Brian Smith to Rice
New Rice head coach Mike Bloomgren is hiring Michigan secondary coach Brian Smith as his defensive coordinator and North Carolina Central head coach Jerry Mack (31-15, four seasons, three MEAC titles) to run the Owls' offense. https://t.co/ZrDrteSk7k
— Ivan Maisel (@Ivan_Maisel) December 8, 2017
December 8th, 2017 at 5:30 PM ^
Best wishes to him. It’s the next step in the coaching progression.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:30 PM ^
Not surprising based on previous rumors. Good for Coach Smith, hopefully he does well there. Who do we get to replace him?
December 8th, 2017 at 7:18 PM ^
Joe Danna, whose hiring as assistant secondary coach at Jacksonville coincided with their becoming the #1 pass defense in the NFL, and has connections to Texas for recruiting purposes.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:32 PM ^
Good for him.
I mean dang, but, next man up.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:32 PM ^
Devin Bush Sr?
December 8th, 2017 at 5:33 PM ^
Come on home. ESPN is not long for you.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:10 PM ^
Do people really call Charles Woodson that?
December 8th, 2017 at 6:42 PM ^
His white redneck nephews
December 8th, 2017 at 5:34 PM ^
When you have a dominant Defense year-after-year there will be natural coaching migrations cashing in on their good work. Key is for Harbaugh and Brown to remain in place because they are the source code. I suspect Zordich will be gone before long. Too good to remain just a CB coach.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:37 PM ^
Im just hoping Zordich knows he's the DC in waiting. I also hope that he doesn't know that Don Brown is going to coach until he's 90
December 8th, 2017 at 6:34 PM ^
Most of our assistants alrerady make more than coordinators at schools like Rice. The notable exception on our staff was Brian Smith. At $150K, he was making about half Zordich's pay. Jay Harbaugh at $225K was the next lowest. It seemed strange to me if we were trying to keep him.
Good coaches are going to get poached though. It's not the worst problem to have.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:44 PM ^
Regardless, if we're going to lose someone, it's better to lose Smith than Zordich, Mattison, or Brown.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:43 PM ^
I didn't realize Zordich played for Paterno.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:43 PM ^
Congrats to Coach Smith.
Used to concern me when coaches left, but after coach Harbaugh hired coach Brown to take over defense and the job he's done, I look at it more as a opportunity to bring another good coach in. An opportunity to get better.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:50 PM ^
works both ways. It's also beneficial to have a stable staff with guys who have been on the here for a little while. Brian Smith was here 2 seasons? Seems like he just go here. Oh well. Good luck to him.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:03 PM ^
True, it does hurt when kids are signing because of a particular coach and that coach leaves, but Zordich gives stability and familiar face to the DBs. At least in this case we will be ok.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:04 PM ^
I think it is more on the beneficial side.
Would you rather have Brian Smith who is on an upward trajectory and might leave after couple years or have Mark Smith or Dan Ferrigno type coaches?
December 8th, 2017 at 5:37 PM ^
Patiently waiting for the Hello: Charles Woodson post...
December 8th, 2017 at 7:19 PM ^
I am looking for a hello wide receiver coach. There are a bunch of young men waiting to make the step to the next level.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:44 PM ^
woodson not coming. how much were he and zordich responsible for? congrats coach smith, I hope he can keep climbing the ranks. who is realistic candidates?
December 8th, 2017 at 6:11 PM ^
this is more of a firm handshake situation
December 9th, 2017 at 8:58 AM ^
Brian Smith just got a promotion to Defensive Coordinator. That is not a firm handshake situation.
December 8th, 2017 at 5:55 PM ^
The Harbaugh coaching tree grows . . .
December 8th, 2017 at 6:13 PM ^
Looks better than the Carr coaching tree:
That's Brady Hoke.
I'm mostly kidding. There is something to be said for staff stability and Carr brought plenty of other positives to the table. Would've been nice to have had an up-and-coming star on the staff to succeed him, though .....
December 8th, 2017 at 9:58 PM ^
Gosh...
December 9th, 2017 at 8:59 AM ^
HA HA HA HA HAAAAA!!!!!
December 8th, 2017 at 5:56 PM ^
Hire Bill Parcells.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:00 PM ^
If we can't have Charles Woodson... why not Rod Woodson? A man can dream!
December 8th, 2017 at 6:20 PM ^
To be honest, our safeties were both pretty weak this year. I would hire Jedd Fisch now for the WR position and then get a safety coach for our 10th coach.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:29 PM ^
Our defense was still ranked pretty high though. Agree they were probably ranked the lowest position group, but when you have a dline, Bush, Hudson, Hill and Long it wouldn't be hard to rank low.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:41 PM ^
And why are you obsessed with him? His offenses, which had more experienced players than this past seasons, were not great.
People need to move on from Jedd Fisch.
December 8th, 2017 at 8:12 PM ^
He's available. Our offense did pretty well under him both years he was here. He can recruit like a mofo and our class is kind of lacking on the fire power of 2016/2017. Might as well kick the tires of making him a co-coordinator or something.
December 8th, 2017 at 9:01 PM ^
But they're redundant on the same staff. The thing is, Pep took Jedd's job because Jedd didn't want it. He wanted to be a full OC and left. The only reason he'd come back now is that no one is offering him an OC job. Don't you think he'd leave as soon as someone like UCLA did again?
December 8th, 2017 at 6:47 PM ^
Would be like admitting defeat after he left to be a full OC. We already have someone on the support staff ready for that job, Scott Turner.
Zordich started here as the safeties coach, didn't he? I know he coached safeties before. That gives us some flexibility.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:51 PM ^
What makes you think that Jedd Fisch would come back for a lesser position than he had at UCLA and even here at Michigan?
The only way I see Jedd Fisch coming back is to be the only OC on staff. I can't see him coming back for another co-OC type of position.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:56 PM ^
while we’re at it, let’s get john harbaugh to coach ST*
December 8th, 2017 at 7:03 PM ^
John can bring Ed Reed to coach the safeties.
December 9th, 2017 at 9:04 AM ^
Maybe we can get Jim and Jack to talk John into the Lions gig next season? Bring the family back together! Which of you influential M alumni can talk to Martha about this?
December 8th, 2017 at 8:57 PM ^
Let's see if belichik wants to coach WR too.
December 8th, 2017 at 10:10 PM ^
Unless he's offered an insane amount of $$ to be a WR coach or he can't find any other work, I don't see him going back down the coaching ladder to take a position coach job.
With Pep Hamilton still in tow, you can't offer Jedd the luxury of a quasi-coordinator thing as that's too many cooks in the kitchen. I'll go so far as to say while Pep is on this staff, Jedd likely isn't. Is that good or bad... i dunno?
December 9th, 2017 at 12:04 AM ^
ten bucks says jedd is never a serious candidate to return. this talk, which is all it is, blog chatter, is completely unfounded.
December 8th, 2017 at 6:31 PM ^
Best of luck, Coach!
December 8th, 2017 at 6:43 PM ^
Good coaching is hard to find. Smith was making $150K base and now he will get to advance his trade and make more money for his family. Congrats
December 8th, 2017 at 11:18 PM ^
Sounds good to me, but that's not much in the coaching business. Congrats to coach Smith.
December 8th, 2017 at 7:04 PM ^
At Rice.
December 8th, 2017 at 7:31 PM ^
Sad to see him go. Maybe the best position coach on the UM staff.
December 8th, 2017 at 7:52 PM ^
Sorry but have to disagree here. While the safeties have been solid, they have missed some crucial tackles this year. You could easily say Mattison with the Dline, Zordich with the corners, or even DB with the linebackers have been better coached.
December 8th, 2017 at 7:39 PM ^
He would be a hell of a safeties coach. He gets my vote.
December 8th, 2017 at 7:41 PM ^
Would be great to see
December 8th, 2017 at 11:20 PM ^
As long as our safeties get crack-a-lacking and poppin with the populations I'm good with the hire.