brian smith



[Bryan Fuller]

Michigan has lost safeties coach Brian Smith after two years on the coaching staff. ESPN's Ivan Maisel reports that Smith, as rumored, will take the defensive coordinator position at Rice:

New Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren is hiring Michigan secondary coach Brian Smith as his defensive coordinator and North Carolina Central head coach Jerry Mack (31-15, four seasons, three MEAC titles) to run the Owls' offense. Bloomgren worked with Smith at the New York Jets a decade ago, and with Mack at Delta State prior to that.

TMI's Steve Lorenz has confirmed the report.

Smith had a solid track record in his two years as safeties coach, getting excellent seasons out of Delano Hill and Dymonte Thomas in 2016, helping Hill raise his draft stock all the way to third-round pick, and getting an early impact from promising youngsters like Josh Metellus and J'Marick "Ol' Woods" Woods.

His departure gives Jim Harbaugh some flexibility with next year's coaching staff. Mike Zordich has coached the cornerbacks, who have been downright great, for the last three seasons; he's also a former All-American and 12-year NFL veteran as a safety, and spent four years coaching the position with the Philadelphia Eagles before coming to Ann Arbor.

Michigan didn't have a wide receivers coach on the staff last year, allowing a grad assistant to handle much of the position coaching. It'd make a lot of sense for them to give Zordich control of the entire secondary and bring in a WR specialist, especially with so many talented young pass-catchers on the roster.

EDIT: I should clarify. A new NCAA rule means Michigan will have a tenth coaching spot beginning in January, so they have two spots open right now. Hiring a WRs coach is very likely to happen. The question may be whether to bring in another secondary coach or, alternatively, a full-time special teams coach. Zordich has had special teams duties since 2016 and there have been some notable issues in the third phase this season. Either way, both the receivers and Zordich should be getting some help in the near future.

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[Fuller]

Pretty pleased with the progress of your group?

“Yeah, I’m pretty pleased with the progress so far. I think the guys have played well. Gotten off to a good start. Look forward to continuing that this week.”

What kind of a challenge do the MSU receivers pose to your guys?

“Well, they face a good challenge. They’re good, solid receivers. They’re young. Felton’s [Davis] coming off a big game against Iowa and he’s a threat down the field. He’s a tall guy so they can throw him the ball and he can come down and get it so he poses a problem and they’ll spread it around a good bit, so we’ve got our hands full.”

Do you sense a different energy in the building this week or is it business as usual?

“Obviously we had the extra week of practice last week and were focusing on getting better that week. Call it improvement week. We’ve had two weeks waiting for this game to come so everybody’s ready to go.”

[Hit THE JUMP for a bit on improving communication in the backfield]

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[Fuller]

Your guys played pretty well. Talk about how they played.

“Yeah, I thought Josh [Metellus] and Tyree [Kinnel] both did a solid job just overall. Just running to the football, they were aggressive, and I thought we tackled well, so I was happy with the way they played.”

Assignment-wise did you think they pretty good, too?

“Yeah. Assignment-wise I thought we were pretty clean. Communication, didn’t have a lot of issues that way so we’ve just got to keep it going going forward and maintain that same level.”

Tyree yesterday was talking about some plays where him and Khaleke [Hudson] were able to switch spots. What does that add when you’re able to do that?

“I think it helps out a lot. Having Khaleke, he has some experience playing safety. That versatility, being able to move to different places, kind of helps out the defense as a corps when you can get guys lined up and give the offense different looks. I think that helps out.”

What are the looks that change when they switch?

“Well, it depends. I’m not sure exactly what you’re talking about in that case but there are different situations where we can end up in different positions.”

[After THE JUMP: communication clicking, Josh Metellus’ ceiling, and the bygone era in which Don Brown brought… more pressure?]