Discussing Shaun Nua's Move To USC
In a somewhat surprising development, defensive line coach Shaun Nua has been hired by USC to the same position. We hadn't really heard anything that suggested Nua would be looking around, but he's a west coast lifer and Lincoln Riley is a very popular dude out in L.A. right now.
There's a lot to like about Nua. The big fella has a great disposition about him when it comes to being for his players but also tough when necessary, he played defensive line in the NFL and he's really good for the culture of a locker room. The fact that he has Polynesian roots is also valuable when recruiting players with a similar background. Overall, he seems to check a lot of boxes, but you could make an argument that he's been pretty average at U-M.
The Wolverines have missed on several top defensive line targets, including transfers, over the last couple of recruiting cycles and the defensive tackles in particular haven't been overly productive. Christopher Hinton and Mazi Smith were pretty solid this year, but they weren't game changers and you could argue they only got better with the addition of Mike Macdonald. Sure, Aidan Hutchinson and David Ojabo were phenomenal this season, but weren't they outside linebackers in Macdonald's new system? We never got complete clarity on who exactly was coaching those guys on a day to day basis but we do know that Nua was involved, as were George Helow and Macdonald.
I like Nua personally, a lot. I've had several in-person conversations with him, including the one in the video above, and I've enjoyed every single one of them. He received a lot of praise from guys like Hutchinson when Greg Mattison left and he was the only defensive holdover from last year. When Harbaugh cleaned house on defense, he hung on to Nua, and I think that says something about him.
Now, Michigan must replace him. And they might have their new guy on staff already. Defensive analyst Ryan Osborn has been praised all year as a guy who helped out in many areas, including along the defensive line and with the linebackers, and as a recruiter. If Jim Harbaugh wants to keep the positive culture that clearly played a huge role in the team's success this year, Osborn would be a great move. The players love him, he's young, he's energetic and, perhaps most importantly, he's familiar with everything.
It's also worth noting that he's definitely gotten to where's he's at by paying his dues. He's been a cornerbacks coach, a special teams coordinator, a wide receivers coach, a video coordinator, the director of football operations and more at several small schools over the last 13 years, which shows that he's a worker. Hiring him as the new defensive line coach would be a good move from a continuity standpoint and from a culture standpoint. Harbaugh brought in a bunch of new guys this past year and it worked. Osborn was a part of that and would be a nice, stable piece on the staff if he were promoted.
