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Michigan got something of a blood infusion in its defensive coaching ranks on Saturday, with the announcement that it had hired former Mississippi State/Tennessee/Penn State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop and longtime Charlie Strong assistant, USF defensive coordinator Brian Jean-Mary.
The latter was an unexpected hire, but it’s one that Strong calls ‘a great fit,’ according to Detroit Free Press writer Rainer Sabin.
Strong and Jean-Mary go way back, when Strong was the South Carolina defensive coordinator and Jean-Mary was a graduate assistant. When Strong got his first head coaching opportunity at Louisville, Jean-Mary got the call to be his linebackers coach, and the two stuck together all the way through Strong’s head coaching career, at Texas and South Florida.
Now, with Strong unemployed, Jean-Mary is forging a new path, one that’s led him to Ann Arbor. And his former head coach thinks he’ll do just fine in his new digs.
But as a new decade begins, Jean-Mary and Strong have been forced to go their separate ways. It’s the consequence of a 4-8 season that led to the removal of Strong and his staff. On Saturday, Jean-Mary was able to rebound when he was hired by Michigan football to replace Anthony Campanile and oversee the team’s linebackers. His move, which was announced in conjunction with Bob Shoop’s appointment as safeties coach, prompted Strong to say that Jean-Mary’s new role “will be a great fit for him.”
“When you look at a coach, you ask, ‘Can they coach and can they recruit?’” Strong told the Free Press on Saturday. “And he can do both because he knows how to connect with the players. He knows how to have great communication with them.”
When Strong was a defensive coordinator at South Carolina in the early aughts, he was among the first to see Jean-Mary’s potential. Back then, Jean-Mary impressed Strong with the work ethic he displayed as a graduate assistant.
Inquisitive and eager, Jean-Mary showed a willingness to learn.
But most of all he demonstrated a knack for connecting with people.
Strong isn’t the only one with a lot of faith in Jean-Mary’s ability. Fellow USF assistant Shaun Hill also thinks big things of his coaching prowess, telling Sabin just how high he thinks Jean-Mary can fly.
“A future head coach, in my opinion,” King said.
Jean-Mary will be coaching linebackers, per Michigan’s release.