shaun nua

As broken this morning by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports and confirmed by Steve Lorenz and Josh Henschke, it appears DL coach Shaun Nua will accept the same job at USC. Nua took some heat for the state of the DTs under Don Brown but emphatically turned that around in the last year, both on the recruiting trail and in the development of Mazi Smith, Chris Hinton, Donovan Jeter, and Kris Jenkins.

Off-field analyst Ryan Osborn, who’s been heavily involved with the defensive ends over the course of the development of Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchinson, and David Ojabo, would seem like a logical replacement. While losing a well-liked and respected position coach to a lateral move isn’t great, having a ready replacement on hand makes it an easier pill to swallow.

It’s probably more surprising that the staff has remained mostly intact this offseason after the year they all had. Michigan managed to sweat out the coaching carousel without losing Broyles winner Josh Gattis, Special Teams Coordinator of the Year Jay Harbaugh, or Sherrone Moore, position coach of the Joe Moore Award finalist offensive line. The insider sites also think National Coach of the Year Jim Harbaugh may be close to signing an extension($).

Khaleke Hudson

Chris Partridge said he’s got blood in his mouth and every day that he wakes up he thinks about it. I’ve been told too that he reminds you guys of that, too. What are they saying to you in practice to remind you of what happened last year at the end of the season in the Ohio State game and with Mattison and Al Washington leaving?

“With them two coaches leaving, they had to make a choice for themselves and for their families so I’ll never knock somebody for making that choice. Since that game and stuff happened we want to win that game. That game’s been stressed. That game is circled on our schedule. We’ve got to win that game. We can’t let the same stuff keep occurring each year, so every day in practice we’re just working our tail off and keeping it in our head that the last two games of the season really haunted us and we don’t want to ever feel that again so we’re going to work every day to not have that happen again.”

So do you feel like you also have blood in your mouth?

“I mean, yeah, I feel like we need to get revenge on them and just [inaudible].”

MGoQuestion: What does it do for you guys on defense as far as communication goes to now be facing an offense in practice that emphasizes tempo?

“Communication is key. Even with an offense that doesn’t do a spread, communication is key. Everybody’s got to be in sync; everybody’s got to know what the play is, everybody’s got to know the adjustments. If everybody doesn’t know that, that’s gonna cause chaos [and] people will be scrambling around.

"By them doing the spread it makes us have our communication even tighter because guys are hurrying up, guys are moving fast and getting to the line faster. We’ve got to be able to match that energy and match their speed and intensity to be able to keep up with them, so I feel like it’s ultimately helping us as a defense helping us. Going against them is going to help us going against other teams.”

[After THE JUMP: Jeter on Mazi (and Mattison), Uche on standout defenders, and Woods on facing a Gattis offense and the speed of this year's defense]

Coach, tell us how it’s been in your short time so far here in Ann Arbor.

“It’s been good. It’s been really good. It’s a great honor to be here. Grateful for the opportunity to be at such a prestige school at such a high level. It’s been great. Cold as well.”

Why did you come to Michigan?

“It’s Michigan, man. You know, if you’re in this profession, if you’re a player or coach, you want to be the best. You want to be at the top. You want to compete at the highest level, and it can’t get any higher than this. Everything’s set up so we can get some goals accomplished and get there. Michigan can help us do that.”

On a somewhat inexperienced line, with losing guys, is it good to have a Carlo Kemp?

“Great to have a Carlo Kemp, Kwity Paye, Aidan Hutchinson, even Jeter. Those guys—and Dwumfour. Those guys had some experience. I don’t know if all of them got to start but just the films we watched, experience is so invaluable. It’s great to have a young group with some experience so yes, it is really good to have a Carlo Kemp.”

How much film did you watch of last season to a feel for these guys?

“Every game. You try to watch every game and learn the defense that way and try to learn the personnel and yeah, so a lot.”

How would you describe your coaching philosophy?

“High energy, good teacher, and someone that can rally the guys and just come together and help each other accomplish team goals.”

[Talking about a post-Chase/Rashan/Mone DL after THE JUMP]