Former Michigan assistant coach Luke Yaklich will accept an offer to become head coach at University of Illinois-Chicago, per Stadium’s Jeff Goodman. Yaklich will depart Texas for his home state of Illinois, after a one-year stint as Associate Head Coach under Shaka Smart. He’ll succeed Steve McClain as coach of the Flames.
At Michigan, Yaklich was known as a defensive specialist. In 2017, the year before he arrived, Michigan’s defense was ranked #69 per Kenpom’s adjusted defensive efficiency metric, and had never cracked the top 35 during the John Beilein era. The Wolverines were #3 by that metric in Yaklich’s first year at Michigan, and #2 the following year.