Kyle Whittingham made a key addition to his inaugural Michigan football staff last week — made official on Wednesday — with the hiring of defensive tackles coach Larry Black. This move came not long after Lou Esposito was hired by Jesse Minter to coach the same position for the Baltimore Ravens.
Black was most recently the defensive line coach for Vanderbilt, being hired there in 2022. In 2025, he added defensive run game coordinator title to his list of job duties, and he received another promotion
this offseason to be the Commodores’ co co-defensive coordinator. He has a strong resume and, on paper, seems to be a good hire.
In addition to his work on the field, fans should also be excited about what Black will do on the recruiting trail. For starters, his Midwest background — growing up in Cincinnati, Ohio, playing college football at Indiana, and coaching at Toledo for five years — gives him an edge in being able to recruit hotbeds in the Big Ten that are important to Michigan.
In fact, Black has already gotten to work on recruits in the area, as he has reportedly reached out to 2027 defensive tackle David Folorunsho. He is currently unranked, but he likely won’t be for much longer, as the Chicago native boasts offers from schools like Notre Dame, Indiana, Miami, Georgia, Penn State and many more.
“I liked that (Black) was all about real relationships and you could also tell he was a high energy, high care guy by the way he talked and carried himself,” Folorunsho recently told On3’s Ethan McDowell ($).
Needless to say, Black’s familiarity with the Midwest region should help the Wolverines be able to recruit talented defensive line prospects not far from Ann Arbor. This is especially important considering many assistants on the new staff are from the western part of the country and unfamiliar with the places Black will be focusing on.
But Black’s recruiting prowess isn’t limited to the Midwest. He recruited and coached in the heart of the SEC for four years at Vanderbilt, accounting for players that are from Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, among other states. A recent example comes in the 2026 class, when he received a signature from three-star defensive lineman Daryl Campbell. The Katy, Texas native was also being recruited by programs like Texas Tech, Indiana, Oklahoma State, Syracuse, Wisconsin, Houston, North Carolina and others before choosing to commit to Black and the Commodores.
Even at a program that doesn’t traditionally recruit at an elite level, Black helped identify and develop talent that contributed to Vanderbilt’s defensive improvement, especially over the last couple seasons. The expectation is he will be able to do that very same thing in Ann Arbor.
At the end of the day, Black should prove to be a key hire for Michigan, both on the field and on the recruiting trail. He provides the program with recruiting inroads in the Midwest and parts of the south, giving Michigan some much needed geographic balance in its recruiting strategy. These days, that is critical for a blue blood program that wants to recruit nationally while still locking down its traditional footprint.
