National Football League

Niners' assistant strength coach to join Jim Harbaugh at Michigan

Published Jan. 8, 2015 7:00 a.m. ET

Alex Marvez

The San Francisco 49ers' assistant strength coach is following former 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh to the University of Michigan.

A source told FOX Sports that Kevin Tolbert has signed to become the school's new strength coach.

Tolbert, 56, spent the past four years working under Harbaugh with the 49ers and the previous two at Stanford University. Tolbert was at Michigan from 2001 to 2007 before becoming the assistant strength coach with the Detroit Lions in 2008.

Tolbert worked under Mike Gittleson, who was one of the NCAA's most respected strength and conditioning coaches at Michigan for 30 years before his retirement following the 2007 season. Tolbert follows many of the same training philosophies with workouts designed to better protect players from injury as well as build functional strength for football.

Scout.com reported that 49ers assistant secondary coach Greg Jackson also will be joining Harbaugh's coaching staff.