Michigan football fills out front office with hires

Michigan football has made a number of additions to its staff in non-coaching roles. The Wolverines announced the hire for four new hires across its front office including Alayna Williamson as chief of staff, Natalia Hilton as director of football operations, Ben Redell as executive assistant to the head coach/director of logistics and Evan Roka as assistant director of operations. Michigan is also reportedly hiring Chris Pettit, formerly the director of college scouting for the NFL's New York Giants, as assistant general manager.

JERRY HANLON: Longtime Michigan football assistant dies at 96 Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reported the Pettit news . Williamson spent the past two years (2024-25) in the same role under new Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham when he was at Utah. She spent more than a decade at Utah, serving as director of business scholars (2015-24), which included five years as director of undergraduate admissions and scholarships (2020-24).

Hilton was a student equipment manager at Utah for more than two years beginning in 2020, which overlapped with four years as Whittingham's assistant. While working as his assistant, she served as the director of on-campus recruiting. She then left ahead of the 2025 season to become an assistant for the NBA's Utah Jazz and the NHL's Utah Mammoth.

Redell, likewise, comes from Utah. He began as an undergraduate assistant (2021-24) with the Utes, worked in quality control with the offense (2024-25) and then was an operations graduate assistant (2025-26) before he began his position with U-M last month, according to his LinkedIn profile. Roka, meanwhile, is the only hire with Michigan ties.