Get ready for another year of satellite camp debate, because Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh is taking his coaching staff on another trip south in 2016. Michigan’s coaching staff will reportedly work at a football camp at Old Dominion next summer.
As reported by The Virginian-Pilot, Old Dominion head coach Bobby Wilder had attempted to work out a date that worked for both Old Dominion and Michigan’s coaching staff, but the two could never put something together for this summer. So a date was instead set for 2016 to have the coaches from Ann Arbor work at a football camp in Norfolk next year. That will be the second straight summer Old Dominion is visited by a Big Ten coaching staff. James Franklin and Penn State’s staff will work a camp at Old Dominion next week. Penn State’s staff will also run camps at Georgia State and Stetson in Florida. Harbaugh’s Michigan staff will be covering ground at nine camps in Indiana, Alabama, Florida, Pennsylvania, Texas, and California by the time they are done later this week.
Michigan may not be the only Big Ten team paying a visit to Old Dominion next summer either. Old Dominion athletics director Wood Selig is also on record saying he is trying to get Maryland to work at a camp next summer as well. Big Ten teams have shown great interest in working at camps in the south whenever possible for the opportunity to work with recruits who may not get a chance to see their programs up close and personal. With ACC and SEC coaches shackled from participating in the satellite camp practice by their conferences, and pushing for the NCAA to force the Big Ten to abide by their guidelines, Big Ten coaches have the opportunity to add a recruiting tool others are not privy to. There is a benefit to younger or smaller programs having coaches from big name programs come work at a satellite camp, and the fear these programs will leave with every possible recruit is not one that worries Old Dominion’s staff.
“Penn State can’t recruit every kid in our camp,” said Old Dominion quarterbacks coach Ron Whitcomb to The Virginian-Pilot. Visiting coaches can also not advertise their involvement in a satellite camp, although the host school can.