Michigan Football: Breaking down hire of Matt Weiss as QB coach
Michigan football has added a quarterback coach to its staff following the departure of Brian Jean-Mary and Matt Weiss of the Ravens will take the role.
It’s been a wild offseason for the Michigan football coaching staff and things took another interesting turn this weekend as the Wolverines are going to hire Matt Weiss of the Baltimore Ravens as quarterbacks coach.
The move was first reported by Ian Rapoport of NFL Network on Twitter:
Another #Ravens-to-#Michigan coaching move: Baltimore RBs coach Matt Weiss is leaving to become the Wolverines QBs coach, source said. Weiss has led the NFL’s No. 1 rushing attack under John Harbaugh, now will coach QBs under Jim Harbaugh. The two were together at Stanford.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) February 21, 2021
On its face, the move isn’t that surprising. Michigan was looking to add some offensive minds to the staff earlier in the offseason and it didn’t really pan out.
So the addition of Weiss, who has coached quarterbacks, receivers and running backs at Baltimore, wouldn’t be that big of a shock if it was announced a month ago with other moves.
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What makes this stand out is that the Wolverines just lost Brian Jean-Mary as their linebackers coach this week to Tennessee.
That would make it seem like the logical move would be to replace him with another defensive coach, since it’s the last spot available on the staff, at least for on-field coaches.
The immediate reaction is sort of what’s going on here? If things stay this way, Michigan football would have just four defensive coaches heading into next season and Mike Macdonald, the defensive coordinator would need to coach linebackers as he did in Baltimore.
Maurice Linguist, the co-defensive coordinator will coach cornerbacks, while George Helow is tabbed to coach safeties. One possibility is just naming Linguist the secondary coach, having him work with defensive backs and corners while allowing Helow to coach linebackers too.
At any rate, Michigan must be confident in Macdonald, Linguist and Helow to be able to manage the secondary and linebackers on their own. Plus, the Wolverines have hired a number of analysts too, which could help contribute.
I’ll admit, I was excited about the prospect of Harbaugh coaching quarterbacks, especially five-star recruit J.J. McCarthy, but my guess is that Weiss was brought on to do more than just coach the quarterbacks and maybe he can add some new perspectives to an offense that’s needed some fresh ideas.