Michigan

Jim Harbaugh brings another staffer out west as Michigan adds young recruiting specialists

Published

1 year ago

May 28, 2024

Jim Harbaugh brings another staffer out west as Michigan adds young recruiting specialists

Former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh is not quite done purging the staff of his alma mater.

Late Monday evening, Christina DeRuyter, previously the director of football operations at U-M who also held an integral role in the recruiting department, announced she is heading to join Harbaugh as the next director of football logistics in Los Angeles.

Or, as DeRuyter put it on her social media post, “Michigan West.”

“Forever grateful for the last 3 life changing years @UMichFootball,” her post began. “3x BIG10 Champs, 3 Wins vs OSU, Natty Champs, countless relationships & memories made. I’m thrilled to join Coach Harbaugh at the Chargers (Michigan West) as the Director of Football Logistics. BOLT UP⚡️& GO BLUE〽️”

Current wide receiver I’Marion Stewart responded to the tweet saying “I was looking for you today” before she replied it “hurt my heart” not to be in Ann Arbor any longer.

The move continues what has been a mass exodus from Ann Arbor to Los Angeles for those affiliated with last year’s team.

When Harbaugh left just weeks after helping lead the Wolverines to their first 15-0 season in program history and its first out-right national championship since 1949, he took with him nearly the entire defensive coaching staff.

Defensive coordinator Jesse Minter, his father Rick Minter (who served as an analyst much of the past two years before finishing last year as interim linebackers coach), defensive line coach Mike Elston, and defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale, despite the wide-held belief he would stay on staff at Michigan.

That is without mentioning edge specialist Dylan Roney or strength and conditioning coach Ben Herbert, who Harbaugh called the “x-factor for years” and whose name he was shouting to come join him when confetti rained down at NRG Stadium in Houston.

“People have choices to make, man,” Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel told the Freep in a sit down earlier this spring. “Jim knows what he wants to do at the Chargers, he made the offers and people had decisions to make. The mark of great success of people is when they come to a program or organization and leave it better than they found it. Jim did that. Those coaches did that. Whomever from the staff wants to go with Jim, I’m not going to have any animosity toward them.

MANUEL 1 ON 1 INTERVIEW: Michigan AD Warde Manuel exclusive interview: The hardest thing he has done in career

“As I told Sherrone (Moore) as we were dealing with it, on the flip side, ‘Look, now you can make it the way you want to make it, whatever that is,’ and he’s done that and I believe has a great staff he’s put together across the board.”

Manuel said the department was instead focused on adding new, young talent to the mix, which seems to have happened this past week. Over the past few days, the Wolverines announced the addition of a handful of new analysts and recruiting staffers.

Two of the new analysts, Reid Kuhn and Richard Perry, recently studied at Michigan, while the other faces come from some of the top football programs in the country like Preston Sagan (Clemson), Aidan Young (Oregon), Jacob Weber (Indiana) Jack Turner (Wake Forest), and Jacob Sakk (Pittsburgh).

Also as part of the staff movement, Albert Karschnia has taken over as Director of Player Personnel, while Sam Popper, previously the assistant, will fill Karschnia’s previous role as Director of Recruiting. It comes in the same time frame as Michigan nabbed a Michigan State graduate, Kayli Johnson, the older sister of All-American DB Will Johnson, to take over DeRuyter’s role, according to her social media profile.

Johnson was Rutgers’ assistant director of recruiting operations under Greg Schiano last year and an operations intern with the Detroit Lions the year before that, which comes after a standout track career at Michigan State (undergrad) and Texas Tech (grad school).

There’s hope around the program the influx of young talent can help kick start a month of June that is going to be incredibly important in terms of creating the foundation of U-M’s 2025 high school recruiting class.

Currently, Michigan has just five verbal commits, three of whom were pledged to the previous regime. As a group, Michigan ranks No. 41 in the nation, per 247Sports composite rankings.

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Michigan

5 questions with a man who finds money for risky business ideas

Published

2 hours ago

November 8, 2025

Press Room

5 questions with a man who finds money for risky business ideas

Carol Cain
| Detroit Free Press Business Columnist

Michigan wasn’t on anyone’s radar for venture capital investment 20 years ago.
Chris Rizik and his Renaissance Venture Capital have used their network and investments to bring over $3B in VC investment to Michigan.

There was a time Michigan was an also-ran place for venture capital and helping startups in the Great Lakes State.

In fact, the state wasn’t on anyone’s radar 20 years ago as 95% of the VC action was taking place on the nation’s east and west coasts.

It helped inspire Chris Rizik to light a fire to help change that image.

The end result was the launch of Renaissance Venture Capital 17 years ago with the support of Business Leaders For Michigan and corporations like DTE Energy, Ford Motor Co., AAA, and Blue Cross Blue Shield and others who belonged to the statewide business group.

Renaissance Venture Capital has since used its network and investments to bring more venture capital to Michigan (over $3 billion ). To date, the Renaissance Venture Fund itself has raised more than $300 million, according to Rizik, who serves as founder and managing partner.

Jeff Donofrio, president and CEO of Business Leaders For Michigan, said: “We partnered in creating the Renaissance Venture Capital Fund because we believed in Chris’ vision to make Michigan a national leader in venture capital. Thanks to his leadership, it has become a reality and the fund is now a powerful catalyst for startup growth and a model for other states.”

Other VC funds like Invest Detroit and Mercury Fund have opened here as the region has become something of a hot spot for VCs.

Along the way, Rizik’s reputation as the go-to guy has grown.

“Chris’ phone number is on everyone’s speed dial,” said Patti Glaza, executive vice president and managing director of Invest Detroit. “From mentoring founders and serving on boards to leading conversations that strengthen our ecosystem, Chris embodies what makes Michigan’s venture community so special.”

Rizik, a former partner at Dickinson Wright law firm and chairman at Ardesta, a nanotechnology incubator, recently got applause from the National Venture Capital Association for his efforts to expand VCs, naming him one of three 2025 Venture Vanguard honorees, the highest national venture capital award. (Ann Winblad of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners and Howard Morgan of First Round Capital were the others.)

“A pioneering force of venture capital in the heartland, Chris has helped shape the Midwest’s startup ecosystem like few others,” Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of NVCA, said when they gave out the awards in June.

Connecting ideas to dollars

Rizik launched UnDemo Days in 2015 to provide a place for venture capital investors to come to Detroit to meet startups as they kick the tires in deciding whether to invest.

“It’s like speed dating for startups,” he said.

The last UnDemo Day was held Oct. 1 at Ford Field and introduced over 250 local startups to venture capital investors with over 900 people attending.

With so much going on, I posed a couple questions to Rizik (his answers are edited for length).

QUESTION: Tell me about state of venture capital in Michigan?

ANSWER: Michigan has been one of the fastest growing states for venture capital in recent years. We’ve always had great technology and a talented engineering workforce here, but for decades we underperformed at creating startups. Now there’s energy around startups in Ann Arbor, Detroit and Grand Rapids and other places and VCs are excited to come here. They are investing at more than four times the level they were when we started hosting our UnDemo Days.

Q: Explain how VC investors get involved in a startup?

A: Venture capital is high risk investment in startups that have the potential to grow very big very fast. They typically involve some kind of game-changing technology or process. These are companies that are generally too risky for banks to loan money to, but venture capitalists are willing to take the risk in hopes the company will explode into something that can change the world and at the same time provide lucrative financial results. A majority of these investments will not pan out financially, but the hope is that the successes more than make up for the failures.

Q: Where are the opportunities for VCs here?

A: Michigan is best known around the world as being particularly strong in areas like mobility, cybersecurity, life sciences, advanced materials, supply chain and advanced manufacturing.

Q: You just got a national award where you were credited for bringing VC opportunities to areas that have been challenged. How have you been able to succeed?

A: We are focused on what we are and what we are not, and we keep our focus in a world where there are temptations to chase shiny objects that take you off course. We are about investing in great venture capital funds around the country and connecting them with the Michigan ecosystem to help grow the state.

Q: Give me an example of a VC success story you’ve been involved with?

A: One of the most interesting was Orbion Space Technology. In 2018 we met the founder, Dr. Brad King (of Michigan Technological University) in Houghton where he started the company. He was creating a revolutionary propulsion system for satellites, and was committed to building the company in the U.P. But raising capital there was difficult. So we invited him to UnDemo Day and introduced him to venture capitalists. A Boston firm, Material Impact Fund, loved what they heard and became Orbion’s first institutional investor. The next year Orbion met more VCs at UnDemo Day. Now, Orbion is a leader in propulsion systems and one of the largest employers in Houghton. It is a great Michigan story and a great Renaissance success.

Contact Carol Cain at clcain@cbs.com. She is senior producer/host of “Michigan Matters,” which airs 5:30 a.m. Sundays on CBS Detroit and 9:30 a.m. Sundays on CW Detroit 50. See Detroit City Councilman Coleman Young II, Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, GOP Strategist Susy Avery, Adrian Fortino of Mercury Fund, Patti Glaza of Invest Detroit and Chris Rizik of Renaissance Venture Capital on this week’s show. You can also watch the show simultaneously on Fubu, Pluto TV, YouTube TV and Apple TV.

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Michigan

Michigan football flips 3-star offensive tackle Tommy Fraumann

Published

20 hours ago

November 7, 2025

Press Room

Michigan football flips 3-star offensive tackle Tommy Fraumann

Michigan has added legacy Tommy Fraumann, a 6-foot-7 offensive tackle, to its 2026 class.

Fraumann, rated three stars, had been committed to Miami (Ohio). He announced his decision a day after three-star linebacker Aden Reeder flipped from Wisconsin to Michigan.

Fraumann, out of Wilmette (Illinois) Loyola Academy, is ranked 76th nationally at tackle. His father, Robert, lettered at Michigan in 2000.

Michigan now has 23 commits to the 2026 class.

achengelis@detroitnews.com

@chengelis

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Michigan

It’s ‘stick view’ season at Michigan’s highest scenic drive

Published

2 days ago

November 6, 2025

Press Room

EAGLE HARBOR TOWNSHIP, MI – The leaves are falling, but the snow isn’t flying yet: It’s “stick view” season at Michigan’s highest scenic drive.

traces the spine of an ancient fault line as it rises 700 feet above the surface of Lake Superior, ending at the summit where epic fall color stretches in every direction.

The crown jewel of the state’s scenic drives, Brockway Mountain Drive traces the spine of an ancient fault line as it rises 720 feet above the surface of Lake Superior. At the summit, visitors find panoramic views of turbulent Great Lake and surrounding forestland. It’s the tallest scenic drive between the Rocky and Allegheny mountains.

When epic fall color fades and leaves drift the ground around Brockway Mountain Drive, what’s left is “stick season views.” Visit Keweenaw invites travelers to enjoy late fall’s unobstructed views before the snow flies and makes this route impassable.Visit Keweenaw

A month ago, epic fall color stretched out in every direction. Today, the color explosion has faded and russet leaves drifted to the ground leaving behind bare trees. Some refer to this time as “stick season.”

This U.P. drive takes you 700 feet above Lake Superior, where epic fall color stretches out in every direction

The nine-mile route to the plateau is open from May to late fall; specifically, whenever snowfall makes it impassable. At that point, it closes to vehicles and opens to snowmobiles.

Visit Keweenaw makes the argument that the late fall “stick views” are worth the drive.

“As autumn’s leaves return to the earth’s surface, tree lines and outlooks see increased visibility,” said Jesse Weiderhold, managing director of Visit Keweenaw. “Peer through trees that would normally obstruct views for more open views of Lake Superior and the surrounding Keweenaw. See further in forests and enjoy fall’s last triumph before the snow falls.”

Gorgeous view can be seen from new overlook on Brockway Mountain trail

Other activities to enjoy at the top of Brockway this time of year include wildlife observation and birdwatching, hiking and biking, and night sky watching.

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