Football Staff is Set, Let's React
January 20th was far less than ideal as a date to have your staff settled, but with yesterday’s announcements, the football assistant team for 2021 is locked in.
IN: Cowboys DBs coach Mo Linguist and Ravens LBs coach Mike Macdonald as co-DCs, Maryland LBs coach George Helow as safeties coach, Indiana RBs coach Mike Hart as RBs coach.
OUT: Don Brown (DC), Mike Zordich (cornerbacks), Bob Shoop (safeties), Ben McDaniels (QBs)
STILL HERE: Josh Gattis (OC/receivers), Ed Warinner (OL), Jay Harbaugh (special teams, loses RBs), Sherrone Moore (TEs), Shawn Nua (DL), Brian Jean-Mary (LBs)
MO LINGUIST, CO-DC/CORNERBACKS
Who? Michigan has named Dallas Cowboys DBs coach Mo Linguist as co-DC with Ravens LB coach Mike Macdonald, who was announced last week.
While both are young and first-time coordinators, unlike Macdonald, Linguist does have an extensive collegiate resume.
He has also moved around a lot. Until joining the Cowboys last season Linguist was the cornerbacks coach at Texas A&M for two years (2018-‘19), spent a year coaching the secondary on PJ Fleck’s staff at Minnesota (2017, when Warinner was there) before that, a year as Mississippi State’s safeties coach (2016) before that, the defensive passing game coordinator at Iowa State (2014-‘15) for two years before that, and the same for Buffalo (2012-‘13) for two years before that. He also coached at James Madison, Valdosta State, and Baylor, where he played then became a graduate assistant in 2007. If you’re a little lost, here’s a map:
[After THE JUMP: see-ah what I mean-ah?]
Linguist grew up in Dallas and moved to Mesquite, TX, where he won a state championship the week I graduated from college. Along the way he has developed a reputation as a top defensive backs man, particularly with the cornerbacks. According to the 247 database he seems to be an excellent good recruiter, has strong connections in Texas and Georgia, and offers have been extended already to a number of high-profile Linguist associates.
Like Mac2, Mo2’s preferred defensive style is a mystery. Dallas went to a lot of pattern-matching last year—they’ve been a base four-down, 1-high defense as long as I’ve paid attention to such things. The Ravens, for what it’s worth, have been a base odd (3-4 or 4-3 under) defense on the extreme end of blitziness—the thing it’s like in college is the thing Indiana ran this year with double hybrids.
The one secondary of his that I’ve watched extensively, Minnesota’s in 2017, was so beat up by injury there’s little to glean from it, but Fleck’s Gophers have been coasting with some his guys, who include Rashod Bateman, ever since, despite that being a transition class. Given the resources at Texas A&M his recruiting was bonkers. I believe Michigan should give him the resources he had with the Dallas Cowboys, but I’d settle for A&M-level resources.
GEORGE HELOW, SAFETIES
Who? Maryland linebackers coach.
If you were looking for a Phil Martelli to give this staff some experience, you won’t find it here either. Helow was a safety at Ole Miss in the late 2000s via Hargrave Military Academy. Nick Saban picked him up in 2012, first as a weight room intern, then a defensive intern under Kirby Smart. He got a grad assistant gig at FSU under Jimbo Fisher, then completed his degree as a grad assistant while working with the safeties at Georgia under Mark Richt, whence the overlap with Macdonald. The next two years, 2016-‘17 he was an OLBs grad assistant at Colorado State before getting promoted to safeties coach for 2018 and ‘19. He was at Maryland just a year, serving as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach.
(So yeah, the guy who just signed Brian Jennings, who flipped from Michigan on early signing day because it looked like the coaching staff was wobbly. What a business.)
I like that he has Hargrave in his past; Michigan has very seldom dipped into the prep world, and when they have it’s been for a Brad Hawkins or Chris Perry who had some academic issues pop up that wouldn’t have been an issue at ten other Big Ten schools.
HOW DO WE FEEL ABOUT ALL THIS?
Depends who you ask and which guy you’re talking about. The theme here was obvious: find more Sherrone Moores. That’s a good strategy when your program’s been springing talent issues and an even better one going into a year when it’s all but open season for transfers. Official Signing Day is a few weeks away, but transfer recruitments follow academic schedules, so there’s time to get in with other teams emerging players.
I know the NCAA doesn’t believe this but there are a LOT of young people who don’t realize their true aptitude or desire for learning until they get to college. Harbaugh knows as well as anybody that players with serious pro aspirations who are also serious about using their degrees for something after are Michigan’s niche, and he’s built himself a staff of recruiters with NFL teams on their resumes. It remains to be seen if they can get players, or even their own admissions department, on board.
Schematically nobody has any idea, and that might include the staff themselves. I’ve got a lot of Ravens film downloading; I don’t even know where to start with Linquist because he’s bounced around so much. The one thing they all seem to be good at—with the exception of Macdonald since he hasn’t done it—is recruiting, which is good long-term news for the program whether or not they can revive the Harbaugh experiment.
There are some bad but not fatal tea leaves with some of the guys they retained. The recruiting issues at defensive tackle started before Nua, continued during Nua, and weren’t made any better by spending the last few months making it look like they weren’t keeping Nua. Line development has been fine, but that was such a comedown from the excellence of Mattison (and Hoke) that it feels like a net downgrade. The linebacker issues last year coincide with Don Brown handing over the keys to Jean-Mary, but BJM came in with a very strong track record at that, and those again can be traced back to the issues up front.
As for the guys they jettisoned, Ben McDaniels was an internal hire who never proved himself worthy of it, and Bob Shoop was just a huge mistake. They did lose a lot of experience in Brown and Zordich that wasn’t replaced. The recruiting issues at cornerback might have been resolving anyways, but the choice to recruit slower guys who turned out to be too slow falls on either him or Brown. The Linguist hire should pay dividends; we’ll see if it came too late to stay in the race for Will Johnson, let alone Domani Jackson. Sam Webb hinted on WTKA this morning that recruiting 300-pound DTs just to plug gaps is probably going to be green-lit now that Brown is gone, and that may change Nua’s success rate.
Given Harbaugh’s precarious position it was going to be hard to do much better. Any of these guys could turn out to be lightning in a bottle, and they’re all guys who are young enough and have been mobile enough to land somewhere if this turns out to be a one-year gig. Mike Hart is the kind of guy who could survive a few regime changes at Michigan. Macdonald is a cipher; ask again later. Helow looks like a recruiting hire; as a guy who's been up and down the Saban tree he certainly knows how the Saban system works. Yes I mean pattern-matching coverage; what did you think I was talking about? Linquist looks like the best bet to pay off, both with a much-needed recruiting haul and as a position coach.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
Looks good to me, but keep in mind I'm an eternal optimist.
January 21st, 2021 at 1:05 PM ^
Why are there no eternal optometrists?
January 21st, 2021 at 2:33 PM ^
No one can see that far ahead.
January 21st, 2021 at 4:02 PM ^
Well played, sir.
January 22nd, 2021 at 8:19 AM ^
Agreed. @Red is Blue won the interwebs with that comment yesterday.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:38 AM ^
I would caution guys ready to jump on the Nua staying is bad train to temper their comments... I can say from very close sources that Brown submarined multiple Nua recruits that would have been the traditional high floor / low ceiling DTs the program has needed for years because Brown didn't want the War Daddy types. With how Hutchinson and Paye looked before they got injured, I'm willing to give Nua the benefit of the doubt in trying to get some of his guys in. If the scheme is more Ravens esque, then we'll need that plugger in the middle.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:15 AM ^
I guess that's true because of how DT recruiting has gone but it's still mind blowing to me. Surely a 3 star war daddy is better than nothing, or Kemp at nose.
January 21st, 2021 at 12:12 PM ^
It's amazing how we went from best overall Michigan defensive line in my lifetime in 2016 to where we are today. Average starting DL weight was 292lbs. Say what you want about Hoke and Mattison but they stacked our DL with elite talent. We even had a future all-american low 3 star in Rashad Weaver in the fold until... https://www.mlive.com/wolverines/2016/01/3-star_dl_rashad_weaver_decomm.html
WDE Taco (272) - Winovich
DT Godin (294) - Hurst
NT Glasgow (299) - Mone
SDE Wormley (302) - Gary
January 21st, 2021 at 11:23 AM ^
I wouldn't be surprised at all. And as much as I liked Hutch and Paye, it always felt like we were either playing two weakside ends or we didn't have two actual defensive tackles. All. The. Time.
Either you add a bigger guy at strongside, or bigger guys in the interior. That line was designed to fail. That's not Nua's fault.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:30 AM ^
Yeah I think it was really the latter rather than the former. This parent post was so accurate in assessment, and it's not really all about weight, it's about how that weight was used. Just look at the interior of that line, one two-deep of 300 pounders who were space and double-team eaters, and the other a two-deep of fast first-steppers who got into the offensive lines and screwed stuff up before it could develop. The key here is that this assessment was stuff that was happening to everyone Including OSU that year. One of the reasons Harbaugh was so intent on the 4th and 1 getting overturned was because Glasgow got his hand on the QB after submarining the front two O-line on that play.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:24 AM ^
There are a couple of those massive DTs still left in the 2021 class - Victory Vaka and Pius Odjugo come to mind. It would be good to land them and shape them into a force in the middle. Idk if Michigan is still in the race for George Rooks, but with him being a bit undersized and Michigan possibly moving to 3-4, Michigan could sell him on being a DE in that system too depending on how his body develops
January 21st, 2021 at 12:59 PM ^
I don't have evidence for this, but I would not be surprised if we are able to land a war daddy type of NT, preferably in the transfer market, that you see Hinton move to a DE in a 3-4 position.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:40 AM ^
I can't believe that Feel Nothing shirt is real and for sale.
Anyway, we need fat guys on defense. And corners. But mostly fat guys. If these guys can go get em, we'll be ok.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:11 AM ^
As we learned with Mo Hurst Jr and his generation (Glasgow, Willy Henry, etc), and Brian has said multiple times, the most valuable player on a modern college defense is a tackle that can push upfield. We haven't had that since Hurst, and haven't had more than one since 2016. Three long years of watching a stagnated middle while teams picked us apart.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:50 AM ^
Perhaps the DT comment is true, definitely helps out a ton. But if the Ravens defense is any indication - and yes NFL vs. college game caveats apply - a strong secondary can make up for a lack of pass rush, according to PFF anyway. We had neither of those things last year, so who knows where the truth really lies.
Regardless of what scheme they choose to run I'd imagine they're more likely than Brown to fit the scheme to match their talent and then adjust as better talent comes in. At least I hope that's the case.
January 21st, 2021 at 1:49 PM ^
If you can't get a push in the passing game, at least plug it up in the running game. Last two years we could do neither as Wisconsin just absolutely exposed by shredding our interior defense. Never seen that at Michigan and is why Don Brown got fired.
January 21st, 2021 at 3:33 PM ^
Are you only 10 years old? Do you not remember Wisconsin not even throwing a pass the entire 2nd half against one of our RR defenses? I hope I never live to see another game like that one. That team was beaten to a pulp and was begging for mercy.
January 21st, 2021 at 1:53 PM ^
Watching Rocky Lombardi comfortably step up into the pocket is one of the worst experiences of my life.
January 22nd, 2021 at 11:03 AM ^
Yes, see Barmore, Christian, DL Alabama. Not a splashy recruit, but a solid 4 star out of the Philadelphia hotbed. Red-shirted his freshmen year, improved as a Sophomore and dominated this year, especially in the NC game and should be a first-rounder. All the more impressive, because the rest of bama's D-line is really nothing special (compared to previous years).
January 21st, 2021 at 11:36 AM ^
But just to be clear, you're not advocating for fat CBS, right?
January 21st, 2021 at 11:44 AM ^
Should be paired with an 'I feel the pain of everything' shirt. Because that comes first.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:41 AM ^
I will be really interested to see the type of defense we run moving forward. It seemed like we were good to great against teams we ought to beat, and mediocre to poor when it came against teams with a much more dynamic offense, but it also felt like we just did not do a great job of making adjustments in-game.
I am hopeful that some of the recruiting issues will get sorted out, so that makes me somewhat optimistic about the future.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:44 AM ^
Is it Sherrone Moores or Sherrones Moore?
January 21st, 2021 at 11:45 AM ^
Or is it Roy Roundtree?
January 21st, 2021 at 11:51 AM ^
Definitely Roy Roundtree
January 21st, 2021 at 11:46 AM ^
"The theme here was obvious: find more Sherrone Moores."
/say what gif
January 21st, 2021 at 11:51 AM ^
Moore Sherrones?
January 21st, 2021 at 12:16 PM ^
My Sharona?
January 21st, 2021 at 3:58 PM ^
Attourneys General
January 21st, 2021 at 10:45 AM ^
Thank you. Could use some editing, though. I am extremely high on Mac2 from both coaching and recruiting perspectives. It will take him more than one year to install his scheme and recruit his type of players, but we should see sound defenses using schemes that match the talent we have at UM
January 21st, 2021 at 10:48 AM ^
Why are we looking at Roy Roundtree yelling. Is he on the staff too? Or are we confusing Roundtree for Moore? Questions.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:50 AM ^
You beat me to it
January 21st, 2021 at 11:07 AM ^
This has happened once before, too. It’s a trend! :)
Just look for the goatee, you guys.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:17 AM ^
I have to admit they do look similar but yea that's definitely Roundtree. Based on a Google image search you can see the difference in the noses.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:52 AM ^
It's a subtle message from Seth. I think I have it. Swazi says there is one more change on offense. Seth puts Roy Roundtree on the post. So, Gattis is out, Harbaugh is OC and QB Coach and Roy Roundtree is the WR coach. At least that's what Swazi said.
January 21st, 2021 at 12:46 PM ^
Or Seth thinks all look same. It would be like us posting a picture of Seth Rogen and saying we need more Seths on Mgoblog.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:49 AM ^
Are we scared that UM admissions is going to leave us behind in a mass transfer world?
January 21st, 2021 at 11:43 AM ^
I'll get back to you with an answer on that in a flash⚡
January 21st, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
Staff isn't set yet, just the defensive side. Rumblings that there's one more change happening.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:16 AM ^
Well that would almost have to be Moore by default.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:40 AM ^
Dude. That is just mean. If it is Gattis wink once.
January 21st, 2021 at 12:05 PM ^
**fart**
January 21st, 2021 at 12:16 PM ^
Is that what wink means to you Yoopers?
January 21st, 2021 at 12:17 PM ^
Its Jay.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:29 AM ^
care to elaborate?
January 21st, 2021 at 11:34 AM ^
That would mean an assistant we are expecting to stay is leaving then (Moore, Jay Harbaugh, Gattis, Warriner). Right now they are at 10 assistants, which I believe is the limit.
January 21st, 2021 at 11:41 AM ^
Has got to be Warriner. The cabbie in Jacksonville said so.
January 21st, 2021 at 10:55 AM ^
I like the Linguist hire a lot from both a recruiting and coaching perspectives. Helow doesn’t seem to recruit at the same level and has a shorter coaching career so who knows how much he’ll help. I do think McDonalds youth and NFL experience will help when recruiting despitehis lack of collegiate experience. Overall I’m cautiously optimistic on the defensive side
January 21st, 2021 at 11:47 PM ^
Lingquist is the best hire of all the new coaches. I have no idea what we were thinking retaining Nua.
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