Rumor Mill: Brian Smith (M DB coach) may be leaving

Submitted by James Burrill Angell on

Take it for what little its worth but there is noise on some message boards that Michigan is losing defensive backs coach Brian Smith. Word is he's been offered a defensive coordinator position at Rice.

JHumich

December 6th, 2017 at 5:03 PM ^

Or maybe someone who knows what they're doing. Our DBs have quietly overachieved for the last couple years. The last two seasons: we think they're going to be a liability, and then they play shutdown coverage game after game.

Hats off to Mr. Smith. I trust that Mr. Harbaugh knows of another position coach in the NFL who can come do similar work. 

BroadneckBlue21

December 7th, 2017 at 6:46 AM ^

Who expected them to do poorly? People who read into coach comments way too much. Anyone watching those two kids play ball in high school all star games knew they’d be decent from the start. The only way to see them as underachieving is for them to not live up to recruiting ratings, as many did in the past underachieve at that position. Some could say Steibling overachieved, but Hill and Long are doing what Top rated recruits are expected to do. I guess we aren’t used to that around here. Perhaps Metellus overachieved, our of the four, by living past expectations of fans, but that is it.

The coaches were critical of the youth because that’s what coaches do—try to motivate by challenging. They knew these kids have the talent that brought them to UM.

1VaBlue1

December 7th, 2017 at 8:20 AM ^

We didn't expect them to be bad.  But we also didn't expect them to be so friggen good that teams literally stopped throwing at them half-way through the season.  Simmie Cobbs will start in the NFL next year - yet against Hill and Long I may as well have replaced him!  The safeties, IMO, weren't as good as the corners, but they were far better than a lot of MGoPeeps give them credit for here.  On an any average B1G defense, they would be standout stars.  On Michigan's top 5 defense, they're merely average players.

Sauce Castillo

December 7th, 2017 at 7:54 AM ^

I think the "or Pattersons brother" was a joke. Devin Bush Sr is more than qualified. 1st rd pick at safety I believe, proved himself to be a great high school coach and we have 3 of his guys that are all getting some form of PT as true sophmores, and spent the year as an analyst in the system. This more than fits into the same pattern of Partridge, and hopefully we could get DB sr on the recruiting trail in FL with all the HS connections he must still have.

Bo Schemheckler

December 6th, 2017 at 5:14 PM ^

Or DB Sr to safeties coach, Sean Patterson to his old analyst role, Shawn Jefferson as our new 10th assistant to coach WRs and Van Jefferson and Shea Patterson come to play! The total family affair but with heavily qualified individuals.

Mr Miggle

December 6th, 2017 at 6:14 PM ^

He is known as a top recruiter at UCLA and was not retained by Kelly. He was often cited as the main reason DTR chose them.

Smith has been our lowest paid assistant, by some margin. With two secondary coaches, that makes it look like he works under Zordich. 

That could mean they're open to replacing him with a promising young coach who might still be light on experience. We've also seen that Harbaugh is always looking for upgrades. Martin would at least provide one as a dynamic recruiter.

ak47

December 6th, 2017 at 4:50 PM ^

Tom Brady taking less money is one of the weirder myths of sports, he restructures his deals and gets more gauranteed and bonus money which allows the patriots to spread the cap hit over mutliple years.  It works for both parties but it isn't some altruistic thing Brady does, he gets more money faster than if it was in salary.