The Michigan Wolverines have rebooted the coaching staff under Sherrone Moore, but one of its new faces comes in the form of linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary, who returns to Ann Arbor after one season under Jim Harbaugh in 2020.
The COVID campaign was a nightmare for the program but fueled a three-year run that culminated in last year’s run to a national title. Jean-Mary left for Tennessee after a 2-4 season in Ann Arbor that ended abruptly amid a virus breakout within the locker room.
The unfulfilling campaign never quite sat right with Jean-Mary, and he knew that if the opportunity to return to Michigan materialized, he wanted to explore it.
“Even when I left, I told the guys I felt like the 2020 season was an incomplete part of my coaching career just because of COVID and the way things went,” Jean-Mary said on Monday afternoon. “Even though leaving and going to another program, still felt a little bit of an attachment to the University of Michigan and was an admirer from afar. Watching the success that they had, there was not a happier person than myself and my family.
“When the opportunity came up when Coach Moore called me, felt like it was too good of an opportunity to pass up just because, like I said, there’s a lot of attachment, a lot of good things that happened here even though the year didn’t go as we wanted in 2020. Felt like it was where I needed to be.”
Jean-Mary and Moore worked together on that staff, where the now-head coach served as the leader of the tight ends room. The two formed a bond that led to Jean-Mary’s return to Michigan, who said he has been keeping a close eye the success in Ann Arbor.
“I’ll say this, there’s no bigger fan than Coach Moore than myself,” Jean-Mary said. “I’ve known him for years and was so happy when he got this opportunity. Was cheering him on and we would always still communicate even when I wasn’t here. I think he’s a dynamite not just coach but a dynamite person. He’s got a chance to be a great football coach. We kept in touch and I knew what kind of future he had. I knew he was gonna be a head coach and I always said anything I can do to support him, whether it was on the same staff or I was somewhere else, he will always be a guy I wanted to make sure I stayed close to.
“I admire him and think he’s made of the right stuff to be a very, very successful head coach. Besides Michigan being the program that it was, it was the opportunity to get back. Love the community. Both of my daughters are going to come back with us and my wife. We had a small sample size and everything that this community, being in this state, had to represent was always a pull also. It wasn’t as tough of a sell as maybe you would think.”
Above all else, the culture change over the last three seasons has stood out as most impressive upon Jean-Mary’s return to Ann Arbor. Michigan needed a reboot after the COVID season, and Jean-Mary now sees a standard that has been set and maintained by the players who were on hand for the last few seasons of success.
“It’s one of those things when the players come in, you talk about a successful program and a new coach or new players come in, it’s the culture that’s there that they have to adjust to learn that culture or do they come in and put a new spin on the culture to try to change it for the better,” he said. “I think Michigan is at a place right now with the culture and the way these kids are wired, these new kids and new coaches, we have to learn the Michigan way. No matter where you’ve come from or what kind of success you’ve had.
“Love the fact that the players kind of know when they enter the building what the expectations are. They’re all striving for the same goals. They reached the mountaintop but you can still see the hunger that they have to keep up the success that they have. I think the culture here is the best in college football. Not being, obviously, at every program. Like I said, I’m a college football junkie when I’m not worrying about the teams that I’ve had the opportunity to coach on, I watch college football. Obviously, in recruiting, you hear things about different places and I think the Michigan brand and the Michigan culture is the best in college football.”
The post LBs coach Brian Jean-Mary dishes on return to Michigan: 2020 season was ‘incomplete part of my coaching career’ appeared first on On3.