Wolverine Wednesday: Being Greg Mattison

Greg Mattison was always a fan favorite while in Ann Arbor, until he wasn't.   Greg was considered the only competent coach on Hoke's staff and many wanted him to be named the interim coach when Coach Hoke was imploding in 2014.  

Then Coach Harbaugh is hired and Jimmy keeps Greg on the staff due to his experience and his relationship with the Harbaugh family.   Mattison had worked for Jack at Western Michigan from 81-86 and was the DC for John for the Baltimore Ravens from 08-10.

This of course was the second stint for Greg at Michigan.  He was also the DL and DC in Ann Arbor from 92-96 when he left for another Michigan rival Notre Dame.

These are the schools that Greg has worked at during his career:

Illinois
Cornel
Western Michigan
Northwestern
Navy
Texas A&M
Michigan (2x)
Notre Dame
Florida
NFL Ravens
Ohio State

It's clear Greg likes to keep moving and only prefers to stay in a job for a limited time.  Its also fair to note that Greg was a finalist for the WMU head coaching role in 2004 that went to Bill Cubit.

Greg is now nearly 70 years old and the buzz from the Michigan locker room was he was considering retirement.  That is why the jump from Ann Arbor to Columbus was so interesting.   But if you look closer, it really wasn't that surprising.

1. Greg's past experience is to move jobs 
2. Greg was not the DC, he was the D-Line coach at Michigan
3. When Greg's Michigan DC contract expired (which paid him nearly $900K) at Michigan, Jimmy gave him a couple $100K haircut. 
4. When Durkin left Greg was named the interim DC and his unit played great in the Citrus Bowl win over Florida. 
5. Don Brown was hired

Greg is a very good DC and a great recruiter, but he always chases the next job.    Yesterday, he also took a veiled shot at Harbaugh: "Ryan Day is who you want to work with. You want to work with guys who have great character, that care about players more than anything, that are very, very genuine, that are not egotistical, that are worried about being the best football coach they can be."

My thoughts:

• I can make fun of my family and complain about them - You can't. 

• I know loyalty is a foreign word to Greg but the Harbaugh family sure has been good to you over the years.  I would be more careful on your phrasing moving forward.   Or not. 

from The BIG HOUSE Blog http://mbighouse.blogspot.com/2019/10/wolverine-wednesday-being-greg-mattison.html