Michigan Wolverines football head coach Kyle Whittingham officially announced the hire of Larry Black as the program’s defensive tackles coach on Wednesday afternoon.
News of his imminent hiring hit over the weekend, first reported by ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Black just finished up his fourth season with the Commodores and had recently been elevated to co-defensive coordinator on head coach Clark Lea’s staff after the two worked together at Notre Dame. He replaces Lou Esposito, who was retained by Whittingham during the transition, but accepted a job in the NFL with Jesse Minter’s Baltimore Ravens.
Black’s work with Vanderbilt was tremendous in 2025, helping the group rank 18th nationally with 108.2 yards per game allowed on the ground. Four different defensive linemen recorded at least 6 tackles for loss this past season, including 9.5 from Miles Capers and 8.5 from Khordae Sydnor
Black, who played defensive tackle at Indiana from 2009-13, got his start in coaching at Carthrage College in 2015 before spending two years at Toledo as a graduate assistant in 2016-17. He made the jump to Notre Dame as a GA in 2018 before heading back to Toledo to coach the defensive line from 2019-21. Black was hired to coach the defensive line at Vanderbilt in 2022. He was also selected to join the Bill Walsh Minority Coaching Fellowship in 2021 with the Cincinnati Bengals.
Future NFL players coached under his watch include Notre Dame’s Daelin Hayes, Kurt Hinish, Julian Okwara, Jamir Jones, Khalid Kareem, Jerry Tillery, Ade Ogundeji and Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, and Toledo’s Treyvon Hester and Desjuan Johnson.
His brother, Jibreel Black, played at Michigan from 2010-13.
Michigan’s full defensive coaching staff is set after the hire:
Defensive coordinator: Jay Hill
EDGEs coach/run game coordinator: Lewis Powell
Defensive tackles coach: Larry Black
Assistant defensive line: David Denham
Linebackers coach: Alex Whittingham
Cornerbacks coach: Jernaro Gilford
Safeties coach: Tyler Stockton
