Brian Jean-Mary is feeling the affects of Michigan’s cultural transformation after being absent for three years.
Brian Jean-Mary has witnessed the Michigan football team’s highs and lows over the last few years. Or, you know, he kind of has.
Although Jean-Mary was only appointed as the Wolverines’ linebackers coach, he has experience with the program. After serving in the same capacity for Michigan in 2020 and being present throughout the Wolverines’ 2-4 season, he moved on to Tennessee for a three-year tenure in the same capacity. However, Jean-Mary realized it was time to head back to Ann Arbor when Michigan coach Sherrone Moore called and demanded that he take back his former position.
Jean-Mary stated on Monday, “I felt like the 2020 season was an incomplete part of my coaching career just because of COVID and the way things went.” “Even after leaving to enroll in another school, I continued to have a connection to the University of Michigan and was inspired by their success from a distance. It seemed to be the right place for me to be.
Jean-Mary returns to the Volunteers three years later, but the program is very different from what he left. In that time frame, the Michigan Wolverines won more games in 2020 than they did College Football Playoff appearances. Just three short years later, the Jim Harbaugh era’s low point became its final high point.
Watching from afar, Jean-Mary has a unique vantage point on what exactly changed. He might not have been at Michigan to help build the culture that carried it to a national championship, but he’s certainly noticed the difference from three years ago to now since rejoining the program.
“Love the fact that the players kind of know when they enter the building what the expectations are, they’re all striving for the same goals,” Jean-Mary said. “They’ve reached the mountaintop but you can still see the hunger that they have to keep up the success they’ve had. I think the culture here is, I’ll say, I think it’s the best in college football.”
The culture that Jean-Mary mentions is one that’s been well documented and heavily praised by all of the Wolverines’ existing personnel. The players that have been there since it was first built in 2021 are now working hard to uphold the culture and teach it to new generations of players. And the coaches who saw it flourish under Harbaugh aren’t changing too much, other than maybe putting their own personal spin on it.
So even though he wasn’t involved in the building of the culture, Jean-Mary isn’t looking to change anything, either. Rather, he wants to learn the ins and outs of Michigan’s new established culture and help it continue to thrive. 
