Michigan Football GM Sean Magee, others in recruiting department let go

Kyle Whittingham is parting ways with multiple key figures in his recruiting/personnel department, including General Manager Sean Magee, Director of Player Personnel Albert Karschnia and Director of On-Campus Recruiting Kayli Johnson. This news was first reported by The Michigan Insider’s Sam Webb.

Webb also reported that Director of Recruiting Sam Popper will also be leaving.

The moves come three months after the university fired head football coach Sherrone Moore. As a result, Warde Manuel hired Whittingham to take over the program. With the roster now firmly in place for the upcoming season following the transfer portal window and the signing of the 2026 class, Whittingham made the decision to part ways with most of his personnel department.

Magee joined Michigan’s staff as the program’s first football general manager in 2024, providing oversight in all off-field areas, including the management of the player personnel department, football operations and the administration of the budget for all football-related activity.

He was instrumental in flipping Bryce Underwood from LSU during the 2025 recruiting cycle, navigating the NIL space and helping to launch one of the country’s first NIL collectives (Champions Circle). He also worked closely with Manuel on the possibility of in-stadium advertising in the Big House.

As for Karschnia, the Michigan graduate worked as an intern with the program in the recruiting and operations departments in 2015 and 2016 before becoming Central Michigan’s director of player personnel for five seasons. In 2021, Michigan hired him back as director of recruiting operations.

Johnson leaves the program after two years of being the director of on-campus recruiting. Both her and Karschnia were pivotal in leading all recruiting operations, both at the high school and collegiate level.

While the timing is certainly something to ponder, there is a lot to glean reading through the tea leaves. Whittingham has made it apparent he wanted to bring his own staff to Ann Arbor, and one name that should shoot to the top of the replacement board is former Utah GM Robert Blechen. He helped assemble Utah’s best recruiting class in program history in 2023. He spent the previous 12 years in various front office roles at Utah, starting as the recruiting assistant in 2014-15 before working his way up to director of player personnel in 2017. Blenchen is currently on the open market, so it would make sense for him to join his old coach in Ann Arbor.

There’s obviously a LOT to unpack with this news, so stay with Maize n Brew as we continue to learn more about this story.