Shaun Nua leaving for USC job
This is a chance for the athletic department to show its commitment to Harbaugh and let him spend big to get a great replacement.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:05 AM ^
Didn’t even know Lincoln Riley hired defensive coaches. Assumed all of his defensive personnel was managed by raccoons living in dumpsters
January 5th, 2022 at 9:22 AM ^
I just hope we only lose coach Nua once today..... I don't know if I could handle this two or three times.....
January 5th, 2022 at 9:25 AM ^
working on the back pedal technique
January 5th, 2022 at 9:48 AM ^
Isn't this the technique that Thayer Munford has perfected?
January 5th, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^
It's hard to tell how big that trash can is, but goodness, that is a HUGE raccoon!
January 5th, 2022 at 9:06 AM ^
Big loss, definitely literally, but also figuratively
January 5th, 2022 at 9:30 AM ^
Time for Harbaugh to raid the SEC for a new DL coach. He needs to turn this into a positive.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:06 AM ^
Hoke was a good d-line coach and could recruit pretty well...
January 5th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
Nau: $400,000
Hoke: $1,000,000 currently as head coach of SDSU
January 5th, 2022 at 12:19 PM ^
Get Mattison out of retirement
January 5th, 2022 at 12:28 PM ^
Why, so he can leak our playbook to An Ohio State University again?
January 5th, 2022 at 4:02 PM ^
F him
January 5th, 2022 at 9:16 AM ^
You think he voluntarily goes from being a head coach to a position coach?
January 5th, 2022 at 9:18 AM ^
Its Michigan fergodsakes!
January 5th, 2022 at 12:21 PM ^
wonder if he'd deal with broken glass to get here...
January 5th, 2022 at 9:57 AM ^
Honestly, no. He's in a spot that he should ride out until retirement.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:24 AM ^
You think he will leave La Jolla for Ann Arbor again ?
January 5th, 2022 at 10:31 AM ^
He set out on foot as soon as he got the word.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:04 AM ^
You are close. I'd love to see them bring in Jordan Thomas from SDSU. He is young, played the position and is well thought of by Hoke (knows D-lines) and connects with athletes.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^
He also sold a ton of jerseys in Ohio.
(if you know, you know)
January 5th, 2022 at 9:12 AM ^
Real bummer for Andrew Gentry with the Mormon connection. Even bigger bummer thinking about the loss of an amazing player developer.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
Huh? Is Shaun Nua Mormon?
January 5th, 2022 at 9:15 AM ^
"So on Monday, Andrew spent an hour at a chapel with offensive line coach Sherrone Moore and defensive line coach Shaun Nua, who is of the same faith as the Gentrys."
January 5th, 2022 at 10:07 AM ^
You learn something new everyday. Nua was getting too old for this staff anyway.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:25 AM ^
Mormons have a pretty good track record of overcoming adversity. I think Andrew will do just fine at Michigan if he's there to play football and get a good education. If he picked Michigan solely on Nua's presence then he picked poorly, imo
January 5th, 2022 at 9:37 AM ^
Personally, I think it's a great idea for an offensive lineman to pick a school because of the defensive line coach's religion.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:31 AM ^
Amazing player developer? Uh I think you might be confusing him with literally every other coach on the staff. Nua was not good at recruiting nor developing. No matter how much people want to say Brown held him back.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:51 AM ^
Did you not notice the development with Hinton and Smith this year? Or Jenkins and Moore? Or the DL recruiting this cycle? As the 'Defensive Line' coach, he also oversaw the development of Hutchinson, Ojabo, and Harrell, if not being directly responsible for their daily coaching.
Or do you just wish to remain obtuse?
January 5th, 2022 at 10:05 AM ^
You’ll be disappointed to learn he did not develop Hutchinson, Ojabo or Harrell. Also Hinton and Smith were good not great this year and both were highly rated recruits. I believe you’ll see better improvement next year from them.
Defensive line recruiting in this class was OK. I like the prospects they brought in for depth but he couldn’t close on any high 4 or 5 stars. Michigan had a shot at some higher ranked guys that Nua couldn’t close on. National Championships are won with elite defensive line. Michigan defensive line was never going to be elite with Nua. Solid sure, not elite.
Also Nua had almost nothing to do with Benny coming on board at Michigan so we’ll go ahead and get that out of the way too before you try to point that out wrongly. Macdonald wanted him gone. He was a weak link. He gave him a year to prove himself on his staff and then encouraged him to find a spot.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:56 AM ^
Agreed Hinton and Smith were solid players but I think they were the beneficiaries of teams paying all their attention to Hutch and Ojabo. I never was impressed with Nua this year the man issues with the DT’s was amplified in the UGA game poor leverage and pad level was something they all struggled with. I think Michigan will find a better coach in all honesty.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:59 AM ^
I don’t think Michigan is viewing this as a loss. If so they would’ve paid him some more money and kept him around. Sounds like we actually have his replacement already on staff
January 5th, 2022 at 6:06 PM ^
Those are 5 and high 4 stars who did little under his regime. Generally anyone of any physical ability will improve in their 3rd year. The DTs were solid not great this year. Did you see what Georgia rolled out at DT? Similar starz! He had a lot work with. A year ago this blog wanted him run out of town for lack of development. He didn't coach DEs.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:05 PM ^
So I guess you didn't see the middle of the D Line getting run over and blown open by Georgia. And there has been no great interior D Line recruiting since Nua has been here. Every great prospect that had initially shown interest in Michigan has ultimately gone elsewhere. Don't remember the continual disappointments over that?
I am almost as happy that Shaun Nua is gone as I was when Brian Jean-Mary left.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:58 AM ^
Do you sit in meetings? Stand on the sideline? Regularly converse with players or coaches? Receive secret notes from insiders?
January 5th, 2022 at 10:50 AM ^
All of the above and then some! I get word by carrier pigeon twice weekly.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:13 AM ^
I imagine Osborne will become the DL coach. He was an "analyst" who was very involved with the DL this year. DL recruits always mentioned him when they committed.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:17 AM ^
He is going to UCONN I thought?
January 5th, 2022 at 9:18 AM ^
That was the initial report, but I don't think it ended up happening.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:27 AM ^
Been a lot of positive buzz around Osborn this year. Would think it would be a natural progression for him to be promoted to the DL coach.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:32 AM ^
Ryan did more for the defensive line this year than Nua ever thought of doing. There’s a reason he’s making a lateral move elsewhere after Michigan just went to the semi-finals. He was encouraged to go to open a spot for a new defensive line coach. He was the weak spot on the staff.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:37 AM ^
I'll go ahead and accept this as the explanation.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:49 AM ^
Do you have an source for this information or is it just speculation. Nua is a West Coast guy and I would bet this comes with a pay raise.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:53 AM ^
It also seemed in some interviews that he didn't like the cold. Having said that, it seemed he was one of the worst recruiters on the staff. I don't think this is a big loss.
January 5th, 2022 at 9:59 AM ^
The D-Line play was arguably the best on the team this season and ppl somehow think losing the coach of that unit is a plus ??♂️.
January 5th, 2022 at 10:45 AM ^
IIRC in the spring and early summer players were openly talking about how Osborne coached the edges (reapers). That talk got dialed back when a certain sports journalist brought up the fact that analysts technically can't coach (which he probably continued to do).
January 5th, 2022 at 11:00 AM ^
The Dline play as a whole was average. The DE play was elite the DT play was average to below average at times.
January 5th, 2022 at 11:16 AM ^
Nua only coached the interior line. Nothing about the interior line was the best on the team. Probably the second worst position group on the team.
January 7th, 2022 at 11:26 PM ^
What the heck one was worse?
January 7th, 2022 at 11:24 PM ^
You didn't see the interior D Line getting getting manhandled by Georgia?