James Herrmann (born December 8, 1960) is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

coach and former player. He is currently head coach of the

Raiders Tirol The Raiders Tirol (for the AFL-Teams SWARCO Raiders Tirol, formerly Papa Joe's Tyrolean Raiders) are an American football team based in Innsbruck, Austria. Founded in 1992, the Raiders since have become one of Austria's and Europe's most domina ...

in the

European League of Football The European League of Football (ELF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football sports league, league based in Europe, continuing some team names and logos of the former NFL Europe. The ELF played its first season in 2 ...

. Prior to that, he was

linebackers coach In American football, a position coach is a team official in charge of coaching a specific position group. Position coaches have more specialized duties than the head coach, associate and assistant coach, and the offensive and defensive coordina ...

for the

Indianapolis Colts The Indianapolis Colts are a professional American football team based in Indianapolis. The Colts compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC South, South division. Since the 2008 India ...

of the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

(NFL) and the

Bowling Green Falcons football The Bowling Green Falcons football program is the intercollegiate College football, football team of Bowling Green State University. The team is a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, playing at the NCAA Division I, Divi ...

team. He played

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

at the

University of Michigan The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public university, public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Mi ...

from 1980 to 1982 and served as an assistant football coach at Michigan from 1985 to 2005, including nine years as

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator (DC) is a coach responsible for a gridiron football team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's coaching structure, wit ...

from 1997 to 2005. After the

1997 Michigan Wolverines football team The 1997 Michigan Wolverines football team represented the University of Michigan in the 1997 Big Ten Conference football season. In its third year under head coach Lloyd Carr, Michigan compiled a perfect 12–0 record, won the Big Ten Conferenc ...

won the national championship, Herrmann received the Frank Broyles Award as the top assistant coach in the nation. He also served as the

New York Jets The New York Jets are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Jets compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The team p ...

' linebackers coach from 2006 to 2008. He was Defensive Coordinator for the

New York Guardians New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

and for the

San Antonio Brahmas The San Antonio Brahmas are a professional American football team based in San Antonio, Texas. The Brahmas compete in the United Football League (UFL) as a member of the XFL Conference. The team is owned and operated by Dwayne Johnson's Alpha ...

of the XFL.

Early life

Herrmann was born in 1960 and raised in

Dearborn Heights, Michigan Dearborn Heights is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An inner-ring suburb of Detroit, Dearborn Heights is located about west of downtown Detroit. The city shares a small border with Detroit, and is considered a bedroom c ...

. He attended

Divine Child High School Divine Child High School, commonly known as Divine Child (DC), is a private school, private, Roman Catholic, college-preparatory, parochial school, parochial high school in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. Divine Child is a highly ranked priva ...

in Dearborn. He played

defensive end Defensive end (DE) is a defensive position in the sport of gridiron football. This position has designated the players at each end of the defensive line, but changes in formation (American football), formations over the years have substantially ...

for Divine Child football team.

Playing career

Herrmann enrolled at the

in 1979 and played

as an

inside linebacker Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and typically line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and so back up the defensive linemen. They play closer to the lin ...

for head coach

Bo Schembechler Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American college football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the Univers ...

Michigan Wolverines football The Michigan Wolverines football team represents the University of Michigan in college football at the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision level. Michigan has the List of NCAA football teams by wins, most all-time wins in college football ...

teams from 1980 to 1982. He started one game at inside linebacker for the 1980 Michigan team, but was otherwise a backup to Andy Cannavino, Paul Girgash, and Mike Boren. In three years at Michigan, Herrmann compiled 65 tackles and three pass breakups.

Coaching career

In 1985, Herrmann returned to the University of Michigan as an assistant football coach. He was promoted to the status of a full-time assistant coach at age 29 in December 1989. His responsibilities included linebackers and special teams. In December 1996, following the departure of

Greg Mattison Greg Mattison (born November 15, 1949) is a former American football coach, and former player. He spent most of his career in college football as a defensive coach. Mattison coached at Michigan for eleven years, at Notre Dame for seven years, ...

, Herrmann took over as Michigan's

. In December 1997, after Michigan completed an undefeated season ranked #1 in the AP Poll, and having led the nation in total yards, scoring and pass efficiency, Herrmann won the Frank Broyles Award as the year's top assistant college football coach. In 2004, the Michigan defense gave up 279 points (23.2 points per game), including 75 points in losses to Ohio State and Texas in the final two games. Criticism of Herrman grew during the 2005 season and became even more heated as Michigan lost five games, compiled its worst record in 21 years, and gave up 244 points in 2005 (20.3 points per game). In February 2006, Herrmann left Michigan to accept a position as linebackers coach with the

. ''

The Michigan Daily ''The Michigan Daily'', also known as "''The Daily''", is the independent student newspaper of the University of Michigan published in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Established on September 29, 1890, the newspaper is financially and editorially independe ...

'' reported at the time that it was not clear whether "Herrmann chose to leave or fled before ecould be fired or demoted." Herrmann served as the linebacker coach for the

from 2006 to 2008. In January 2009, he was hired as the linebackers coach for the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the National Football Conference (NFC) NFC East, East division. The ...

. On January 14, 2016, Herrmann was hired as the linebackers coach for the

. In February 2019, he was named associate head coach and linebackers coach for

Bowling Green A bowling green is a finely laid, close-mown and rolled stretch of turf for playing the game of bowls. Before 1830, when Edwin Beard Budding of Thrupp, near Stroud, UK, invented the lawnmower, lawns were often kept cropped by grazing sheep ...

, but instead joined the

of the XFL as defensive coordinator. Herrmann was officially hired by the

on September 13, 2022

Personal life

Herrmann is married to May Chamoun. Jim has three children: Jessica, Cory, and Timothy. May has one daughter: Christine

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Herrmann, Jim 1960 births Living people American football linebackers Bowling Green Falcons football coaches Indianapolis Colts coaches Michigan Wolverines football coaches Michigan Wolverines football players New York Giants coaches New York Guardians coaches New York Jets coaches San Antonio Brahmas coaches People from Hollywood, Los Angeles Players of American football from Los Angeles Players of American football from Dearborn, Michigan Coaches of American football from California Coaches of American football from Michigan