Since joining the Michigan football coaching staff about two weeks ago, Lou Esposito has yet to move into a permanent Ann Arbor residence.
The past few months have brought waves of change for the defensive line coach, who took a position at Memphis in January after spending the past six years at Western Michigan. His stint with the Tigers was short-lived, though, as he jumped at the opportunity that Wolverines coach Sherrone Moore offered him in late March.
Esposito is still adjusting to the latest change, both on and off the field. As he’s started to learn the ins and outs of Michigan’s system, he’s been navigating the move to Ann Arbor by staying with one of his closest friends: tight ends coach Steve Casula.
“He’s one of my best friends in the world,” Casula said Tuesday. “Our wives are best friends. He’s living with me right now, which is awesome. … I can’t say enough good things about Lou. But I’m the wrong guy to ask probably, I’m biased — he’s family to me.”
Esposito and Casula overlapped at Western Michigan from 2010-2012 and then again at Davenport, a small Division II school, from 2014-2016. Their friendship transcended their individual coaching journeys, and now their paths are crossing once again.
Both Esposito and Casula are new to their roles with the Wolverines. While Esposito is completely new to the program, Casula served as an offensive analyst for Michigan from 2019-2021 before spending last year as the offensive coordinator at Massachusetts.
In addition to those two fresh faces, the Michigan coaching staff as a whole underwent significant remodeling this offseason. It started from the top, of course, with Moore taking over as head coach, and it trickled down through the coordinators and assistants. There isn’t a single coaching position on the Wolverines’ staff that remained exactly the same between last fall and this spring.
Despite the extensive turnover, old connections like that of Esposito and Casula tie everyone on the staff together — providing a solid foundation to build upon as the upcoming season nears.
Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale worked directly with former Michigan coordinators Mike Macdonald and Jesse Minter in Baltimore. Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is in his second stint with the Wolverines, having served in the same position in 2020. Running backs coach Tony Alford goes way back with Moore, and defensive backs coach LaMar Morgan is close friends with Minter.
All of the relationships go way back, but perhaps none more so than Esposito and Casula.
“My son’s birthday was yesterday,” Casula said. “And I remember when he was born, like two days later, we played the first-ever spring game at Davenport. And now you look up and eight years later, give or take a couple of days, we’re going to be coaching against each other again in the spring game at the University of Michigan.”
And after coaching against each other this Saturday, Esposito and Casula will go home to the same place. Calling them roommates might be a stretch, as it’s only temporary at the end of the day, but the living situation goes to show just how close Esposito and Casula are — and that type of relationship extends throughout the Michigan coaching staff.
So even after Esposito moves out, the Wolverines will still look to those old connections to strengthen their foundation and keep tying them together.