A pair of former Michigan football assistant coaches were hit with show-cause penalties from the NCAA on Monday over past recruiting violations.
Ex-defensive coordinator Jesse Minter was issued a one-year ban from college athletics, while defensive backs coach Steve Clinkscale faces a two-year punishment.
Both coaches recently reached an agreement with the NCAA’s Division I Committee on Infractions, allowing them to begin serving their penalties immediately.
Minter, who roamed the sidelines at Michigan in 2022 and 2023, knowingly made impermissible early communication with a high-school prospect “multiple” times and did not report the violations to the school’s compliance department, according to NCAA issuance.
The show-cause penalty for Minter would not allow him to hold an “athletically-related position” at an NCAA school.
Clinkscale, who served as defensive backs coach from 2021 to ’23, admitted to providing impermissible benefits to prospects and their families during their recruitment and not providing complete information during an interview during the investigation, according to the NCAA.
The NCAA found that Clinkscale “failed to fully satisfy his obligation to cooperate with the investigation” before “he eventually acknowledged the violations and his involvement in them.”
The penalty against Clinkscale calls for any NCAA institution interested in hiring him during the two-year ban to restrict him from athletic-related roles. And if he is hired during the first year, Clinkscale would be suspended for 50 percent of the football regular season contests.
Former Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, who employed Minter and Clinkscale during his time in Ann Arbor, was issued a four-year show-cause penalty by the NCAA last August over recruiting violations that permeated his program in 2021.
The recruiting violations by Minter and Clinkscale were part of the Notice of Allegations issued to Michigan regarding the NCAA’s second probe of the program, this one centered around impermissible advanced scouting. A resolution on that case is still pending, with Harbaugh, current Michigan coach Sherrone Moore, former staffer Connor Stalions, linebackers coach Chris Partridge and staffer Denard Robinson all facing possible punishment.
Minter and Clinkscale are both currently in the NFL, employed by Harbaugh’s Los Angeles Chargers.