Tennessee 'Too Enticing' for LB Coach Jean-Mary to Pass Up

Brian Jean-Mary has made several stops as a defensive assistant over his 21-year coaching career. His most recent stop, before Tennessee, was Michigan. Before that, Jean-Mary spent time at South Florida as the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator, and linebackers coach. 

Josh Heupel and Tim Banks targeted Jean-Mary early in their search for defensive assistants, and he recently discussed why he made the jump from Ann Arbor to Knoxville. 

"First off, obviously, Coach (Charlie) Strong was a big mentor for me. He gave me my first opportunity, along with Coach Holtz, to actually work in this conference," Jean-Mary told reporters during a zoom caller earlier this week. "So, I was a graduate assistant with those guys back in the early 2000s. But I felt like the time was right, obviously, I have history with Coach Heupel, and I respect everything he's done, as far as not just an offensive guy and as a coordinator but also what he did as a head coach down in Central Florida."

He's got the right mix of explosive offense, but also did a great job as a full team to win here in this conference. So, it was an enticing and an offer too good to turn down," he continued. "Like I said, just from the experiences at UCF, a very explosive and aggressive team and a team that's going to take their shots obviously as far as getting down field, but a team that can defend from sideline to sideline that is going to be equally as explosive with the pass game as they were with the run game and probably one of the more difficult teams to prepare for throughout my whole career. So, to be on a team with him, it was too enticing, and I know they are going to put some points on the board and give us a chance to win a lot of games."

Heupel says Tennessee's defense will be "aggressive by nature" and those past experiences with Jean-Mary made him an ideal candidate to help promote that. 

"I'm just excited about who he is, having competed against him and schematically what he did and the problems that he caused as a coordinator," Heupel stated about Jean-Mary. "He will coach our linebackers coming from Michigan. He's known as an elite recruiter everywhere that he's been. Great developer of guys at that second level and at the linebacker position. You look at the amount of guys that he's been able to recruit and then develop and have an opportunity to go play in the NFL. He's a perfect fit for us at that position."

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