Tennessee inside linebacker’s coach Brian Jean-Mary is leaving the Volunteer football program for the same position at Michigan, 247sports Sam Webb first reported on Thursday morning.
It’s a return to Ann Arbor for Jean-Mary. The 48-year old defensive assistant was Michigan’s linebackers coach in 2020 before leaving to join Josh Heupel’s staff at Tennessee. Jean-Mary has also spent time coaching linebackers at Georgia Tech, Louisville, Texas and South Florida.
The experienced defensive assistant was on Heupel’s first staff at Tennessee and has been on the Vols’ staff ever since. In fact, Jean-Mary’s departure marks the first change in Tennessee’s coaching staff in Heupel’s time in Knoxville.
Tennessee has had a solid linebacker core in Jean-Mary’s three seasons in Knoxville. The Vols have boasted a strong run defense and has had a solid but not fantastic inside linebacker unit. Jeremy Banks and Aaron Beasley have been Tennessee’s top inside linebackers under Jean-Mary’s tutelage.
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Jean-Mary leaving for Michigan marks the second coach that has left Tennessee this offseason. Running backs coach Jerry Mack left Tennessee to join Doug Pederson’s Jacksonville Jaguars staff earlier this week.
Coaching stability has been a strength of Heupel’s tenure. The Vols’ fourth-year head coach hasn’t fired a single assistant while Jean-Mary is the fourth total coach and the first defensive coach to leave for another job. While Kodi Burns and Mack left for NFL jobs and Alex Golesh left for a head coaching job, Jean-Mary is the first to leave Tennessee for the same position at another college.
Heupel promoted from within to replace Burns and Golesh and has not yet named a replacement for Mack. Whether Heupel will put an emphasis on continuity to replace a defensive assistant the way he does for offensive assistants is unclear.
