Former Central Michigan head football coach, Michigan offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Mike DeBord died Tuesday from complications due to a stroke he suffered in 2021.

DeBord was 69.

His son, Tyler DeBord, announced his father’s death in a post on Facebook.

“The world lost a great man today,” Tyler DeBord wrote. “He taught me so much in life, I am so grateful the good Lord blessed me with the best dad! He was a man of faith, an unbelievable dad, husband, grandpa, and man! For all his successes in life, he always stuck to his small town roots and never forgot where he came from. He had a great sense of faith, work ethic, love for family, football, and life. His loss will be felt by many because of the impact he had on everyone he touched. He loved fiercely, and we loved him!”

DeBord, a native of Muncie, Ind., started four years on the offensive line at Manchester College where he was a captain in 1977. His coaching career began in 1982.

He made stops at Eastern Illinois, Ball State, Colorado State and Northwestern before joining Lloyd Carr’s staff at Michigan. DeBord was the Wolverines’ offensive line coach from 1993-1996, then became the offensive coordinator from 1997, when he helped lead the program to an unbeaten season and the AP national championship, through 1999. He left Michigan to become head coach of Central Michigan from 2000-2003.

“It is with deep sadness that we learned of the passing of Mike DeBord, a respected leader and valued figure in Central Michigan football history,” Central Michigan head football coach Matt Drinkall said in a statement to The Detroit News. “You still hear stories from his former players about the impact he made on their lives and our community. His legacy as a coach, person and mentor will forever be remembered.”

DeBord returned to Michigan in 2004 and was on the staff through 2007 when Carr retired.

Jon Jansen, a two-time captain and integral part of the national title team, was close with DeBord, who coached him at Michigan. Jansen, now the analyst on Michigan football radio broadcasts and a radio host in Detroit on The Ticket 97.1 FM, also was a frequent visitor at CMU when DeBord was head coach and would speak to the team.

“Mike was one of the great leaders,” Jansen told The Detroit News on Tuesday. “He cared about you as a player and 100% attribute a ton of my success and my life to the energy he put into me. He was just like everybody on Lloyd’s staff — he was such a good man and cared about you as an individual, whether it was going to class, making the right decisions. He was somebody that was always there no matter the situation.

“He was one of the best men I have ever known.”

After Carr’s retirement, DeBord then coached in the NFL at Seattle and Chicago and in 2013 returned to Michigan as sports administrator for Michigan’s Olympic teams. He went back to college coaching at Tennessee in 2015 and then Indiana in 2017 where he was associate head coach and offensive coordinator. He retired briefly from coaching and returned to help coach the San Diego Fleet.

In 2020, he was hired by former Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh as an offensive analyst at Michigan.

“Football, to me, coaching football’s an addiction,” DeBord told The Detroit News in 2020. “You’ve got to be addicted to it.”

He was explaining why he couldn’t stay retired and away from the game.

“I always loved the meetings and the coaching on the field — that’s why you coach,” DeBord said as he discussed why he returned to be an analyst. “I would say this is taking care of a part of me. I told Jim when I came to talk to him, ‘I love Michigan. I love Michigan football.’”

After a year as a Michigan analyst, DeBord was named offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at Kansas in the February 2021. He suffered the stroke later that year. Deb DeBord, his wife, died last June from cancer.

Tyler DeBord said in his post that funeral arrangements are pending.

ANN ARBOR — If it’s true a positive performance in a bowl game can be a springboard into the next season, then Michigan’s defensive players must be feeling pretty good.

Defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, entering his second season with the Wolverines, certainly is upbeat about his group as the team opened spring practice Tuesday. Michigan finished last season, highlighted by strong defensive performances, with three straight wins. They included a 13-10 upset at Ohio State and then a 19-13 upset of Alabama in the bowl game in which starters Mason Graham, Kenneth Grant, Josaiah Stewart, Makari Paige and Will Johnson did not play.

In the final four games, starting at Indiana, Michigan allowed an average 48.7 yards rushing, 172.5 passing and 221.2 total yards. The Wolverines gave up an average 12.2 points. For the season, the defense ranked No. 5 against the run (90.7), 10th in total defense (307.0), 19th in scoring (19.9) and 63rd against the pass (216.3).

“It gave people excitement,” Martindale said Monday of Michigan’s late-season defensive surge and what it means for this fall. “There wasn’t anybody banging on the door saying they wanted to transfer. They’re excited about this season and where we’re going with it.”

Michigan will be without defensive standouts like Graham and Johnson, projected first-round NFL Draft picks next month, and Martindale and his staff are tasked with replacing that talent. The bowl game offered some evidence what this defense could look like this fall — the Michigan players at the recent NFL Scouting Combine all pointed to edge Derrick Moore as the one they think will be a standout — but the Wolverines made some significant additions in the offseason. They signed tackles Tre Williams and Damon Payne from the transfer portal, and Martindale likes the experiene they bring to the room.

Still, he cautioned that while the outlook is good, this is a work in progress, and the work begins during spring football practices.

“It’s just not like something that happens overnight,” Martindale said. “We’ve been trying to replace them through recruiting and the development of the other guys. We did a nice job in the portal with the two veteran tackles that we got in here, so it’s gonna be interesting to see how it all works out. But also, I feel really confident in the depth that we have in that room. I feel more confident now than I did last year at this time with the depth, just starting off initially.”

Martindale several times mentioned how pleased he is with the depth on defense. It also will benefit from the consistency of having him back for a second straight season. Martindale came to Michigan before the 2024 season after 20 seasons in the NFL, and he did interview for two NFL coordinator positions this offseason.

He’s ready for a second season at Michigan, though, and said he feels more comfortable and is used to life in Ann Arbor. Martindale also said having the same coordinator for a second straight season should not be undervalued. He is the architect of the defense from the Baltimore Ravens that Mike Macdonald installed at Michigan in 2021 and Jesse Minter built on in 2022 and 2023. Macdonald and Minter were on the Ravens staff with Martindale, so there is continuity on defense.

“These kids are more resilient than anybody realizes, the way this thing goes with people going in the portal and coming out of the portal and all the other movement in college football and the NFL,” Martindale said. “Every year is a new year, and they’re excited and ready to go. There is comfort that I was here last year and all the staff’s back, so it’ll help us.”

What hasn’t changed is Martindale’s feistiness when he’s asked about the perception that he blitzes too much. That has been a criticism that followed him from the NFL, and it irks him.

“It’s like big-time wrestling. You throw something out there and it catches on social media,” Martindale said. “I know that you guys (in the media) all have a job to do, and everybody has an opinion. It was just like when we played Ohio State compared to Alabama, it was two different game plans. That’s what I was proud of. Not that it was two different game plans was I proud of it, but the execution of the two different game plans. Ohio State, the guys executed the game plan and they played physical with it.

“And so, the scheme is the scheme. It’s the same scheme for the last three years. Do I take pride in it? Did I let both Jesse and Mike know that we held Ohio State to 10 points and they didn’t? Yes, of course I did. But we’ll see what we can do with what we have. It’s new people. It’s a new year. It’s the same thing I said before last year — it’s going to be different. Don’t know how it’s going to be different, but it’s going to be different, and we’ll see how we adjust during the season and starting with spring ball here. I’m really excited about that, seeing the guys compete.”