Jerry Montgomery Fills The Beyonce Spot Comment Count

Brian

This has been in the rumor file for a few days now and now it appears solid enough to report/link to since one of the Iowa Rivals guys is tweeting it:

Former Hawk Jerry Montgomery, who joined new IU staff, now appears headed to Ann Arbor to join Brady Hoke's staff. Tough break for Hoosiers.

The "tough break" bit is that Indiana hired him three weeks ago*.

Montgomery is a former Hawkeye defensive lineman who's only coached DL, was set to coach Indiana's line, and has no experience with DBs. It's safe to assume this is the guy who should stop in Ann Arbor only to drop off signed LOIs and if at all possible be Beyonce.

He's not Beyonce, but he played at Iowa recently enough to have a bio from his playing days on the internet and rocks a soul patch whether he's friendly or srs:

jerry-montgomery-1 jerry-montgomery-2
friendly! SRS.

In fact, he's a few months he's younger than I am. This is terrifying personally; from a program standpoint it checks off the "knows what Adult Swim is" and "isn't from Minnesota" boxes with a guy who's worked his way up the ladder quickly. In 2006 Montgomery was a grad assistant. In 2007 he got his first job as Northern Iowa's DL coach. From there he's moved from UNI to Wyoming to Indiana to Michigan in under five years. He's a tautological up-and-comer and hopefully someone we'll see referenced in recruiting articles every twenty seconds.

Michigan's got one more spot left for a DBs coach; the much-rumored name there is former Wolverine Chuck Heater. Heater was literally just announced as Steve Addazio's DC at Temple, though. If Michigan was going to yoink him chances are that would already be in the works and Temple wouldn't be making announcements soon to leave egg on their faces.

*[Insert "they'd KILL Rich Rodriguez for this" bit here.]

Comments

badjuju81

February 1st, 2011 at 3:40 PM ^

Which is bigger snake oil, steaing another Purdon't commit, a QB none the less, or pinching a coach from Indiana 3 weeks after they hired him? BH has the mojo.

lilpenny1316

February 1st, 2011 at 8:07 PM ^

"Montgomery will recruit the states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, Wyoming and the Denver and Chicago metropolitan areas." 

It would be great if he's an established guy in those areas.  I think we still recruit Cali well already, but I would love to tap into the Denver resources.

http://www.wyomingathletics.com/sports/m-footbl/mtt/montgomery_jerry00…

bryemye

February 1st, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^

It looks like his sole responsibility at IU was to be just a DT coach. The ends were going to be handled by a guy who also did Special Teams.

More importantly, he's a young guy players/recruits can relate to differently than the older coaches.

michgoblue

February 1st, 2011 at 4:04 PM ^

There was a post a week or so ago (both on the main page by Brian and a few days earlier on the Board) about how the entire staff was old, crusty and white (exaggerating, obviously) and that this lack of diversity could (1) hurt recruiting potentially, and (2) leave certain players on the team feeling like they don't have a coach to come to who "gets" their background.

While I generally disagreed with this criticism, to the extent that the age / pigmentation of the staff was a negative, either from recruiting or mentoring, then this has now been addressed.

Personally, I would have liked to see someone with a bit more pedigree, but at the same time I guess we have that in Mattison.  Position coaches are rarely impressive on paper.

michgoblue

February 1st, 2011 at 4:07 PM ^

I just did a scan of Indiana's recruiting class to see if there was a potential for him to snake oil anyone that he might have recruited.  Aside from a 4* linebacker (who does list M as a school that he is interested in), there is nobody in their class that I would really care to get.

kmedved

February 1st, 2011 at 4:06 PM ^

As mentioned a bunch of times, Hoke and Mattison aren't super young themselves, so it's nice to have a younger coach around to "groom" for higher positions.

michgoblue

February 1st, 2011 at 4:13 PM ^

I would be just fine with that.  He coached DBs very successfully in the pros (Seahawks), and went to a Super Bowl.  

He also coached in Florida last year and, while he didn't have a great tenure as DC, might have established some relationships with talented Florida kids who are class of 2012 over this past year. 

aaamichfan

February 1st, 2011 at 4:12 PM ^

"In fact, he's a few months he's younger than I am. This is terrifying personally;"

 

I had this same feeling when I saw the first Playboy centerfold that was younger than me. Although I was only 19 at the time, it was still my first brush with "potential creepy old man-ness".

FrankMurphy

February 1st, 2011 at 4:14 PM ^

It seems really, really odd that a position coach would agree to take a new job on the eve of signing day, especially three weeks after starting his current job, and double especially at another school in the same conference.