Roy Manning, Wolverine . . . again

Roy Manning (#58) (image via Mike DeSimone)

Michigan has hired Roy Manning to replace defensive line coach Jerry Montgomery, who left Michigan for Oklahoma last week.  Manning will coach the outside linebackers (a.k.a. the SAM linebacker) and presumably help with coaching the weakside ends, coaching special teams, and doing a good deal of recruiting.

Manning played high school football at Saginaw High School in Saginaw, MI.  He was a part of the 2000 class, preceding fellow Saginaw products LaMarr Woodley and Jerome Jackson.  He earned the starting rush linebacker job (a very similar position to what he will be coaching) and made 39 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, and 1 sack as a senior in 2004.  He won the Roger Zatkoff Award, which is given to the team's best linebacker.  In his college career, he made 72 tackles, 9 tackles for loss, and 3 sacks.  After he left Michigan, he had a short NFL career with the Packers, Texans, Bills, Jaguars, and Bengals, totaling 31 tackles and 1 pass deflection from 2005-07.

Manning was a graduate assistant for the University of Cincinnati in 2010 before taking a grad assistant job for Michigan in 2011, helping out with the offensive line.  For what it's worth, Michigan churned out a ton of rushing yards that year with both Denard Robinson and Fitzgerald Toussaint topping 1,000 yards, Michigan allowed very few sacks, and center David Molk earning the Rimington Award.  Manning then went back to Cincinnati to be their running backs coach in 2012.  Starting running back George Winn had 1,334 rushing yards (the second-best total in UC history) and 13 touchdowns, and backup R.D. Abernathy averaged 5.3 yards/carry with 3 touchdowns.

Personally, I really like the hire.  Brady Hoke has worked with Manning before, so he knows that Manning will be able to mesh with the staff.  Manning also has a great deal of experience with the position he'll be coaching, and he has experience at the next level, so he can impart some of what he knows to the young players.  It doesn't hurt that he is a young, black male who might be able to connect to recruits and players in ways that some other coaches on the staff might not.  And when you look at on-field production, his position groups the last two years have done some outstanding things; while he wasn't fully in charge of Michigan's offensive line in 2011, he was able to observe what successful coaches and players do on a daily basis.  Hopefully that type of success can carry over with helping players like Jake Ryan and Cameron Gordon reach their potential.