Kerry Coombs says Michigan 'one of my favorite staffs of all time'

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ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Kerry Coombs has been around the block when it comes to working with some premier coaching talent.

From 2007-09, he coached under Brian Kelly at Cincinnati. When Kelly left for Notre Dame, Coombs remained with the Bearcats, coaching under Butch Jones. In 2012, he was hired by Urban Meyer to be the Ohio State cornerbacks coach, and added special teams coordinator to his roles the following year. He then departed for the NFL, coaching under Mike Vrabel at the Tennessee Titans for two years before returning to Columbus to be the Buckeyes' defensive coordinator under Ryan Day. When he was ousted in favor of Jim Knowles, he landed in Cincinnati, where he coached first under Luke Fickell and then Scott Satterfield.

So, Coombs has worked with some of the top coaches in college football who have had some of the best staffs. He's won a national championship with OSU, and has been in the NFL. Thus, when he says that he is really big proponent of Kyle Whittingham and the team he's assembled in Ann Arbor, it's speaking with knowledge of what can be.

"I think that Coach Whittingham — you guys will learn this: he does things exactly the way you should," Coombs said. "Everything that I believe in about the game of football and the way it should be coached is the way he does it. 

"He informed us right away the day that he got hired that he had been at Utah for 31 years, 20-some odd as the head coach. He was going to take full advantage of those guys that he was comfortable with. He did not want us hanging by a thread with false hope. I appreciate that. I've been in this long enough now to know that there's a lot of stuff that happens in this business. I'm grateful to him.

"I'll be honest with you. The staff of men that have come into the building are phenomenal. One of my favorite staffs of all time to work with. I'm really enjoying them and the way they work. I'm excited about that."

Coombs has one game under his belt wearing maize and blue after having spent eight years in Columbus, and he's getting well acclimated to his new digs. And likewise, he's taking full advantage of being at the same tier as Ohio State, noting that the talent that he's looking to bring in is second-to-none.

"We're looking for the best in the country," Coombs said. "This is Michigan. We are looking for the best punter, the best kicker, the best long snapper in the country. Every day, always. If you walk in my office, the top of the board for my staff and everybody else is 'recruit the best in the country.' So when we're looking in the portal, or we're looking at high school, that's who we're looking for.

"I think we have kids that potentially could be that. We've had a great tradition of kickers here and punters, and so our job is to make sure that tradition continues. You win games with those guys. So I'm very excited about the guys that we brought in."

Coombs already has a five-star kicker pledged in Ryan Jung (who is battling having been ruled ineligible after transferring to Milton, Georgia from IMG Academy), who is the top-rated kicker in the country according to Kohl's Kicking. Additionally, Coombs showed his prowess in coaching, having turned around special teams in just one month, as the unit was among the worst in college football, but forced a turnover and had several positive returns against Texas in the Cheez-It Citrus Bowl.

This article originally appeared on Wolverines Wire: Kerry Coombs says Michigan 'one of my favorite staffs of all time'

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