Tag: Bob Shoop

A look back at James Franklin’s first staff at Penn State, where are they now?

Where is every member of James Franklin’s first Penn State staff today?

[autotag]James Franklin[/autotag] has become known as a pipeline of sorts for sending members of his coaching staff to open jobs all over the country. Whether it be coordinators to head coaching roles or position coaches to coordinators. No matter the role, James Franklin has shown he not only raises his players, but also his staff.

For example, the return of offensive coordinator [autotag]Mike Yurcich[/autotag] this year will be the first time since 2018-2019 that the Nittany Lions have had the same offensive coordinator for two seasons. Again, that isn’t a bad thing. Like players, you want coaches to grow and move on because it creates relationships everywhere.

Looking back to 2014 when James Franklin made the move from Vanderbilt, his first staff has some big names now that have worked on their own to build a legacy. Check out where they are and have gone since that first season nearly eight years ago under James Franklin.

Bob Shoop joins Miami’s staff

Bob Shoop joins Miami’s staff.

Former Tennessee assistant Bob Shoop is joining Miami’s staff as an analyst.

Shoop served as the Vols’ defensive coordinator from 2016-17.

Following Shoop’s tenure in Knoxville, the veteran coach was defensive coordinator at Mississippi State for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

He was safeties coach at Michigan in 2020.

Mississippi State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop speaks about the expectations of new and untested players for the upcoming NCAA college football season during media day, Saturday, Aug. 10, 2019 in Starkville, Miss. Shoop enters his second season at Mississippi State. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Shoop was defensive coordinator at Penn State (2014-15) and Vanderbilt (2011-13) before arriving at Tennessee.

He previously joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days.”

The entire show with Shoop can be listened to here or below.

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Michigan clarifies rumor surrounding defensive assistant

The first-year Wolverines safeties coach is not with the team at the moment, however, he is still working with the program.

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After a loss, especially one as inexplicable as what Michigan suffered at the hands of MSU on Saturday, fans are always looking for answers — sometimes in conspiratorial ways.

But one particular thing that came up on Sunday, in the aftermath, was that Wolverines safeties coach Bob Shoop had reportedly left the team back in September. Given that he’s only been on the job since this winter, rumors started flying around about dysfunction within Schembechler Hall.

It turns out that Shoop is currently not with the team in person at the moment, but according to Michigan, he is still a part of the coaching staff.

With that in mind, just because Michigan loses doesn’t mean that everything behind the scenes is falling apart. Rampant speculation tends to lead to wild theories, which usually aren’t the case.

Stay tuned for more details should they arise from Michigan’s weekly press conference.

Michigan coaches tweet in support of #WeWantToPlay movement

It’s not just the players who want the NCAA and Power Five conferences to hear their voice. Wolverines coaches are getting in on the act.

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If you went to bed at midnight as Sunday transitioned into Monday, then you missed the norms of college football being set ablaze by exactly one minute.

Because at 12:01 a.m. EST, that’s when Clemson star Trevor Lawrence tweeted out #WeWantToPlay, along with a graphic that shared college football players’ demands for a seat at the table. Turns out, while it was noted that there was support across all Power Five conferences, it wasn’t relegated to just the student-athletes.

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The movement, which has become a national version of the PAC-12’s #WeAreUnited and the Big Ten’s #BigTenUnited — co-authored by Michigan’s Hunter Reynolds — calls for universal COVID-19 protocols, a player’s union and eligibility for those who opt out in 2020. The notion has since spread like wildfire. And it’s gone beyond the players, even.

Arkansas’ athletic director tweeted in support of it. So has Louisiana-Monroe’s head coach. Now, Michigan’s coaching staff is starting to get in on the action.

While the hashtag being used isn’t #WeWantToPlay here, Wolverines safeties coach Bob Shoop and offensive coordinator Josh Gattis both expressed their thoughts on the matter Monday morning, tweeting #WEWANTTOCOACH, with Gattis getting into more of a message of solidarity and support to the players.

We don’t know if it’s too little too late at this juncture, given that college presidents appear to have their minds made up. But it appears that none of the people affected have been given a say or have had a voice in the matter.

Until now.

Bob Shoop discusses conference-only schedule, college football bubble, frozen eligibility

Bob Shoop discusses conference-only schedule, college football bubble, frozen eligibility.

ANN ARBOR — Bob Shoop was hired by Michigan as a safeties coach in January. He returns to the Big Ten after a two-year stint (2014-15) as defensive coordinator and safeties coach at Penn State.

Shoop served as Tennessee’s defensive coordinator from 2016-17.

PODCAST: Michigan analyst, former Vols’ OC Mike DeBord

Bob Shoop
Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Following his tenure in Knoxville, the veteran coach – known for his 4-3, two-high look that applies pressure – was defensive coordinator at Mississippi State for the 2018 and 2019 seasons.

Shoop joined the show “Tennessee Two-A-Days” to discuss coaching at Michigan, the Big Ten set to play conference-only games in 2020 and a need for sports after the coronavirus pandemic has taken place in the U.S. since mid-March.

“We need sports,” Shoop said. “I am a sports fan first of all, and through quarantine I must have watched every game that came on the Big Ten Network, whether it be Coach (Jim) Harbaugh playing quarterback in the 80s, to the Woody (Hayes) versus Bo (Schembechler) games in the 70s, to what have you.

“I think people are craving live sports – anything is better than nothing. As long as we can do it safely, safe for both our student-athletes and our coaches and their families.”

Jay Shoop
Photo by Dan Harralson, Vols Wire

Shoop’s son, Jay, is a redshirt junior defensive back at Tennessee. As a parent, along with COVID-19 ongoing, the Michigan safeties coach remains in close contact with his son at Tennessee.

“Certainly I am keeping an eye on things at Tennessee,” Shoop said. “That’s less as a coaching role and more of a parent role there. I talk to my son, Jay, there everyday. I had two years there, like everyone that is a Vol fan, I wish we would have won more games at times, but I really enjoyed my experience there. I pull for them.

“I think Coach (Jeremy) Pruitt has done a great job. I think Coach (Phillip) Fulmer has done a great job reinvigorating the pride and enthusiasm into the program. I certainly wish them nothing but the best, and I know they have their protocols and we have ours.”

The NBA is set to return and finish its season in a bubble-type protocol in Orlando, Florida. Shoop discussed if a bubble-type setup could work with college football, having coaches, student-athletes, strength staff, trainers and managers stay in a dorm on campus and remain isolated to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“To make this work, the bubble-aspect of things, the student-athletes on our teams are not professional athletes,” Shoop said. “To put them into a dorm, separate from the rest of the student-body, to minimize their contact with others, where they are in the dorm, whether they are in the athletic building, they probably have to take their classes virtually – if you are going to do something like that we’ve got to be disciplined, we’ve got to be vigilant, we got to practice social distancing, we got to wear masks.”

Another aspect to the 2020 campaign, a season that is already reduced in the amount of games being played, is having student-athletes’ eligibility being frozen this academic year.

Shoop mentioned that having eligibility frozen “makes sense.”

“This is nobody’s fault,” he said. “It’s the times that we are dealing with now. First and foremost, whatever we decide has to be safe for our student-athletes, their families and our coaches and our families. It’s got to be fair, too. Anything we can do to continue to make the experience positive.”

The entire interview with Shoop can be listened to here or below.

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How Don Brown had an impact on new Michigan safeties coach Bob Shoop

The new Michigan safeties coach, before he came to Ann Arbor, spent many of his formative years learning from Don Brown.

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In new safeties coach Bob Shoop, Michigan didn’t just get a guy that has coordinated defenses at the top of college football, it also got someone who has a lot of familiarity with what the Wolverines are trying to do.

And that’s because, even before coaching, Shoop found himself gravitating towards Don Brown.

Shoop recently oversaw the No. 1 defense in the country, with 2018 Mississippi State beating out No. 2 Michigan under Don Brown once the postseason had concluded. But Shoop rose up through the coaching ranks working with defenses, with the mentality of ‘solve your problems with aggression.’ For him, that goes back to his time at Yale, when he was a player on offense getting to know a young defensive coordinator in a 32 year-old Brown.

“Without maybe even knowing it, because I was an offensive player and he was a defensive coach, he’s had such a great impact on my decision to pursue a career in coaching,” Shoop told Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast. “My mindset as a defensive coach – for the last 12 years, I’ve been a defensive coordinator – and his in-your-face style of play and ‘solve your problems with aggression’ mentality is something I’ve really tried to impact upon the players that I’ve coached. I think the thing that’s cool about Coach Brown is that he can interact with players from all different backgrounds. Like I said, when I played for him in 1987, we were coaching at Yale. In 1989, he was coaching at Yale. In 2006, when we worked together, he was at UMass. And now, here at Michigan. He’s a really unique and special person who can communicate and motivate all types of different people, and I think that’s what makes him a special guy.”

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But the thing that Shoop really learned from Brown was how to be a teacher — not just a strategist.

Playing on offense while Brown coached defense wasn’t Shoop’s only experience working with the long-tenured DC. Shoop got his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Yale in 1989, as Brown was still the defensive coordinator. But later, when Brown took over as the UMass head coach, Shoop came aboard to coach defensive backs for a year in 2006.

So while he has a litany of mentors in the defensive arena, he has spent time with Brown, enough to help inform his strategy, but also to see him in action working with players, and how well he achieves that.

“I think that’s a great observation because he gets a reputation as, not only a mad scientist, but he’s very passionate, he’s very loud – that’s how he is,” Shoop said. “But I think he’s in some ways underrated as a teacher. And when I knew him, he was coaching the secondary. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen someone coach the secondary as well as he does – the techniques, the fundamentals. And now that I’ve sat in a room with him the last month coaching the linebackers, just as a technician, coaching the steps, the footwork, the keys, the reads, all the stuff he teaches with the linebackers. And certainly there’s, like any expert in the field, he understands his scheme and he understands all the intricacies and all the details to be a championship caliber defense like no other.”

Locked On Wolverines Podcast (Ep. 307): All additions, no subtractions

Talking about various additions and retentions, Austin Davis coming back for a 5th year, Bob Shoop’s philosophy and the Mike DeBord hire.

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Juwan Howard made a big announcement at the beginning of his Wednesday press conference. We listen to it and react. Then, discussing what new safeties head coach Bob Shoop said to Jon Jansen and why we love all of it. And the football team made an offensive analyst hire people aren’t happy about. Here’s why it’s actually a good deal for Michigan.

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Bob Shoop describes first impressions of Michigan football

The new Wolverines safeties coach shares how his experience will impact his new role, why Ann Arbor is special and reforging relationships.

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Any time you can get an experienced, solid former defensive coordinator as a position coach, it’s a win.

Such is the case for Michigan, who hired two former DCs to fill the vacant safeties and linebackers position groups.

The more notable of the two is Bob Shoop, who comes to Ann Arbor from a successful stint at Mississippi State, where he oversaw the No. 1 defense in the country in 2018. He has a long track record of producing top defenses, including in 2014, when he and Penn State had the No. 2 defense that year.

Now, he’s coaching safeties for the Wolverines, and he’s elated to have joined the program, he tells Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast.

“It’s been great,” Shoop said. “I’ve been on the job for a little over a month now and had the opportunity to finish recruiting and get to know some of the players on the roster and the coaches on the staff. It’s a great honor to be a part of such a prestigious program.”

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But, while Shoop doesn’t have previous coaching experience that saw him overlap with Jim Harbaugh much — he was the DC at Penn State when Michigan beat the Nittany Lions in Happy Valley in 2015 — he does have a lot of familiarity with various names already on the staff in Ann Arbor.

Don Brown was the defensive coordinator at Yale during Shoop’s senior year playing offense there. They coached together there in 1989, when Shoop was a graduate assistant. Further down the line, Shoop was a defensive backs coach under Brown when he was the head coach at UMass. He coached with Josh Gattis for two years while at Penn State and against him when Gattis was the co-offensive coordinator at Alabama.

So there’s a lot of familiarity for the Yale graduate in Ann Arbor, even if the surroundings are somewhat new.

“Unfortunately – or fortunately – in my career, I’ve had a lot of unique experiences where I’ve changed jobs, I’ve moved around a fair amount and I’ve been at a lot of great, historically traditional programs,” Shoop said. “I think the first thing you do is you try to identify the culture of the program and it’s very clear that Coach Harbaugh has set a great culture for this program as an alumnus, someone who’s very proud of the brand, very proud of the Block M. And I played for Coach Brown, so I know the culture that Coach Brown is trying to create on defense. It’s comfortable to me a little bit in that I’ve worked with Coach Brown, I’ve worked with Josh Gattis, I’ve worked with Ed Warinner. I worked with some of the analysts, so I knew those guys.

“But, like you said, it’s about – I consider this to be a relationship-based industry. And trust, honesty, respect are words that mean a lot to me. So the first week on the job, what I tried to do is get to know the ten players I’ll be coaching at safety. And not just to get to know them as football players – I sure did watch the film. I’ve watched a lot of practice film and I’ve watched them with Coach Herb in the weight room and on the field. But more getting to know their families, getting to know their background, getting to know their journey – how they got to Ann Arbor. And I’ve really enjoyed that as much as anything – developing relationships.”

But, naturally, it’s different taking on a position group rather than overseeing a defense as a whole. Which, has its advantages and drawbacks.

Shoop loves the lore of Michigan, which is part of what drew him to Ann Arbor to coach safeties instead of seeking out another defensive coordinator opportunity. He hopes his experiences leading the charge will help open up Brown’s eyes to things he might be missing on one hand, but there’s the other challenge.

He hasn’t been known as a great recruiter, so that will take some time for Shoop to get acclimated. However, he’s aware that’s a big part of his new job, so he’s taking on that challenge head-on.

“At this stage, I’m just trying to fit in and trying to get a feel for my role!” Shoop said. “As a position coach, your role is different than as a coordinator. So I’m looking forward to being involved with the big picture part of the program. As a Yale graduate, I truly believe in the combination of academics and athletics and I think Michigan provides one of the unique experiences with regard to that – the combination of academic achievement and athletic excellence. The tradition and history of the program – I’ve already read two books on the history of Michigan and Michigan football since I’ve been on the job here. So I’m excited and very proud to be a part of that.

“And then, helping on Coach Brown’s side. I have unique experience as a coordinator, as does Brian Jean-Mary. So I think we can bring some unique perspective and maybe help Coach Brown with any blind spots he might have. There are very, very few. And certainly as a teacher, leader and role model to the young men I have the opportunity to coach and work with on a daily basis.

“Probably the biggest thing when you go from a coordinator to a position coach is I think there’s a different level of expectation in regard to the recruiting aspect, too. I’m really looking forward to jumping in and competing with the guys on our staff and the guys around the country to be one of the top recruiters as well.”

Now that he’s in Ann Arbor, Shoop is soaking everything in.

He’s come here once before when coaching under James Franklin, but now that he gets to go to Michigan Stadium as a member of the coaching staff, he’s in a different level of awe.

As he tells Jansen, he’s just proud to be a part of an institution that has so much tradition as well as a culture that’s dedicated to winning on the field and in the classroom.

“In 2014, when I was at Penn State, we came here and played Michigan when Coach Hoke was here,” Shoop said. “That was my only other experience in The Big House. Twice now, we’ve had recruiting events where we’ve gone over there. I feel like I’m one of the 2022 or 2023 recruits. I’m sitting there, staring out the window, looking at the Block M, imagining running out of the tunnel and touching the sign. Now, I’m in the press box on game day, so I might not have that experience actually getting to run through there. But, when I think about it, I think about the tradition. I think about the history. I think – whether it’s being the winningest program in the history of college football, whether it’s the largest stadium in The Big House. Whether it’s the largest indoor facility, the largest weight room. Just to be a part of something as special as this place, I just feel very, very fortunate to be a part of this family and a part of this university.”

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Bob Shoop breaks down Michigan’s safety group heading into spring

The newfound Wolverines safeties coach shares his thoughts on his personnel and what he expects of them.

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Michigan had a pair of defensive departures this offseason, but it replaced them with two capable former defensive coordinators who are now position coaches.

Among them is Bob Shoop, who spent his last 12 years in college football as a defensive overseer, but now he’ll be attuned to the safeties position, as vacated by Chris Partridge, who left to be Ole Miss’ co-defensive coordinator.

While Shoop says that he intends to be a much more active recruiter than he has in the past, as he shared with Jon Jansen on the In the Trenches podcast, he was fortunate that he didn’t hit the trail immediately upon arriving in Ann Arbor. Instead, he got to stay in Schembechler Hall, getting to know his group and the lay of the land, learning exactly what he has at the safety position.

“When I first got here – Coach gave me an opportunity rather to get out on the road recruiting, to get in the office,” Shoop said. “During the day, I got to interact with the GA’s and quality control and I got to watch any projects Coach wanted me to watch – Coach Brown – and I watched all the games. I watched all the coverage cut-ups, along those lines. And then interact with those guys.

“And the thing about watching the game film and the cut-ups and things along those lines is really there’s only three guys that have a significant – three guys that played a lot at safety last year as Josh Metellus obviously is gone. Brad Hawkins is a guy that played a fair amount, brings a tremendous amount of experience. Obviously missed the end of the year against Indiana, Ohio State and Alabama. We need to get him back and healthy, because I think the expectations are he’s gonna be one of the leaders of this unit.

“And in Dax Hill. I knew Dax a little bit when I was at Mississippi State because I had him in the 2019 recruiting class as the top safety in that class. We went back and forth between Alabama and Michigan in the recruiting process. And really to have the opportunity to work with him here, I’m very, very excited about watching his development and taking him to the next level. But the experience he gained last year was really, really valuable. And I thought he did a really solid job in the Ohio State game, the Indiana – where he got an interception – and the Ohio State and Alabama (games) where he got thrown into the trenches against some explosive offenses.”

As Shoop explains, those are the two known commodities, but what about the depth behind them?

He says there’s a lot of expected contributors heading into next season, but he only has a certain amount to work with this spring, as freshmen RJ Moten and Jordan Morant don’t arrive until summer.

Still, he likes what he has and shares who should be impact players once they hit the field.

“The issue, really, as we head into spring is finding some depth there,” Shoop said. “I’ve gotten a chance this spring to work with some of the other guys and there are guys who there’s some expectation for. Sammy Faustin, German Green, Caden Kolesar, Tyler Cochran – those guys played on special teams. We have an early-enrollee in Makari Paige. Just – I’m really, really excited to work with those guys. Quinten Johnson. Guys I don’t know enough about, because I haven’t seen them on the field, but I have seen them work with Herb in the weight room and I have seen them work with Herb in winter program. They seem to have a great work ethic. They have great passion, great toughness. Seem to have a team-first mindset. They encourage one another and they have a great deal of pride as a position unit. So I think there will be a great amount of competition this spring.”

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Former UT defensive coordinator Bob Shoop hired by Michigan

Michigan hires Bob Shoop.

Bob Shoop has been hired by the University of Michigan as a safeties coach.

Shoop served as the Vols’ defensive coordinator from 2016-17.

Following his tenure in Knoxville, the veteran coach was defensive coordinator at Mississippi State for the 2018 and 2019 seasons. Shoop and the Bulldogs played at Tennessee during the 2019 season as the Vols defeated Mississippi State,

Shoop also served as defensive coordinator at Penn State (2014-15) and at Vanderbilt (2011-13) before arriving at Tennessee.

“I am very appreciative to Coach (Jim) Harbaugh for the opportunity to join the football family at Michigan,” Shoop said in a Michigan press release. “I look forward to getting to work, contributing to a program that will continue to combine academic achievement and athletic excellence, while competing for championships. Go Blue!””