Michigan Wolverines news: An LB coach target, former U-M player transfers to OSU
Joey Velazquez entered the transfer portal earlier this offseason and on Monday, we found out the destination of the former Michigan football and baseball player as Velazquez will join the Ohio State Buckeyes as a walk-on.
i don't think this is just about football. Velazquez was a two-sport athlete for the Michigan Wolverines and I'm sure he'll be playing baseball for Ohio State too. That's at least my read on things.
Velazquez is also a Columbus, Ohio native, so with all the coaching upheaval it makes sense for him to go to the Buckeyes. He also didn't play any snaps last season for the Michigan Wolverines, which is probably another reason why he chose to depart.
Michigan football focusing on new LB coach candidate
According to Sam Webb of The Michigan Insider, Sherrone Moore has started to zero in on a candidate for the Michigan Wolverines opening for a linebackers coach and it's former Michigan football assistant Brian Jean-Mary.
Jean-Mary spent one season with Michigan football in 2020 before leaving to join Josh Heupel's staff at Tennessee. He's a 23-year coaching veteran and is known as an elite recruiter. Here's a glimpse of what he's done recently on the recruiting trail according to his Tennessee coaching bio:
"Jean-Mary has played a critical role in helping the Vols sign back-to-back top-12 recruiting classes. He signed a trio of outstanding linebackers for the Class of 2023, including the state of Tennessee’s No. 2 overall prospect in Arion Carter. He also brought in highly touted transfer Keenan Pili of BYU. Jean-Mary’s linebacking group is poised for a promising future. Jean-Mary helped produce a trio of top-15 signing classes at Texas, improving from 15th in 2014 to seventh in 2015 and eighth in 2016. He also had a top-30 class at Louisville in 2011 (27th) and the nation’s 15th-best class at Georgia Tech in 2007."
Jean-Mary has also served as the recruiting director for Texas under Charlie Strong, in addition to being a defensive coordinator at South Florida.
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This pursuit will be interesting because according to Webb, Tennessee is going to do all it can to keep Jean-Mary, so it's likely going to come down to salary and maybe a title. The Michigan Wolverines need to pony up and this would be another quality hire for Sherrone if he's able to make it happen.