Not even a year into his role at Michigan, safeties coach Bob Shoop has not been with the program for over a month, a bizarre story that seemingly has more questions than answers at this point.

Reports over this weekend out of Ann Arbor says that Shoop has not been with the program for the past six weeks. This comes after the Wolverines lost 27-24 to in-state rival Michigan State on Saturday afternoon.

According to a statement from Michigan, Shoop is still with the program but is not actively around the team.

“Bob Shoop is not working with the team in an on-field coaching capacity at this time,” said David Ablauf, Associate Athletic Director, Public and Media Relations at Michigan in a statement to the Detroit Free Press.

“He is performing team-related duties remotely. In consideration of his privacy interests, we will have no further comment.”

In his place, special teams/defensive analyst Aashon Larkins will take over coaching the safeties. Larkins joined the program this offseason, coming from FCS program Bethune-Cookman where he was the special teams coordinator and the recruiting coordinator.

Shoop is in his first year as Michigan’s safeties coach, coming from Mississippi State where he had spent the previous two seasons as their defensive coordinator. Prior to that, he had stints at Tennessee and in the Big Ten at Penn State as a defensive coordinator as well.

Known for being a teacher and a technique-driven coach, Shoop replaced Chris Partridge, who left to become co-defensive coordinator at Ole Miss. Partridge was known as one of the top recruiters in college football.