It seems Bill Sheridan just can’t stay away from Michigan, his home state.

New Lions coach Jim Caldwell has hired Sheridan, most recently the defensive coordinator in Tampa Bay, as the linebackers coach. 

Sheridan grew up in Detroit where he attended De La Salle. He went to college across the state at Grand Valley State.

His first coaching job was at Royal Oak Shrine from 1981-84. And, oddly enough, while there he coached Lions team president Tom Lewand, according to Tim Twentyman of DetroitLions.com.

“He’s a Michigan guy, you know, but a guy who I think can really give us some balance,’’ Caldwell said. “We have some experience and we have some guys that maybe can give us an opportunity to kind of work in concert with some of our youthful exuberance.”

Sheridan served the last two seasons with the Bucs where he helped develop linebacker Lavonte David and defensive tackle Gerald McCoy. He also helped the Bucs’ run defense go from last to first in the NFL between 2011 and 2012.

Obviously his experience as a defensive coordinator was a plus.

“Well, you know, I think what it does is anytime you have extensive amount of experience in this league, it’s worth its weight in gold,’’ Caldwell said. “It’s not absolute because, you know, I came from the college ranks and had no experience in this league and coached the quarterbacks at Tampa and it didn’t bother Tony (Dungy) at all during that time. So, you know, I just think it depends on the person.

“But yeah, it does lend you to believe he’s seen every team probably in the league, understands most concepts that he’s going to see, how to defend them and things of that nature. So yeah, I certainly do feel good about his experience,’’ Caldwell added.

Sheridan was linebackers coach for the New York Giants (2005-08) and Miami Dolphins (2010-11) and also the Giants defensive coordinator in 2009. He won a Super Bowl XLII ring with the Giants when they beat New England.

Sheridan has also had a couple stints at Michigan. First as a graduate assistant (1985-86) and then under Lloyd Carr (2002-04) as linebackers and defensive line coach. He also coached at Michigan State (1998-2000).

Sheridan’s son Nick was a Michigan quarterback (2006-2009) and is currently quarterbacks coach at the University of South Florida.

The Lions also announced on Friday that Caldwell would retain eight coaches from Jim Schwartz's staff.

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