Sherrone Moore breaks down Michigan's hire of Kerry Coombs: What his duties will include

ANN ARBOR – The Michigan Wolverines made their first major change of the offseason last week with the hiring of special teams coordinator Kerry Coombs, a longtime Ohio State and Cincinnati assistant who will replace J.B. Brown in the role.

Coombs, who coached under Brian Kelly and Luke Fickell in two stints at Cincinnati and under both Urban Meyer and Ryan Day at Ohio State, adds 42 years of coaching experience to his new role, which was manned by a first-timer in Brown prior to his dismissal. Coombs, a high school coaching legend in Ohio, too, has also spent time in the NFL with the Tennessee Titans under former head coach Mike Vrabel.

Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore addressed the hire during a press conference on Monday at Schembechler Hall.

 ”He’s just so well respected in the field of coaching,” Moore said. “Different coaches that I’ve talked to throughout the business and there are coaches that are here that have coached with him, obviously. But people that I really trust in the business have spoken so highly of him in the college and the NFL ranks. We brought him here on an interview and it was instant.

“You could feel the energy, you could feel the passion, you could feel such a great teacher and obviously a great recruiter. I know he recruited the state of Michigan for so long and was so competitive when he was at that other school. Just felt like it’d be a good fit and good connection to what we needed, and feel really good about it.”

Coombs helped recruit and develop a ton of star defensive backs in Columbus, too, such as Marshon Lattimore, Denzel Ward, Eli Apple, Gareon Conley, Jeff Okudah, Damon Arnette, Bradley Roby, etc. Moore said Monday Coombs’ focus would be on his phase of the game, but that there could be additional responsibilies added later on.

 ”His focus will be on special teams. And as [defensive backs] need assistance or help he can always interject because he is experienced, but he’s going to work with our special teams and that puts an arm on the whole team. He gets to be a part of the whole team.”

Coombs is the second former Ohio State staffer in the building now, joining running backs coach Tony Alford. It was not intentional as rivalry fodder, Michigan’s head coach revealed.

Coombs last worked for the Buckeyes in 2021 as its defensive coordinator, and ousted due in large part to a 42-27 loss at the hands of the Wolverines in Ann Arbor.

“It’s not on purpose,” Moore said. “In our conversations, I didn’t really specifically ask what happened at Ohio State. It really was just talking about his whole career and how he’s got to this point of where he’s at in coaching and why this place would be so important for him to be. Hearing his responses and understanding of what we can do and how he can help us win, and how he wanted to impact lives was a huge piece of it.”

Moore told the media on Sunday that no further staff changes were anticipated at this time, but with the offseason starting to take shape, we will see if Coombs is the only move made.