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Jim Harbaugh hired Greg Frey as his new run game coordinator earlier this month.

(Melanie Maxwell | MLive.com)

ANN ARBOR -- Greg Frey knew just about everything there is to know about Michigan.

But outside of images on a television, he didn't know much about Jim Harbaugh.

Frey's first face-to-face interaction with Michigan's head coach came during his formal job interview earlier this month. Harbaugh was looking to tweak his coaching staff with a job opening. He sought out Frey, Indiana's offensive line coach/co-offensive coordinator.

And before he finished his initial pitch, Frey said he'd heard enough.

"I've been a big fan (of his) online. Listening to press conferences, seeing things he's done. Going to IMG last year, I didn't even know about Rome this year. But watching some of those things and seeing his approach toward student-athletes (I've) been a fan," Frey told WTKA-AM in Ann Arbor on Friday. "My process on deciding to take the job and come back was about 18 seconds into the conversation.

"He said 'I have a plan.' I said 'OK, I'm in, let's roll. I've seen your plans and I've seen them work.' "

Michigan made Frey's return to Ann Arbor official earlier this week, as the former Rich Rodriguez assistant coach will take over as Michigan's run game coordinator/tackles-tight ends coach next season.

He'll work with offensive coordinator/centers-guards coach Tim Drevno as Michigan rebuilds its offensive line and attempts to take its run game to another level.

Frey had what he considered to be a pretty good thing going at Indiana, where he had completely overhauled the Hoosiers' offensive line into one of the top units in the Big Ten over the past four seasons.

But he said his initial meeting with Harbaugh changed things for him. Citing Harbaugh's "enthusiasm" and "competitive" nature, Frey said Harbaugh basically made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

"It was going to have to take something special (for me to leave Indiana). And it did," he said. "And here I am."

How big of an impact Frey will have on Michigan's offense remains to be seen.

Michigan could begin to incorporate more zone blocking looks to its typically gap-heavy scheme in 2017, as Harbaugh has already reportedly told recruits he'd like the Wolverines' offense to feature more zone/spread looks moving forward.

Harbaugh's trademark power and counter plays are gap-schemed. Michigan has run inside and outside zone plays under Harbaugh, but not as many as Frey and Kevin Wilson ran at Indiana in an up-tempo offense.

Regardless of the ratio, though, Frey says he'll be ready to work with Drevno on anything.

"At Indiana, we had fullbacks, we had I-formations, we ran powers and lead sweeps. We had that incorporated," Frey said. "Obviously we didn't major in it like (Harbaugh) does with gap schemes and pulls and those type of things. I'm not real sure as far as the spread goes, we're going to coach whatever he tells us, we'll coach our butts off and we'll get it right.

"I think everybody wants to categorize things, but in reality it's football. You'll get 80 plays or so in a game and in those 80 plays you'll have to block people, take care of the football and make good decisions."

As far as the relationship with Drevno goes, Frey says he hasn't coached in a system that features two offensive line coaches. Drevno has, of course, as he and Greg Roman had a similar relationship during Harbaugh's time at Stanford.

Frey says he's looking forward to it.

"(Drevno's) an awesome guy, awesome," he said. "There are no egos. We talked about where we're trying to get to, what we're trying to do, believing in the team, believing in the program, believing in something bigger than you."