When Josh Heupel formed his initial staff with Tennessee football after being hired, he tabbed Brian Jean-Mary as the team’s linebackers coach. However, following the 2023 season, Jean-Mary departed from the program for an opening at Michigan.
With Wolverines head coach Sherrone Moore fired for cause this off-season and Kyle Whittingham hired as his replacement, Jean-Mary is back on the market to be hired elsewhere. According to a report from Pete Nakos on Sunday, he has emerged as the ‘top target’ to be named the new linebackers coach at Georgia Tech.
That’d put him not just in close proximity to his former school, Tennessee, in recruiting battles, but also on the actual playing field. This upcoming season, the Vols will travel to Atlanta to play the Yellow Jackets. The following season, Georgia Tech returns the trip and will come to Neyland Stadium.
Kick-off for the 2026 bout is scheduled for Sept. 12 at Bobby Dodd Stadium. It is the second game on the schedule for Tennessee after opening up the year at home against Furman the week prior. A start time and TV designation will be announced at a later date.
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Jean-Mary served as the defensive run-game coordinator with Michigan during his tenure. His departure from Tennessee for the job was a return to the program. Before Heupel hired him, he was the linebackers coach for the Wolverines in 2020.
Before that, Jean-Mary was the assistant head coach, defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at USF from 2017-19. He earned that role after spending 2015-17 with Texas as the linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator and 2010-13 at Louisville as the assistant head coach and linebackers coach.
If he does take the job at Georgia Tech, he’d have some prior familiarity, though it’s a new staff. He coached for the Yellow Jackets as the linebackers coach from 2004-09. Other stops in his career include North Alabama as the secondary coach and as a graduate assistant at Louisville and South Carolina.
He played his college football at Appalachian State and is from Apopka, Florida.
