2/15/2024 football Edit

Tennessee linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary returning to Michigan

Tennessee Linebackers Coach Brian Jean-Mary before the NCAA football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and South Alabama Jaguars in Knoxville, Tenn. on Saturday, November 20, 2021. (Saul Young/News Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK)

Noah Taylor • VolReport

Managing Editor

Noah is a graduate of the UT College of Journalism & Electronic Media and has covered Tennessee football since 2019. He joined Rivals in 2022.

Another member of Tennessee’s football coaching staff is on the move, this time on the defensive side.

Linebackers coach Brian Jean-Mary is the latest leave, taking the same position along with duties as the defensive run game coordinator at defending national champion Michigan on Thursday.

The news was first reported by 247Sports.

The move comes days after running backs coach Jerry Mack left the Vols for the NFL, joining the Jacksonville Jaguars’ staff as their new running backs coach, leaving head coach Josh Heupel with two voids to fill.

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Jean-Mary, who arrived at Tennessee in 2021, previously served as the linebackers coach at Michigan on former head coach Jim Harbaugh's staff for one season in 2020. He returns to Ann Arbor to join first-year head coach Sherrone Moore following Harbaugh's departure for the NFL.

An Apopka, Florida native, Jean-Mary played linebacker at Appalachian State in the early 1990s before embarking on 23-year coaching career that included stints at Louisville, South Carolina, North Alabama, Texas and USF.

In three seasons at Tennessee, Jean-Mary oversaw the rebuilding of the Vols' linebacking corps. The group saw improvement each year despite a lack of numbers with Aaron Beasley leading the defense in tackles 2022.

MORE FROM VOLREPORT: Tennessee running backs coach Jerry Mack heading to NFL

Under Jean-Mary, Tennessee added two highly touted in-state recruits in two of the last three recruiting cycles in Elijah Herring and Arion Carter, both of which stepped into bigger roles because of injuries last season.

Though Beasley has exhausted his eligibility, the Vols are in good shape at the position. Tennessee is set to return both Herring and Carter, as well as Jeremiah Telander.

Veteran linebacker Keenan Pili, who began his career at BYU before transferring to Tennessee in 2023, was granted a sixth season of eligibility after missing much of the year with injury.

Heupel now has two open coaching positions less than two months before the Vols open spring practices but he has shown a pattern of hiring from within.

Kelsey Pope was elevated from an analyst role to position coach in 2022 after wide receivers coach Kodi Burns took an NFL job while Joey Halzle was promoted to offensive coordinator in addition to coaching quarterbacks in the wake of Alex Golesh taking the head coaching job at USF after the 2022 season.

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