shaun nua
coaching changes
middle name might be devin [247]

Hello: Shaun Nua, Defensive Line Coach Comment Count

Brian January 17th, 2019 at 1:02 PM

Michigan's filled their final hole on the defensive side of the ball:

This was said to be official yesterday but as Ben McDaniels seems to be finding out, better not to count those chickens before they've hatched twitter eggs.

[After the JUMP: the bio]

Nua was a DE at BYU in the early aughts and had a few years in the NFL after being drafted in the seventh round. He went back to his alma mater to GA for three years before landing the DL job at Navy, which he held for six years. He bumped up to Arizona State last year, and now lands at Michigan.

Nua continues a theme: youth. Michigan's added four assistants (pending McDaniels becoming official); all are in their 30s. Many of these guys are wild cards and Nua's no exception. Recruiting to Navy is a different world than recruiting to Michigan and it's tough to judge how he's developing guys when academy teams are operating from such a different POV than "did he get enough guys drafted and have good stats?" One season at ASU doesn't tell you much more, especially when it's year one of Herm.

Like Gattis, Nua is a guy who seems to be rapidly rising through the ranks. His somewhat extended Navy tenure could have been much shorter if he was inclined:

“Shaun is a great coach and an even greater person,” Niumatalolo said when contacted on Monday. “We are really going to miss Shaun. He will be very tough to replace.”

Nua briefly accepted the defensive line position at Virginia under head coach Bronco Mendenhall in December, 2015. That was when Niumatalolo was considering replacing Mendenhall at BYU.

After Niumatalolo turned down the BYU job and decided to remain at Navy, Nua changed his mind and also elected to stay in Annapolis.

“Shaun’s had offers almost every year he’s been here. We were very fortunate to keep him as long as we did,” Niumatalolo said. “Shaun felt this opportunity was too good to pass up. I wish him all the best and know he will do great things in his career.”

And he seems like a genuine dude:

Nua became choked up when contacted by The Capital on Monday morning and asked to discuss the decision to leave Navy for Arizona State. After taking a moment to compose himself, Nua said he will always cherish the time spent in Annapolis.

“This whole Navy experience has been nothing but a blessing to my life. This is a really, really special place, one I will never forget,” he said. “They talk about the Navy family and it is so true. All the coaches here took me under their wing and treated me like a brother. I felt like a father figure to all these incredible players I got to coach. I will forever be grateful for my time at Navy.”

Nua, a native of Pago Pago, should help Michigan recruit Pacific Islanders amongst others to their DL. And if there's anything you learn with six years at Navy it's how to get your guys technique up to compensate for their general lack of size. Seems like a good bet. Another good bet: in five years he'll be a better coach than Greg Mattison.

Comments

kurpit

January 17th, 2019 at 4:11 PM ^

Mattison is a better coach and if we were having this argument a couple months ago you would have been up in arms about how much better Mattison is and how Nua is nobody.

Pretending that we didn't lose a huge asset and claiming that we've filled and surpassed that asset with a guy who has a very short and not particularly notable track record is just dumb. Brian is really stooping to the level of his readers here.

Joined: 02/25/2009

MGoPoints: 9237

lilpenny1316

January 17th, 2019 at 6:57 PM ^

Mattison had Rashan Gary for three years and 34 games and got only 9.5 sacks out of him.  Josh Uche had seven sacks this year alone.  The difference is that one coach knew how to get the most out of his guy and the other coach misused his guy.

Rashan Gary should have been a tackle with amazing quickness for his position, not an end with average skills and okay speed.

Joined: 11/19/2009

MGoPoints: 61859

thevetdoc1

January 17th, 2019 at 1:36 PM ^

Is this really the hire that will allow us to recruit elite defensive linemen? We need a grad transfer and is this the coach that will raise the eyebrows of the quality D tackles looking to transfer?

On the other hand because he coached at Navy he should understand honor and duty, something our last DL coach was missing. And don't tell me it is business, it is Ohio State. 

Joined: 12/29/2013

MGoPoints: 92

WestQuad

January 17th, 2019 at 3:04 PM ^

When Warinner (War + Winner = Warinner)  was hired I thought we shouldn't take him as he was from OSU.  It is an odd thing to want to be on the other side.  That said,  OSU let him go and he came to us from Minnesota.   OSU didn't show him loyalty.  I get wanting to get them back for that.  Mattison while cool when he was here, proved to be a douche by going to ND and OSU.  

Joined: 07/22/2011

MGoPoints: 31322

Eschstreetalum

January 17th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^

Youth. True teachers. At least 2 outta 3 great recruiters. I think we just got the change we needed. Plus 4 full classes of Harbaugh recruits.  The worm turns this year my friends. 

Joined: 01/21/2016

MGoPoints: 655

fishgoblue1

January 17th, 2019 at 1:55 PM ^

This was a good read right up until the last sentence.  No reason to act like Mattison is not a good coach.  He's been great for a long time.  He was great 3 weeks ago and then he went to OSU and now he isn't great.  Come on.  The whole fan base was upset when he left, especially for that school, but let's not pretend he isn't really good at what he does.

Joined: 11/16/2015

MGoPoints: 14765

Dizzy

January 17th, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^

Mattison was a good coach, but I think he was past his prime. His recruiting was good, but not great. With him getting older, I think that was only gonna get worse. Nua should be an upgrade there.

He definitely deserves a lot of credit for his work here, but his player development also felt inconsistent at times. Some guys just never seemed to add the missing pieces to their game. 

I agree with Brian and wouldn't be surprised if Nua is a better DL coach in the next five years. Football never stops evolving. Nua still has a lot of coaching potential to tap into. Mattison was on the downswing.

Joined: 08/29/2011

MGoPoints: 892

DiploMan

January 17th, 2019 at 2:14 PM ^

Maybe I missed something, but I'm not sure what to infer from:  "...as Ben McDaniels seems to be finding out, better not to count those chickens before they've hatched twitter eggs."?  

Or is it we fans (and not necessarily Ben McDaniels) who have been counting unhatched chickens?

Joined: 07/28/2010

MGoPoints: 1433

Sione For Prez

January 17th, 2019 at 2:31 PM ^

Probably due to Harbaugh saying he would like to make McDaniels permanent WR coach in pre-bowl media sessions (McDaniels also has WR coach at Michigan in his twitter bio). But as it stands right now we have 10 assistants including Pep so it's not possible at this point. If Pep stays McDaniels is odd man out.

Joined: 11/16/2015

MGoPoints: 10674

Reggie Dunlop

January 17th, 2019 at 2:32 PM ^

I was just about to dig into this as well.

By my idiot math, we now have our full allotment of coaches accounted for. Campanile replaced Washington. Nua replaced Mattison. And McDaniels has been said to be a permanent replacement for McElwain. That's 1-for-1. We're full.

And then Gattis was added with no vacancy, which makes us one over the max.  So either Pep Hamilton is out or Ben McDaniels is going to get the shaft, right? 

Unless I'm missing something, I think that's all for Hamilton. Harbaugh pretty bluntly stated:

“Ben McDaniels is the receivers coach now,” Harbaugh said. “We’d like to make that permanent. He’s really done a nice job.”

He'd either have to backtrack on that and pay Pep Hamilton $1.5 Million per year to get him coffee, or he's just waiting until Hamilton officially lands a gig. The Drevno-Warinner switch didn't officially happen until mid-February, even though Warinner had been on the staff for little while as an analyst. I would guess that pattern is about to repeat.  

Joined: 10/24/2018

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Jonesy

January 17th, 2019 at 5:19 PM ^

'Now' meaning during bowl game prep. "We'd like to make that permanent" meaning its not permanent, its interim. Coaches often leave during bowl game prep and other people step in to do their job for the rest of the year but they are not guaranteed that job after that.

Joined: 03/14/2012

MGoPoints: 10628

protected9

January 17th, 2019 at 3:22 PM ^

What does this mean for McDaniels? It seemed like the recieving corps had taken a liking to him, is he going back to an OA position now that we have an OC with a strong background in coaching receivers?

Joined: 09/25/2018

MGoPoints: 10

Mgoeffoff

January 17th, 2019 at 8:48 PM ^

New offensive play caller to open up the offensive...check.

New young black coach with recruiting ties in the south...check.

New coach to get the most out of our talented WRs...check.

New young pacific islander coach with recruiting ties in the west...check.

New young assistant with recruiting ties in NJ...check.

Keeping Don Brown...check.

Urban Meyer retiring...check.

JH seemingly addressing all our weaknesses with new hires and/or recruits...check.

UM's first recruiting class to be ranked ahead of OSU's this decade...check.

 

The last two games might not have been great for UM, but there are a lot of good things happening.

 

Note: I could care less about race/ethnicity, but having some coaches that are the same race/ethnicity as the kids that play for them I think is a positive.

Joined: 01/08/2019

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