Tampa Reporter Breaks Down The Brian Jean-Mary Hire

Brian Jean-Mary seems to check all of the boxes as an assistant coach.

South Florida sports beat reporter for The Tampa Bay Times Joey Knight got a chance to cover Brian Jean-Mary very closely, which makes him very qualified to talk about who Jim Harbaugh just hired to coach his linebackers. I threw out a few questions about Jean-Mary and Knight gave some really good insight as to what is coming to Ann Arbor.

Wolverine Digest: What kind of a coach is Brian Jean-Mary? Strengths, weaknesses, style, approach, etc.

Joey Knight: He and Charlie Strong developed that 3-3-5 scheme at Louisville and USF, though the Bulls were forced to primarily employ a 4-2-5 simply due to the profusion of high-tempo spread offenses in the American Athletic Conference. He had no true middle linebacker in 2018, which really hurt the Bulls against the run (they had one of the nation's worst run defenses that year).

WD: He’s been an associate head coach and defensive coordinator, but will coach linebackers at Michigan. What led him to leaving USF? Why do you think he took a “lesser job” rather than wait for another DC gig?

JK: I'm not sure why he didn't hold out for a potential coordinator gig, but the last two seasons at USF, from a record standpoint, probably didn't help his resumé. That said, coaching linebackers at a major school in the Big Ten isn't a bad landing spot.

WD: What’s his reputation as a guy? Personality wise, speaking, with media, intelligence, sense of humor, etc.

JK: We had access to the USF coordinators once a week, and Jean-Mary was always very gracious in those sessions. He never ducked a question and always had thorough answers. He was very accommodating. Personally, I like the guy.

WD: How are South Florida fans/people feeling about losing him?

JK: After a 4-8 season (and four consecutive losses to end the 2019 season), USF fans weren't really sad to see any of the Bulls coaches depart — that's just the nature of the business. I can tell you many Bulls defensive players have tweeted congrats to Jean-Mary on getting the Michigan gig, which tells me he endeared himself to them during his three seasons in Tampa.

What do you think Jean-Mary will bring to the table? Will his impact be more felt than Anthony Campanile's? Comment below!!!