Report: Michigan hiring Maryland assistant to coach safeties

The work continues for the Michigan Wolverines in putting together Jim Harbaugh’s coaching staff for the 2021 season. Now that defensive Mike Macdonald is locked in, the rest of the assistants on that side of the ball are starting to come into focus. Adam Rittenberg of ESPN says that Maryland special teams coordinator and inside linebackers coach George Helow will be leaping Michigan to coach the safeties.

Helow, 34, played for Ed Orgeron and Houston Nutt at Ole Miss from 2006-10, spent last season at Maryland in that post but has spent time on staffs with Nick Saban, Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher, Mark Richt, and more.

He broke into coaching in 2012 on Saban’s staff at Alabama working as an intern in the strength and conditioning program before joining Fisher’s staff at Florida State as a defensive graduate assistant. Helow helped coach the safeties at Georgia as a grad assistant from 2014-15 before moving on to Colorado State. He spent four seasons there, which saw him elevated to safeties coach in 2018-19.

Helow is another young and rising name to join Harbaugh’s staff as it undergoes an overhaul on defense. Reports from earlier in the week indicated that they are still working on a deal for Christian Robinson to coach the linebackers, but things are very much still in the air. The fates of Shaun Nua and Brian Jean-Mary, who have been coaching the defensive line and linebackers, respectively, are still unclear as well.