The college football coach carousel has slowed down quite a bit over the past couple of weeks with most jobs locked in with national signing day right around the corner. While the head coaching hires get the majority of the attention every year the reality is that the assistant coaches and coordinators on every staff have a tremendous impact as well and it often isn’t appreciated enough. Here is a quick breakdown of the new assistant hires in the ACC.
Manny Diaz, Miami Hurricanes
Defensive Coordinator
Miami completely revamped its coaching staff this offseason and while a lot of the focus remained on Mark Richt the assistants he hired deserve a lot more attention starting with Diaz as the Hurricanes’ new defensive coordinator. Diaz is a terrific recruiter that will help tremendously when it comes to attracting talent as well as shoring up the Miami defense. Meanwhile, the Hurricanes pulled off an absolute coup bringing in Craig Kuligowski to coach the defensive line, Mike Rumph to coach the cornerbacks and Ephraim Banda to coach the safeties. Kuligowski is considered one of the best defensive line coaches in the country and it’s scary to think about what he will be able to coaching up top recruits at Miami. Meanwhile, Banda has quickly worked his way up the ranks of assistants and is considered an excellent defensive backs coach who will work in tandem with Banda to shore up a secondary that gave up way too many big plays last season. Everything appeared to go right for the Hurricanes this offseason and it will be very interesting to see how things come together for them once the NFL season begins.
Jim Reid, Boston College Eagles
Defensive Coordinator
Reid has served as the defensive coordinator at Boston College before but this time around he will have much bigger shoes to fill in replacing Don Brown. Brown did a tremendous job for the Eagles last season. Boston College is typically a team that’s lacking talent/quality recruits/doing the most with what they have, which is what made the job that Brown did last season that much more impressive. That’s why Michigan came after him and hired him away.
Reid understands what it will take to excel on that side of the football and his ability to coach up the linebackers in particular will stand out. The Eagles were in tough to find a replacement for an excellent coordinator in Brown and while it’s impossible to call Reid an upgrade he is a quality hire that should ease the transition as much as possible.
Brian Ward, Syracuse Orange
Defensive Coordinator
Another one of the notable assistant hires in the ACC was Ward moving to Syracuse. Ward did a tremendous job in the same role for Bowling Green so it was no surprise to see him follow in the footsteps of Dino Babers and make the move to the ACC. Ward’s defense did an excellent job considering the pressure that Babers’ offenses put on them with the Falcons and he seems like an obvious strong fit as he takes on the defensive coordinator job at Bowling Green.
Nick Howell, Virginia Cavaliers
Defensive Coordinator
Virginia is another team that went through some major changes with Howell taking over as the defensive coordinator while Ruffin McNeil arrives from East Carolina to serve as the assistant coach and inside linebacker coach. Howell brought Kelly Poppinga and Shane Hunter with him from BYU so Poppinga will work with the outside linebackers while Hunter is in charge of the defensive line. The familiarity should help the transition and it looks at least on paper as if Virginia has done an excellent job setting up their coaching staff for the defensive side of the football.
Keith Hayward, Louisville Cardinals
Defensive Backs Coach
Heyward will transition from the west coast at USC to handling the defensive backs at Louisville next season and based on his solid track record there is every reason to expect him to succeed. Heyward is an outstanding recruiter that should be able to help attract defensive back prospects while maximizing the potential of the players on his roster so the Cardinals earn an excellent grade for getting him to make the move.
