After lifting the hood on Texas A&M's recruiting staff salaries last week, today FootballScoop takes a look at Michigan.
In a 60-person staff of full-time football employees, Michigan devotes six to recruiting and personnel. The division is lead by senior associate AD/general manager Sean Magee, with Albert Karschnia serving as director of player personnel, Samuel Popper as director of recruiting and Kayli Johnson as director of on-campus recruiting. The Wolverines also employ assistant director of recruiting John Collins and associate director on-campus recruiting/operations Ashley Terhune.
By comparison, Texas A&M employed 10 full-time staffers in the recruiting and personnel space. In real dollars, Texas A&M committed $980,000 per year in salary to recruiting and personnel, while Michigan pays $833,000 and change to its 6-person operation -- with nearly half going to one person.
According to copies of contracts obtained by FootballScoop via open records request, Magee signed a 3-year contract running from March 1, 2024 through Feb. 28, 2027, with $10,000 annual raises. He'll make $370,000 in 2026. All other recruiting staff members are on 1-year deals, running from March 1 to Feb. 28. Magee's contract calls for a 50 percent buyout of his annual salary if he leaves prior to the conclusion of the 2026 football season, but does not require a buyout if he takes an AD or deputy AD position elsewhere. All other contracts call for 100 percent buyouts if broken before the end of the 2025 football season, and do not offer no-buyout off-ramps for promotions taken elsewhere.
All contracts also dictate Michigan's football recruiting staff reports to AD Warde Manuel, not head coach Sherrone Moore.
Sean Magee, senior associate AD/general manager: $360,000
Albert Karschnia, director of player personnel: $180,250
Sam Popper, director of recruiting: $108,150
Kayli Johnson, director of on-campus recruiting: $85,000
John Collins, assistant director of recruiting: $50,000
Ashley Terhune, associate director of on-campus recruiting and operations: $50,000
Magee spent 2017-22 at Michigan, mostly as associate AD for football, before spending the 2022 and '23 seasons as the chief of staff for the Chicago Bears. He returned to Ann Arbor in March 2024 as GM, where he oversees all aspects of recruiting, player personnel and NIL. A US Naval Academy graduate and Midshipmen football player, he served across the globe as an active duty naval officer from 2004-12 while also earning his MBA from William & Mary during that time. Magee then went to work for Navy football as director of player personnel.
Karschnia is a 2015 Michigan graduate who interned with the football program as an undergraduate. He spent 2017-21 as the director of player personnel at Central Michigan, then returned to U-M in December 2021 as director of recruiting operations. He was promoted to director of player personnel in 2024.
Also a Michigan graduate, Popper returned to Michigan in 2023 after stints with Oregon, Akron and Memphis.
Johnson ran track at Michigan State and Texas Tech, then worked as a stadium operations intern for the Detroit Lions, and then as assistant director of recruiting operations at Rutgers from 2023-24 before joining Michigan's staff in March 2024. Collins also came aboard in March 2024 after serving as a recruiting and personnel analyst at Georgia.
Terhune is a Purdue graduate who held a variety of roles as an undergraduate for the Boilermakers before graduating in 2023. She worked in NIL at Western Kentucky for a year before joining Michigan last summer.