight ends coach when Sherrone Moore took the reins in Ann Arbor.

News served to you like never before!

Prefer us on Google, To get latest news on feed

Prefer Us on Google

Back in maize and blue, he inherited elite talent in All-American Colston Loveland and maximized it. That season, the TE room delivered 79 receptions for 792 yards. By May 2025, he was promoted to co-OC while retaining his tight ends coaching duties. He even helped to develop talents like Zack Marshall, Hogan Hansen, and Marlin Klein. But now, to coach the position, Whittingham is bringing in Freddie Whittingham.

While Casula is heading south to join the Longhorns after spending two full seasons at Michigan, Brown spent five seasons with the Wolverines. In 2021, he joined the program as a special teams analyst and helped develop kickers like Jake Moody. Then, in 2024, he earned a promotion to ST coordinator. After three seasons spent as an analyst, his debut season as a coordinator saw success with kicker Dominic Zvada delivering an All-American campaign.

But this past season, that success faded with uneven punts, missed kicks, and protection breakdowns. That’s why head coach Sherrone Moore made the decisive call to move on, bringing in experienced assistant Kerry Coombs. Despite that, the talent is there, and now Brown has a chance to prove his mettle with the Longhorns, as it signals a homecoming, since he is a Texas native.

However, the interesting fact is that last season, when Texas defeated Michigan 41–27 in the Citrus Bowl, Casula was on the Wolverines’ staff. Now, in a twist, Casula will be on the opposing sideline, helping guide the Longhorns in 2026.

Now, with this kind of track record on display, these two ex-Michigan staff members will definitely help Steve Sarkisian’s Texas 2026 performance get a boost. But losing these staff members didn’t change the Wolverines’ goal for this upcoming season, as Michigan gets a steady hand in its new head coach.

Michigan’s head coach ranks in the top 10

Although Michigan was once a national champion, in recent years the program has seen lows. Recruiting restrictions, vacated wins, head coaching changes, and so on. Considering that, if one talks about the football elite, then brands like OSU, Notre Dame, Alabama, and Georgia may come to mind. But on his latest podcast, Joel Klatt ranked builders, and that’s how Michigan’s new head coach, Kyle Whittingham, got a position. Klatt landed the new head coach at No. 7 on his top-10 list of active CFB coaches, and that came after Whittingham’s decade of success with the Utah Utes.

After Urban Meyer elevated the program onto the national stage, Whittingham took over and guided Utah from the Group of Five into the Pac-12 and later into the Big 12. The three-time National Coach of the Year led the Utes to three conference titles. Whittingham’s consistent success at Utah, where he amassed a 177-88 record over 21 seasons and guided the program’s transition into two major conferences, is exactly the kind of program-building expertise Michigan hopes he can replicate.

If Whittingham’s track record is any indication, Michigan hired a program architect. Now, ending all swirling concern, he’s tasked to write a new chapter at Michigan with his transforming ability.