Harbaugh On NFL Experience On Coaching Staff: 'I Think It Does Help'
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
CBS DETROIT - Returning to the college ranks from the NFL, new Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh brought quite a few coaches from the pro game with him. Including Harbaugh, nine of the 11 members of the coaching staff have NFL experience.
Harbaugh did not say how heavily he weighed time in the pros when he considered various individuals for assistant roles, but he agreed that time at the highest level provides some extra credibility.
"I think it does help that there has been NFL experience in our coaches' background," Harbaugh said Wednesday at his National Signing Day press conference. "A lot of our players, that's one of their goals, to make it to the NFL.
"We don't discourage that," Harbaugh added. "In fact, we try to teach it."
Harbaugh spent the last four seasons as head coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and several of Michigan's new assistants were there with him for at least part of that stretch.
Greg Jackson, the new secondary coach, was an assistant coach working with the secondary in San Francisco throughout Harbaugh's tenure there. Michigan's new director of strength and conditioning, Kevin Tolbert, was there for all four years, too, as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. Tim Drevno, Michigan's new offensive coordinator and offensive line coach, coached the offensive line of the 49ers from 2011 to 2013.
Also on the staff are a couple of coaches who worked under Harbaugh's brother John, who has been the head coach of the Baltimore Ravens since 2008.
Jim Harbaugh's son Jay, now the tight ends coach and a special teams assistant for Michigan, served as offensive quality control for the Ravens from 2012 to 2014. Greg Mattison, now Michigan's defensive line coach, was the linebackers coach in Baltimore during John Harbaugh's first season and was the defensive coordinator in 2009 and 2010. Mattison has been with Michigan since 2011, when he came on board as the team's defensive coordinator.
Jedd Fisch, Michigan's passing game coordinator who will work with quarterbacks and wide receivers, spent four years in Baltimore before John Harbaugh's arrival. Fisch also spent time with the Houston Texans, the Denver Broncos, the Seattle Seahawks and the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Michigan's secondary coach Michael Zordich was defensive quality control for the Philadelphia Eagles from 2009 to 2010 and coached safeties there from 2011 to 2012. New Wolverines running back coach Tyrone Wheatley coached the same position with the Buffalo Bills from 2013 to 2014.
Harbaugh and his staff recruited frantically leading up to National Signing Day because he got a late start on the process after Michigan hired him away from the 49ers. Harbaugh declined to call the recruiting process - in which he worked with limited preparation in a smaller window of time - a difficult one, but he admitted there was a transition period.
"Did I just go right into it and pick up right where I left off at Stanford? No, I did not," Harbaugh said. "I picked up two days after an NFL season and had to familiarize with who the players are, high school coaches again. [I] had not spent the whole fall evaluating tape. I had been coaching the San Francisco 49ers. It took some time."
Harbaugh said he does not have a philosophy about whether to target recruits who have already committed to another school, but he was in a unique position this year.
"You make a call and ask someone if they are interested in talking about Michigan, and certainly if someone says no, it is no," Harbaugh said, "but if someone says yes, then I want to show them Michigan."
While the Wolverines have not had a typical offseason leading into Harbaugh's first year as the head coach of Michigan, he said he still feels good about the class he and the staff compiled.
"I thought our staff did a tremendous job and worked very hard to get UMGs - [what we call] UM graduates," Harbaugh said. "We wanted guys who are serious about football. I thought we did a tremendous job with that, and most of the credit goes to the staff on that."
