The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/447116
for Harbaugh, coaching Stanford's defensive ends and serving as special teams coordinator for three seasons. Durkin's Florida defenders finished 15th in the nation this past season in total defense, allowing 329.8 yards per game, and eighth nationally (314.2) a year earlier. Durkin noted personnel will dictate whether Michigan opts for more of a 3-4 or 4-3 look up front, but assured the Wolverines will certainly be mul- tiple in their schemes. He indicated it didn't take him long to jump on Har- baugh's crew in Ann Arbor. "I just said yes," Durkin assured. "Done deal. Coach Harbaugh is a great guy to work for and work with. I spent three great years for him out at Stanford. "Obviously, when I was hearing the rumors that it may happen here, I was hoping. Then when I got the phone call, I was thrilled. It didn't take long to say, yeah, that's what I want." Now, it's about getting down to work and fashioning a strong defense for 2015, he said. "Turnovers are something we em- phasize, first and foremost," Durkin stressed. "It's the most telling stat in football. You can see wins and losses directly correlate with turnovers. And that's a team stat, not just defense. But obviously our part is to get the ball out and get it back to the offense." Coming from Florida, he's used to big expectations. The same can be said of Drevno, Mattison, and the coaches Harbaugh is known to be speaking with to fill out the roster. "Those are the places you want to be at," Durkin said. "You want to be where the expectations are high. They understand that here. "We have the resources to go do it. Everyone is behind it. We have the most competitive guy in the world as the head coach. I think I'm right there behind him, so let's go do it." One of Durkin's resources will be Greg Jackson, the former San Fran- cisco 49ers defensive backs coach un- der Harbaugh. Jackson will now be in charge of Michigan's secondary. The 12-year NFL safety came to San Francisco after having spent eight years coaching in the collegiate ranks. In 2010, he was the nickel back/as- sistant linebackers coach for a Univer- sity of Wisconsin team that finished the year ranked seventh in the nation with an 11-2 record. " I ' m e x c i t e d , " J a c k s o n t o l d MGoBlue.com, "and I know the play- ers are. The first thing we always talk about is winning. And I know Coach Harbaugh is a winner. One of the rea- sons I wanted to come here is to fol- low him because I know he's going to win." New strength and conditioning coach Kevin Tolbert has been around Michigan and Harbaugh, so knows precisely what's expected. Tolbert worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Michigan un- der Lloyd Carr from 2001-07, and in a similar position for Harbaugh at Stan- ford in 2009. He became head strength-and-con- ditioning coach for the Cardinal in 2010 and assisted in the strength pro- gram for the 49ers in three years un- der Harbaugh. Tolbert feels like he's back home now.