Michigan football staffer Dave Adolph dies at 79

Dave Adolph, a Michigan senior defensive football analyst, has passed away at the age of 79.

Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh on Sunday commemorated Adolph via Twitter: “We have lost one of the truly great ones. Coach Dave Adolph who brought joy to all he me and associated. ‘Do you love football?’”

Adolph, the defensive coordinator in four AFC championship games for three different teams, spent the last two seasons as Michigan’s senior defensive analyst. He had been Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator at the University of San Diego (2004-06).

His question that Harbaugh cited in his Tweet reportedly was the source for Jon Gruden’s book, “Do You Love Football?!” which he said to Gruden, then the new Raiders coach, after a tough loss on Sunday Night Football.

Adolph graduated from Akron in 1958 and was inducted into the Akron Athletics Hall of Fame in 1980.