Once Glenn Schumann got his foot in the door at Alabama’s football program, his behind-the-scenes work starting as an 18-year old gave him the foundation to land a full-time coaching gig when Kirby Smart left to run his own program at Georgia.
“I was there eight years and did a little bit of everything,” Schumann said.
Georgia’s second-year inside linebackers coach has a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in sports management from Alabama where he honed his coaching chops working first as an undergraduate analyst, then as a graduate assistant before moving to director of player development/associate director of player personnel.
“I’ve been fortunate enough, despite being a young guy, to be associated with a lot of really good teams,” Schumann said. “You learn that each season that is successful how much more special it is for the guys that get to do it. …They’re the ones putting in all the work, they’re the ones earning it on the field.”
Schumann’s past meets its present on Monday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium when Alabama and Georgia play for the national championship.
When Smart landed the Georgia job, his first hire was Schumann.
“He’s been a part of the process over there,” Smart said after the head coach’s introductory news conference. “Really knows the process and understands what I want. Really been my right-hand man for four or five years over there.”
Schumann followed his parents’ path into college athletics.
His mother, Dr. Sherry Schumann, was athletic director at Collin County Community College in McKinney, Texas. His father Eric was a safety at Alabama under Bear Bryant from 1973-77 and was a college defensive coordinator with coaching stops at eight different schools, including UAB, Tulane, SMU and Valdosta State in the South Georgia city where Glenn Schumann was born.
That was 27 years ago, which makes Schumann among the youngest assistant coaches at a Power Five school. Schumann is four years older than a player he coaches, Reggie Carter, who started for Georgia in the Rose Bowl, but he said older coaches on staff relate well to players, too.
“I don’t think it’s age-driven,” Schumann said. “It’s driven by how much the players know you’re invested in them.”
Channing Tindall, an inside linebacker from Columbia, S.C., who signed with Georgia in the early period last month, said he was “iffy a little bit,” on Schumann’s pedigree because he wasn’t a full-time coach until 2016. That changed when he went to a Georgia camp.
“After getting one-on-one time with him over the summer, I just really built up a great relationship with him,” Tindall said. “He helped me more than any coach had in that little portion of time at linebacker. That’s what really made me have a great interest for Georgia.”
The pitch back in 2008 to then defensive coordinator Smart was that Glenn Schumann came from a coaching family and was willing to work for free at Alabama. Smart knew Eric Schumann from the coaching ranks,.
“He gave me a little bit of responsibility and I’m fortunate enough that he continued to add to that over the years,” Schumann said.
Schumann was a part of Alabama’s sizable support staff under Nick Saban when the Crimson Tide won four national championships.
“Oh, he did a great job,” Saban said this week. “Schu is a really bright guy, learned very quickly and made a great contribution in terms of his input, his knowledge, his work ethic. And I know even though he wasn’t allowed to coach players, they all had a tremendous amount of respect for him, as well.”
Schumann made a list of college football’s rising stars under 30 by 247Sports.
“I think he’s a guru, man,” Georgia star linebacker Roquan Smith said in 2016. “He’s very smart and knows his stuff like the back of his hand.”
