Michigan Wolverines football coach Jim Harbaugh hired two new assistants following the conclusion of the 2019 campaign, bringing Brian Jean-Mary on board from South Florida to coach the linebackers and Bob Shoop in from Mississippi State to lead the safeties.
The former replaced Anthony Campanile and the latter Chris Partridge, who left for the Miami Dolphins and Ole Miss, respectively.
Both new assistants remain a bit of a mystery to the Michigan fan base, however, seeing as how they have yet to speak with the media in a public setting since arriving in Ann Arbor.
Nathan Bond of TheDailyStampede.com was kind enough to swing by and provide some insight on Jean-Mary and his defensive background, however, after covering the Apopka, Fla., native for the past three years at South Florida.
“Jean-Mary was the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach all three years at USF from 2017-19, having come over from Texas with [former head coach] Charlie Strong,” Bond explained.
“I’ll give some background on the situation Jean-Mary came into when he first arrived; the 2016 season was USF’s breakout year with [quarterback] Quinton Flowers and a really good offense, though their defense was terrible.
“Tom Allen — who is now the head coach at Indiana — had been their defensive coordinator in 2015, but left the following January. USF was going to have to quickly find a new coordinator in January with recruiting right around the corner, so [then-head coach] Willie Taggart decided to stay in house and promoted Raymond Woodie.
“That did not go well and their defense was horrendous under him. The Temple game that year [a 46-30 loss] basically kept them out of the conference championship, and Charlie Strong came in the following season in 2017 and brought in Jean-Mary to be the defensive coordinator with essentially the same group of players.
