ANN ARBOR, Mich. — It was a shock, even to this site, when we broke the news that Michigan defensive line coach Greg Mattison was leaving his longtime post in Ann Arbor to take the co-defensive coordinator job at arch-rival Ohio State. Though he had been back with the Wolverines since 2011, Mattison had left Michigan once before, for rival Notre Dame in 1997.

But leaving Ann Arbor for South Bend is one thing. Going to either East Lansing or Columbus is another entirely.

When it happened, it certainly caught Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh off-guard, but, at the same time, he’s not entirely taken aback, given the promotion he received.

“I wouldn’t say shocked – I was surprised, yeah,” Harbaugh said. “Coaching-wise, he wanted to be a coordinator again. Darn near doubled his salary, I’m not gonna hold that against him. We’re not gonna send each other Christmas cards, based off where he went. That’s how I feel and understand it.”

Mattison was originally hired back to be Michigan’s defensive coordinator when Brady Hoke took the lead job in 2011. Coming off a stint as the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in the NFL, where it maybe is both a little more surprising is that he joined Ohio State after Urban Meyer had departed the program — given that he was Meyer’s co-defensive coordinator at Florida before he joined John Harbaugh at the pro-level. But when Brady Hoke was fired by interim athletic director Jim Hackett, Jim Harbaugh opted to keep him on in Ann Arbor as the team’s defensive line coach.

For now, Jim and Greg are enemies, and will continue to be just that, until their coaching careers have come to an end. Like he said, Harbaugh holds no ill-will, but of course, he’s not going to go out of his way now to speak ot him, especially given his choice of destination.

“Still a good man,” Harbaugh said. “Still a ton of respect for him. We’ll be friends again someday when we’re both done coaching.”



While Ohio State also poached former Michigan linebackers coach Al Washington, that move made much more sense, given that Washington’s father was a prolific linebacker with the Buckeyes in his time, and also had a relationship with new OSU head coach Ryan Day, as both coached together at Boston College.

Mattison, however, has no particular affiliation to Day or the Buckeyes staff, save for Washington, who joined him in Columbus after the fact.