Michigan Football: Former Wolverines assistant praises Brian Jean-Mary

The hire of Brian Mary-Jean wasn’t expected by Michigan football but it should turn out to be a great hire according to a former Wolverine coach.

The coaching carousel has been in full swing for Michigan football this offseason, as the Wolverines have had two coaches leave and brought two new guys in to replace them.

The departures were well known. The first was five-year assistant Chris Partridge, who has been around throughout the Jim Harbaugh era and was one of the program’s top assets on the recruiting trail, helping to land five-star guys like Rashan Gary and Daxton Hill.

But he couldn’t pass up the chance to help coordinate the defense at Ole Miss and soon after he left, Anthony Campanile followed to the Miami Dolphins, who strangely didn’t announce his hire the other day, so there could be something fishy there (pun intended).

At any rate, Campanile won’t be on the sidelines for Michigan football and the man who will take over coaching linebackers for him is former South Florida defensive coordinator Brian Jean-Mary, who also spent a number of years coaching at Texas, where he was known as an ace recruiter.

It’s easy to get excited about Jean-Mary when you hear what others have said about him and Thursday, a former Michigan football coach, who was on the staff during the 1997 national title season and for some other years under Lloyd Carr, offered his assessment.

The coach is Vance Bedford and here’s what the former Wolverines assistant had to say about the addition of Jean-Mary to Sam Webb of the Michigan Insider:

"“I worked with BJ for seven years, four at Louisville and three at Texas,” Bedford said reflecting upon his time as Charlie Strong’s defensive coordinator for both programs from 2010-2016. “He’s a high energy, high-intensity guy. On the football field he’s running around getting on players, and his players love him. He’s in their faces all the time, but he is the first one to love up on them."

That sounds like a positive endorsement to me and Bedford offered up even more praising about his ability to teach players, which is something that gets overlooked at times with the hyper-focus on being able to recruit.

"Then I look at Jordan Hicks at the University of Texas, and some other guys… (Jean-Mary) is a teacher first. He is in the classroom and he is teaching the guys how to watch video. He is teaching the guys how to do the little things right. I think that’s where it starts. Sometimes coaches worry more about scheme than the fundamentals. BJ is going to teach the fundamentals first, and then teach these guys the scheme second."

That sounds like it could be very helpful for guys like Anthony Solomon, Charles Thomas and Michael Barrett, not to mention all the incoming freshmen.

The bottom line is that Michigan football isn’t going to get players as good as Ohio State, Clemson, Alabama or Georgia. It’s just not going to happen. But the Wolverines can land some very solid four and three-star guys and develop them.