brian jean-mary

Things Discussed:

• The coaching staff is finally all younger than Brian (this happened sometime in the Bronze Age; he was looking around like "I thought stone tools were fine, but okay I guess we're all going into this mining business.")
• Clink: It wasn't about the money; he needed to be the DC, and Sherrone needed experience. If he was only staying for the buyout it wasn't going to be great for either party.
• We're going with guys who watched the Usher performance at the Super Bowl and didn't recognize any of the songs.
• Stephen Adegoke: Rising star. Getting a Mo Linguist a little earlier than we got Mo, but need to worry that an NFL team will come for him in a year or two. Guy is 28. Was a Michigan GA in 2021, NFL position coach in three years. Jesse Minter trajectory. Ryan doesn't want to let him go. When's the last time an OSU coach left for a better job?
• Losses to coaching changes despite NCAA rule that allows your team to get raided in these situations: Amorion Walker (Ole Miss NIL), Jalen Smith (literally every coach he knew is gone), and normal attrition.
• Casula: Great recruiter, needs to answer for his offensive analyst job in 2019, because Gattis was terrible.
• NIL: Sea change. Michigan's new partnerships and hiring GMs for the football program and an NIL GM for Athletics are going to ward off the poaching efforts. Could have done it earlier and maybe kept JJ.
• Saw how Alabama's roster got raided, and they had to hold off on announcing the Seahawks had hired away their OL coach and OC until their portal had closed—Michigan hasn't had that.
• Huge impact. You hear what Bryce Underwood is making ($3M) per year at LSU and think what will someone pay for a one-year rental on a DT who changes the entire shape of your defense?
• Michigan's NIL program can now show recruits they'll have sustainability. ROI for the investors too.
• Why are our donors different? Because they're not money-launderers.
• Basketba—oops we're out of time.

[Hit the JUMP for the player, and video and stuff]

Last year I did an offseason series looking at changes via NFL decisions/coaching changes/transfer portal for every team in the B1G. While I hope to still do that, it hasn't yet felt appropriate when Michigan is going through major changes of their own on. Instead, it feels like a better idea to do a piece looking at some of the changes that have been made to the coaching staff we have yet to cover at MGoBlog, as well as some NIL and off-field staffing news. 

Introducing: Greg Scruggs, DL Coach

Though not yet official, it appears that Wisconsin DL coach Greg Scruggs will be joining Michigan's staff. Insiders on both the Michigan and Wisconsin side have confirmed the news and Josh Henschke tweeted on Tuesday that Scruggs has begun calling Michigan players to announce his arrival. Seems like it's happening. 

In which case, what's the story with Scruggs? Firstly he's 33 years old, beginning a theme of many of these coaches that Sherrone is targeting being on the younger side. Scruggs is from Cincinnati and played at St. Xavier in Ohio, home of Michigan DL recruit Ted Hammond, among many other players. Scruggs played his college ball as a defensive end at Louisville, competing on the 2010 and 2011 teams coached by Charlie Strong, that featured young Sherrone Moore on staff as a GA. That is the basis for Scruggs' relationship with Moore, which was then followed by Scruggs' transition to the NFL. He was a 7th round pick by Seattle who played some in 2012 but then was mostly a reserve piece after that, seldom competing in actual games (he did, however, participate in a photoshoot where he modeled kilts). After winning Super Bowl LI from the sidelines with New England in February 2017, Scruggs called it quits as a player and went into coaching. 

Scruggs returned to his hometown as a coach, joining Luke Fickell's staff at Cincinnati for the 2018 season. He spent two years as Director of Player Development, before getting the DL Coach job for the 2020 season. Over two seasons running Fickell's DL, Scruggs coached some talented players who were dominant within the American Athletic Conference. The 2020 Cincinnati defense featured one 1st Team All-AAC lineman and two 2nd teamers. The 2021 defense didn't have any 2nd teamers, but had two 1st Team All-AAC linemen. Among the players to earn honors under Scruggs were Curtis Brooks (6th round pick), Myjai Sanders (3rd round pick), Marcus Brown, and Elijah Ponder. The latter two went undrafted but Ponder got a cup of coffee as a UDFA in Tampa and recently signed in the CFL. For an American Athletic Conference team, Cincinnati had talented, strong defensive lines and Scruggs had a hand in coaching and developing those. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: the other hires]

Hello. EA has detected a shift in the tides:

EA Sports is coming back to college football.

After last making a college football video game in 2013, the possibility of the game returning had been in limbo. Now, it isn't. EA Sports vice president and general manager, Daryl Holt, told ESPN the game maker will be returning to the space with "EA Sports College Football."

"As we look for the momentum that we're building on in sports, it all starts with the passion of our fans and the opportunities of what they are interested in," Holt said. "I don't think a visit where I go outside wearing a piece of EA Sports branded apparel, that someone doesn't go, 'Hey, when is college football coming back?'"

It will -- at some point. Holt said there is not a date on when the game will return or even a date where the return will be announced other than it won't be coming back for this year.

Announcing a return without a solid date looks like EA saying that they'll have a college football game as soon as they can get a license in a Name and Image era. This is now inevitable enough for EA to start sinking resources into a new version of NCAA Football, except they're going to call it "EA Sports College Football," following along in college football's rich tradition of naming things in the most store-brand fashion possible. (The previous notable entry: The College Football Playoff.)

[After THE JUMP: terrifying dad energies]