Meet Bob Shoop: A defensive guru and a wrassler's dad

Michigan football reportedly added Mississippi State defensive coordinator Bob Shoop to its defensive staff on Thursday, in a move that could bolster the Wolverines' success in the defensive backfield but does nothing to fill their void in recruiting.  

Shoop, known for his work with defensive backs, became a prominent coordinator under James Franklin at Vanderbilt. From there, he followed Franklin to Penn State, struggled through two years at Tennessee and fielded one of the best defenses in program history at Mississippi State.

In 2006, he was Don Brown's defensive backs coach at UMass (he also was a graduate assistant at Yale in 1989, during Brown's tenure). 

With Brown his boss again, Shoop can help boost a defense that was gashed by both Ohio State and Alabama to end the season. 

Here's what to know about Shoop:

Pass-defense specialist

It's unclear whether Shoop will coach safeties at Michigan in place of Chris Partridge, the former U-M safeties/special teams coordinator who was hired as an assistant coach at Ole Miss two weeks ago. But it would make sense.

Shoop doubled as a safeties coach during his defensive coordinator stints at Mississippi State (2018-19), Penn State (2014-15) and Vanderbilt (2011-13). He didn't coach a position group at Tennessee (2016-17).

The results were mostly positive. He has fielded a top-25 pass defense seven times since 2011, according to sports-reference.com, with three units cracking the top 10 in fewest passing yards allowed per game. Even at Tennessee, where the Vols were among the worst in the country against the run, his 2017 defense finished third in the nation against the pass. 

Michigan has been among the best in the country defending the pass under Brown, who took over as coordinator after the 2015 season. Only once in that span has U-M's defense ranked outside the top 3 — it finished 10th in 2019. U-M led the nation in 2016 and 2017. 

Recruiting

Michigan needed a prolific recruiter to replace Partridge and Anthony Campanile, who was hired by the Miami Dolphins on Wednesday, it's doubtful Shoop will fill that void.

Shoop ranked 430th for the 2020 class in the 247Sports Composite recruiter rankings, which measures a coach's recruiting ability by the number of recruits signed and the quality of each recruit. He wasn't ranked in the top 600 for 2019.

So while Shoop has ties to talent-rich Pennsylvania, Nashville and Mississippi, it's likely he'll make his biggest impact in player development. 

His son is a ... pro wrassler 

Tyler Shoop, one of Bob Shoop's sons, is a pro wrestler (err, wrassler). After walking on as a wide receiver at Penn State, he made his pro wrestling debut in November in rural East Tennessee. 

“Guys who know me on the team knew that even when I was playing football, I loved pro wrestling more than that,” Tyler Shoop told Onward State, Penn State's student blog. “If you gave me the opportunity to be in the NFL or be in the WWE, I would choose the WWE every day of the week.”

Shoop plays an antagonist for 127 Pro Wrestling, based in Grimsley, Tennessee. 

Chris Thomas is the sports editor at the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at cdthomas@freepress.com or follow him on Twitter @bychristhomas.