Mississippi State Signee Comments On Bob Shoop

Michigan recently announced the hiring of former Mississippi State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop as its new safeties coach. The university released some background information on Shoop and also listed some of his accomplishments.

A two-time Broyles Award finalist, Bob Shoop comes to Ann Arbor with more than 30 years of coaching experience, including the last two seasons as defensive coordinator at Mississippi State.

Recently, Shoop has coordinated units to top-25 total defense rankings six times in the last nine seasons. He was named 2018 FootballScoop Defensive Coordinator of the Year and 2014 247Sports' Defensive Coordinator of the Year. He was FootballScoop's FCS Defensive Coordinator of the Year in 2009 while at William and Mary, and was also a finalist for the Broyles Award that season.

His defenses and secondaries are aggressive, disciplined, playmaking units that create turnovers and limit big plays.

Batesville (Miss.) South Panola three-star safety Janari Dean signed with Mississippi State in December thinking he'd play for Shoop but that's obviously not going to happen now. Even with that, Dean still had great things to say about Michigan's new safeties coach.

"I have the utmost respect for Coach Shoop," Dean said. "He's a very great and intelligent guy."

Dean mentioned how smart Shoop seems almost immediately when asked to describe the veteran coach and gave some insight as to why he views him that way.

"Not just anyone graduates from Yale," Dean said. "When you sit down and have a conversation with him you can see that he is very smart. He's a really outgoing guy too."

Even though Dean isn't going to play for Shoop, he got a chance to see what he's like as a coach, and that was a major reason he chose the Bulldogs.

"I went through a film session with him and I also worked out for him once," Dean said. "He's a very demanding coach. I loved that about him."

Dean also explained what Shoop seems to look for in his safeties. After all, he would know.

"He said he liked my versatility and my attitude," Dean explained. "He really likes his safeties to be able to do it all. He likes them to be very versatile."

Shoop is from Pennsylvania and played wide receiver at Yale where he earned his bachelor’s degree in economics. It'll be interesting to see how he fits in schematically with a guy like Don Brown and also as a recruiter with U-M's staff. Based on what Dean said, the fit should be just fine.

How do you feel about the Shoop hire? How do you think he'll do with the talented safeties? Comment below!!!