bob shoop

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This job on the whole doesn't suck, but picking a play to talk about out of this holistic failure hasn't exactly been the highlight of it. What's wrong with the defense? See the ball? Go to guy with ball!

I don't know what's going on with safeties coach Bob Shoop so I can't judge who's responsible for the fact that he's not with the team this year. I can tell you that not having a safeties coach is really showing on the field but you don't need Seth to say "THE BALL! DON'T LOOK OVER THERE THE BALL GO TO THE BALL! GYOTDJAMMIT"

#Analysis!

I also hope I've taught you enough by now that you know all about setting up with outside leverage, and how that leads to slants when you blitz.

Why are they having Daxton Hill set up like he's Tyree Kinnell against a walk-on named Lutz when the WHOLE DANG POINT of using Daxton Hill as a safety is he doesn't have to cheat to the slot fade to cover it?

[After THE JUMP: #Analysis]

Michigan added a couple of defensive assistants last week to replace rising stars Chris Partridge and Anthony Campanile. Both losses grate for different reasons—Partridge was due to move up but chose easily the least respectable program in the Power 5, Campanile took a lateral move into the NFL after Michigan fought off other suitors, possibly botching their own chances to retain him in the process. On the recruiting front, neither is replaceable, especially Partridge, who was the first assistant at Michigan since Cam Cameron to have sustained success recruiting the Deep South.

Some of that ground will be made up for with Brian Jean-Mary, a scion of Apopka who's been recruiting the Confederacy since the first time I swiped my M-Card at the Union—for example I noted while doing his hello post that 9 of Louisville's top 10 recruits in 2013 were Floridians. I suspect, however, that there was another goal in mind with Harbaugh's recent hires. I can't say Harbaugh hired Bob Shoop and Brian Jean-Mary because those were the two most experienced former defensive coordinators on the market in the kind of defense Michigan was running a lot last year. But if the goal was to find guys who know more about zone blitzing than anybody not in a job, Shoop and Jean-Mary were #1 and #2. And given the types of players they've been recruiting, and the types of weaknesses on the depth chart, I think it's fair bet that Harbaugh and Don Brown are at least a little zone blitz curious.

As are we.

The Path of Shoop/The Don Brown Connection

Though best known as James Franklin's DC at Vanderbilt and Penn State, most of Shoop's coaching career has been either as a secondary coach or defensive coordinator in the same New England coaching circle as Don Brown. The 53-year-old Northeasterner played for Yale in the late 1980s, was the head coach of Columbia for three years, and spent a year coaching defensive backs under Don Brown at UMass in 2006.

From there Shoop moved on to the defensive coordinator job at William & Mary, where he won the FCS version of the Broyles Award, whence Franklin hired him as the new Vanderbilt DC and safeties coach. In 2016 Bob surprisingly left Penn State to join Butch Jones at Tennessee, which means yes, Shoop had Brady Hoke as his defensive line coach and was then Hoke's defensive coordinator for half a season after Jones was fired. Shoop was also key in recruiting Joe Moorhead to join Penn State's staff in 2016; Bob was most recently Moorhead's defensive coordinator at Mississippi State. I posted the path in full on the message board this week.

Shoop left Penn State after two seasons, and not on good terms—the university sued him for for just under $1 million for breach of contract for departing for Tennessee in January 2016. Shoop was countersuing under the claim that Franklin had already all but fired him at that point (their linebackers coach and current PSU DC Brent Pry had already been elevated to "co-coordinator"). The countersuit also claims Shoop was subjected to a "hostile, negative work environment" at Penn State. The suits were ultimately settled in February 2018.

Shoop was also the guy who got Gattis on James Franklin's staff. Bob's younger brother John met Gattis when the latter was finishing his pro career with the Bears, shortly before the former took the offensive coordinator job at North Carolina. John Shoop gave Gattis his introduction to coaching offense at UNC, then lobbied his brother to snag the up-and-coming assistant when Franklin had an opening for receivers coach at Vanderbilt.

[After THE JUMP: Examining the defenses Shoop and Jean-Mary came from]

Harbaugh today announced two new assistants to their defensive staff, only one of which matches the news reported this week. Longtime Don Brown associate Bob Shoop, who coordinated top-two S&P+ defenses at Penn State and Mississippi State in the last five years, will indeed coach safeties. The surprise is linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, after many outlets, including ours, reported they were bumping S&C assistant Tenarious “Tank” Wright.

Michigan is also promoting running backs coach Jay Harbaugh to the special teams coordinator position previously held by Chris Partridge.

Brian Jean-Mary is a guy in his mid-40s from Apopka, Florida, a star linebacker for Appalachian State in the mid-‘90s. After coming up with Lou Holtz’s South Carolina teams, Jean-Mary spent the latter half of the aughts as linebackers coach under Chan Gailey and blitz fanatic Jon Tenuta at Georgia Tech. He’s since spent most of his career tagging along with Charlie Strong. BJM was Strong’s linebackers coach at Louisville and Texas, his defensive coordinator at USF, and the recruiting coordinator at all three stops. He was most recently interim coach at USF after Strong was let go at the end of the regular season.

Michigan is clearly trying to fill some of the big hole in recruiting left by Partridge, who was the assistant on staff most responsible for Michigan’s recent success at penetrating SEC territory and selling high schoolers on Michigan’s “40-year plan.” Jean-Mary has strong ties in Florida and Georgia, and from his time at Texas and Georgia Tech, is no stranger to selling top-notch degrees in talent-rich states. Recruiting at Texas, like USC, is hard to gauge because of the school’s natural footprint. Strong and Jean-Mary’s classes (14th in the transition year, 10th and 7th in 2015 and 2016 respectively) were on par with UT’s historical average, though well behind the rate Tom Herman’s been recruiting there. His USF classes were mostly under-the-radar guys in Georgia and Florida.

It’s notable that Shoop, a Yale alumnus who came up through the Northeast, and Jean-Mary cover the same recruiting ground as Campanile and Partridge did, respectively. Also notable, from an X’s and O’s standpoint, is that they’re both from (separate) zone blitz pressure schemes. Jean-Mary’s mentor Charlie Strong is one of the biggest names in 3-3-5 circles, and Jean-Mary cut his coaching teeth under pressure extremist TENUUUUTA!!!!. Shoop picks up alliterative nicknames with the word “Blitz” in them wherever he goes for his Cover 3/Cover 2 scheme that would be immediately recognizable to anyone who’s watched a Lloyd Carr defense. While the defense will remain the viceroyalty of Don Brown as long as he’s here, the dual hires signal Brown is looking for more experience running the kind of rush-heavy, 3-down-lineman systems these guys should know as much about as anyone in football.

It’s unclear what this means for Tank, who’s clearly an asset and growing out of his current role, not to mention defensive analyst Devin Bush Sr., but neither have Jean-Mary’s experience or recruiting pedigree.

As for Jay coaching special teams, the job Partridge did, especially on punt blocking, will be extremely hard to replicate, but Jay’s been involved with the special teams units going back to when Baxter was in charge. Losing the program’s all-time best punt gunner in Khaleke Hudson to graduation meant Michigan’s special teams were already due to take a hit.