Michigan hires Bill Belichick’s longtime former director of football
The Michigan football team reportedly has a new position on the staff, as the Wolverines have hired an assistant GM for the first time:
FOXBOROUGH, MA - SEPTEMBER 1: New England Patriots Director of Football/Head Coach Administration Berj Najarian, left, stands with head coach Bill Belichick during New England Patriots practice at the Gillette Stadium practice facility in Foxborough, MA on Sep. 1, 2015. (Photo by Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) | Boston Globe via Getty Images Kyle Whittingham has made another addition to his Michigan Wolverines football staff, as the team is bringing in Berj Najarian to be the new assistant general manager/strategy, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Najarian served as the director of football for the New England Patriots under Bill Belichick for 24 years. Sources: Michigan is set to hire Berj Najarian as the football program’s new assistant general manager/strategy. He’s going to help Kyle Whittingham’s program with contracts, negotiations and strategy for the new college sports landscape.
pic. twitter. com/1byZQKK3QJ — Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 24, 2026 After leaving the Patriots, Najarian had a brief stint at Boston College, as he was the chief of staff for one year.
Now, he is coming to Michigan to help navigate the program through a new era of college sports that relies heavily on NIL. In this new era of college sports, many programs have started to hire general managers to assist with a lot of the tedious new tasks that take up a lot of time for coaches. Having a GM takes a lot of weight off the head coaches’ shoulders and allows them to focus more on coaching the team.