Greg Jackson
In somewhat disappointing news for Michigan, it was announced yesterday that Michigan safeties coach Greg Jackson would become the new Dallas Cowboys safeties coach. Jackson spent just one year in Ann Arbor after coaching for the San Francisco 49ers from 2011-2014.
Hit the jump for more on Jackson’s departure.
Jackson, a former All-American and NFL safety, is/was a very good defensive backs coach, in my opinion. Last year he took a group that was fairly inexperienced and unaccomplished, and he made the trio of true safeties (including Jarrod Wilson, Delano Hill, and Dymonte Thomas) into a very solid group. And that doesn’t include what he did with star Jabrill Peppers, who had a very good season. Michigan was not victimized over the middle of the field or in the deep passing game very often. In 2014 the Wolverines were #19 nationally in passing yards allowed and #64 in passer rating against them. In 2015 they were #3 in passing yards allowed and #1 in passer rating defense. Of course, some of that has to do with the defensive coordinator, the pass rush, the cornerbacks, etc., but it shows how effective the unit was as a whole.
Michigan is now in search of a third new staff member this off-season:
Head Coach
OC/OL
QB/WR
RB
TE
DC
DL
LB
CB
S
ST
Jim Harbaugh
Tim Drevno
Jedd Fisch
Tyrone Wheatley
Jay Harbaugh
D.J. Durkin
Greg Mattison
—
Mike Zordich
Greg Jackson
John Baxter
Jim Harbaugh
Tim Drevno
Jedd Fisch
Tyrone Wheatley
Jay Harbaugh
Don Brown
Greg Mattison
Chris Partridge
Mike Zordich
???
—
The news of Jackson’s departure was not altogether unexpected, though. He flirted with the Cincinnati Bengals earlier in the off-season, and there were rumors that he would not want to stick around if he were passed up for the open defensive coordinator job, which went to Boston College’s Don Brown. While it sounds like Jackson was certainly welcome to stay at Michigan, I’m not sure that Jim Harbaugh wanted to risk putting his national championship hopes in the hands of a first-time coordinator.
Michigan already essentially replaced its special teams coach by hiring a linebackers coach, so it would be odd for them to go out and now hire a special teams coordinator. Brown has mostly coached cornerbacks and linebackers in his career. It may make sense to have Zordich – a former NFL safety – slide over to coach the safeties, have Brown coach the cornerbacks, and bring in another linebackers coach to work in tandem with Partridge. Another option would be to bring in that additional coach to help with the defensive line, since Michigan is expected to move to a four-man front more than the three-man look it often showed last season. Michigan did this a bit when Brady Hoke coached the defensive tackles and had his assistants in charge of the defensive ends. A couple obvious candidates for the new opening are:
- Will Carr, who has been working with the defensive tackle already as a graduate assistant
- Devin Bush, Sr., a high school coach in Florida who was a college/NFL safety and has been rumored to be Michigan-bound in some capacity, though likely in a recruiting coordinator position. His son, Devin Jr., is an early enrollee at Michigan and two more of his high school players signed with the Wolverines in the 2016 class.
Jim Harbaugh is a very good coach and has a pretty solid coaching tree already, so I am confident that he will find somebody competent to replace Jackson. But anytime you have one of the top defenses in the country, you hate to see the boat get rocked very much.
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I wonder if Clayton White is an assistant Jim would want back. He coached DB’s for Jim at Stanford for a year or two. He’s currently coaching special teams and safeties at NC State.
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The word on the street is that Aubrey Pleasant might be the front-runner for the job.
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pleasant is a flint dude right? i know he played for the badgers.
if hes the best guy for the job, sign him up. it seems whenever theres a vacant position, many have a tendency to start rattling off names of potential candidates with ties to m as players, coaches, etc which seems foolish since harbaugh has demonstrated he does not operate that way.
i know fans want “michigan guys” whenever possible but i appreciate harbaugh hiring the best possible candidates across the board, regardless of perception, prior ties to m, etc.
as you indicated, harbaugh is a highly successful and highly competitive coach and hell find the right guy for the gig. its just a bonus if its a “michigan guy”
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Yeah, Pleasant is from Flint and played at Wisconsin. I think there’s a tendency to look at former Michigan players/coaches, and I think it’s good to have one or two of those guys on the staff because they can speak from experience. In Michigan’s case, we have Harbaugh and Wheatley, so I think that’s enough local flavor. If the best man available is a Michigan guy, then I’m all for it, but chances are slim that the best coach available just happened to have gone to the University of Michigan.
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I suspect we will see this kind of turnover into the future. I suspect Harbaugh expects it and is prepared to deal with it. Further, I suspect Harbaugh is as good at evaluating coaching talent as he is playing talent, and he’ll bring people in we may not have heard of, but that will work out just fine.
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Does anybody know who the top DB coaches are right now? Maybe the same thing will happen ala Don Brown and get the best ranked DB coach to come out of nowhere to AA.
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