Tag: Brian Jean-Mary

Brian Jean-Mary, Wolverine…again

Brian Jean-Mary has been hired as Michigan’s linebackers coach. He was previously at Michigan in 2020.

Jean-Mary joined the Jacksonville Jaguars staff in 2021 to coach under Urban Meyer and then spent 2022-2023 as Tennessee’s linebackers coach. He had previously been at Louisville (2010-2013), Texas (2014-2016), USF (2017-2019), and a few other schools.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore was on the same staff as Jean-Mary at Louisville; Moore was a graduate assistant and tight ends coach from 2009-2013, and Jean-Mary was the linebackers coach from 2010-2013. They were also on staff together at Michigan in 2020, when Jean-Mary coached linebackers and when Moore was the tight ends coach.

Jean-Mary will turn 49 later this year but has a ton of experience. He’s known as an ace recruiter, and he has also been an assistant head coach (Louisville) and defensive coordinator (USF). While he may not be defensive coordinator material for Michigan down the road, he obviously has the capability of understanding how his linebackers fit into a defensive system.

Michigan now has just one staff place to complete hiring: defensive backs coach Stephen Adegoke may or may not be coming over from the Houston Texans.

Brian Jean-Mary, Ex-Wolverine

Michigan linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is headed to Tennessee.

As I mentioned back in December – and previously – I have not been a big fan of what I’ve seen from Jean-Mary (LINK). He was in my bottom five coaches on Michigan’s staff, and four of those five have now departed (with defensive line coach Shaun Nua the only holdover).

I hope this does not have a negative effect on Junior Colson or Jaydon Hood, who were both recruited by Jean-Mary. Kids generally seemed to like him as a recruiter. I just don’t know how good he is at developing guys once they’re on campus. The linebacker play took a step back last year, and a bunch of linebackers transferred or left early and shouldn’t have.

This move seems to indicate that new co-defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald will take over coaching the linebackers. Previously, Macdonald said he would not coach a particular position and would “get in where he fit in” from practice to practice.

Addressing Michigan’s Coaching Situation

Following a 2-4 season and five straight losses to Ohio State – plus an embarrassing loss to Michigan State in 2020 – questions about Jim Harbaugh’s status as head coach have been non-stop. I have a hard time calling for coaches’ jobs, because as a (lower level) coach myself, I know some of the struggles with coaching.

Of course, college coaches have a different situation than high school coaches, because they have more power and more control over which coaches and players enter their program. But there are similarities in that your team’s success is subject to injuries, off-the-field behavior of young people, administrative limits, etc.

So here I would like to address which coaches I would prioritize bringing back, from highest priority to lowest:

Sherrone Moore (Tight Ends): Moore is Michigan’s top recruiter, especially in-state. According to 247 Sports, he’s the #6 recruiter in the country and #2 in the Big Ten (behind Ohio State’s Brian Hartline). I have not been extremely impressed with the performance of Michigan’s tight ends over the past couple seasons, but I think that’s more of an issue with the structure of the offense than the individual players. Regardless, tight end is a position where you can hide a mediocre X’s and O’s/technique coach if the guy coaching them can recruit his butt off. And Moore can. He’s listed as the primary recruiter for QB J.J. McCarthy, OT Giovanni El-Hadi, C Raheem Anderson II, TE Louis Hansen, LB Tyler McLaurin, and WR Andrel Anthony, and he’s the secondary recruiter for RB Donovan Edwards.

Hit the jump for more.

Brian Jean-Mary, Wolverine

In news that contradicts what many thought, Michigan is hiring Brian Jean-Mary to replace Anthony Campanile as linebackers coach (not MGoBlog guess Tank Wright, which I used to write my post yesterday).

Jean-Mary is a Florida native from Apopka (hello, Jeremy Gallon!) who played at Appalachian State. He has spent much of his career working with noted defensive guru Charlie Strong at Louisville, Texas, and South Florida. He was assistant head coach at Louisville, recruiting coordinator at Texas, and defensive coordinator at South Florida, so this is a guy with significant leadership experience.

He is also known as a solid recruiter. At Texas he recruited blue-chip prospects like 5-star player Malik Jefferson and top-100 prospects like Erick Fowler and Anthony Wheeler.

A lot of people were concerned about whether Michigan would find an ace recruiter to replace New Jersey native Chris Partridge. Michigan will have a tougher time having its pick of the litter from the states of Florida and Texas like it did in New Jersey, but there’s also more talent in Florida and Texas. It will be interesting to see how much Michigan’s recruiting strategy changes with Jean-Mary pulling some strings and using his connections.