Decided to take a look back at the previous coaching rosters over the past few years just to give us a comparison picture for the staff currently taking shape.
Why? because I'm a colossal football nerd...and perhaps a bit of a masochist
Starting with the original 2020 group…
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Offensive Coordinator: Joe Brady
Quarterback Coach: Jake Peetz
Assistant Quarterback Coach: Matt Lombardi
Runningbacks Coach: Jeff Nixon
Receivers Coach: Frisman Jackson
Tight Ends Coach: Brian Angelichio
Offensive Line Coach: Pat Meyer
Assistant Offensive Line Coach: Marcus Satterfield
Defensive Coordinator: Phil Snow
Defensive Line Coach: Mike Phair
Assistant Defensive Line Coach: Frank Okam
Defensive Run Game Coordinator: Al Holcomb
Linebackers Coach: Mike Siravo
Defensive Pass Game Coordinator: Jason Simmons
Cornerbacks Coach: Evan Cooper
Special Teams Coordinator: Chase Blackburn
Assistant Special Teams Coach: Ed Foley
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Jeremy Scott
Strength and Conditioning Assistant: Thomas Barbeau
Strength and Conditioning Assistant: Gus Felder
Head Athletic Trainer: Kevin King
Coaching Assistant: EJ Barthel
Coaching Assistant: DJ Mangas
Coaching Assistant: Grant Udinski
Coaching Assistant: Cedric Whitaker
Assistant to the Head Coach: Matthew Delgado
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So this is how we started off under Rhule. As far as NFL experience, the leader was DRGC Al Holcomb with 11 years (5 of them with the Panthers). Right behind him was RB Coach Jeff Nixon with 10 years, DB Coach Jason Simmons and DL Coach Mike Phair with 9 each. TE Coach Brian Angelichio and OL Coach Pat Meyer both had 7, QB Coach Jake Peetz had 5, DC Phil Snow and ST guy Chase Blackburn had 4 (all with the Panthers, plus his playing days) and bringing up the rear was OC Joe Brady with 2 and WR Coach Frisman Jackson with just 1.
So yeah, one, honestly two, of the least experienced guys had top spots on the staff. Hell, if you put all three coordinators together you had only 10 years of NFL coaching, and that’s behind a head coach with only 1 (as basically an assistant to an assistant).
Looking back now, it was kinda sketchy overall, but in general we were willing to give it a chance (especially after that first season turned out better than most of us expected).
Moving on to 2021…
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Offensive Coordinator: Joe Brady
Quarterback Coach: Sean Ryan
Assistant Quarterback Coach: Matt Lombardi
Runningbacks Coach: Jeff Nixon
Receivers Coach: Frisman Jackson
Tight Ends Coach: Brian Angelichio
Offensive Line Coach: Pat Meyer
Assistant Offensive Line Coach: Tony Sparano Jr
Defensive Coordinator: Phil Snow
Defensive Line Coach: Frank Okam
Defensive Run Game Coordinator: Al Holcomb
Linebackers Coach: Mike Siravo
Defensive Pass Game Coordinator: Jason Simmons
Cornerbacks Coach: Evan Cooper
Defensive Analyst: Kevin M Gilbride
Special Teams Coordinator: Chase Blackburn
Assistant Special Teams Coach: Ed Foley
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Jeremy Scott
Strength and Conditioning Assistant: Thomas Barbeau
Head Athletic Trainer: Kevin King
Coaching Assistant: EJ Barthel
Coaching Assistant: Grant Udinski
Coaching Assistant: Cedric Whitaker
Assistant to the Head Coach: Matthew Delgado
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Chronicling the changes: Jake Peetz and Marcus Satterfield took college jobs at LSU and South Carolina respectively. Peetz was replaced with Sean Ryan, a guy who’d been speculated to be Rhule’s first choice at OC. Rhule fired DL Coach Mike Phair with a dismissive statement along the lines of “he didn’t do things the way we do” (an early indication of his “OOU” philosophy) which turned out to be the beginning of a pattern. Beyond that, not a whole lot of differences other than a few lower level assistants.
In general, we took the demand for guys like Peetz and Satterfield as a good sign and the hiring of Ryan felt like an upgrade. Phair was kind of an enigma but in general we didn’t think much of it because year one had seemed like an overachieving season.
And then of course, it all started to go wrong...
Brady was fired in the middle of the 2021 season (replaced on an interim basis by Jeff Nixon) and people were calling for Rhule’s head as well. Rhule survived to at least start the next season which included some larger staffing changes than the prior year. some of which were rumored to have been mandated (won’t address that here as it’s another discussion). But still, there was hope for some that "season three was the charm" because that had been Rhule's usual MO at the college level.
The 2022 staff for the beginning of Rhule's third (and thankfully final) season…
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Offensive Coordinator: Ben McAdoo
Assistant Head Coach, Offense / Runningbacks Coach: Jeff Nixon
Quarterback Coach: Sean Ryan
Pass Game Specialist: Matt Lombardi
Receivers Coach: Joe Dailey
Tight Ends Coach: Kevin M Gilbride
Offensive Line Coach: James Campen
Assistant Offensive Line Coach: Robert Kugler
Defensive Coordinator: Phil Snow
Assistant Head Coach, Defense: Al Holcomb
Defensive Line Coach: Paul Pasqualoni
Assistant Defensive Line Coach: Terrance Knighton
Pass Rush Specialist: Don Johnson
Defensive Run Game Coordinator: Mike Siravo
Defensive Pass Game Coordinator: Steve Wilks
Cornerbacks Coach: Evan Cooper
Special Teams Coordinator: Chris Tabor
Assistant Special Teams Coach: Ed Foley
Strength and Conditioning Coach: Jeremy Scott
Strength and Conditioning Assistant: Thomas Barbeau
Strength and Conditioning Assistant: Corey Campbell
Human Performance Specialist: Timothy Rabas
Head Athletic Trainer: Kevin King
Offensive Assistant: Garret McGuire
Offensive Assistant: Jody Owens
Defensive Assistant: Bobby Maffei
Defensive Assistant: Rob Dvoracek
Special Teams Assistant: Cedric Whitaker
Chief of Staff: Matthew Delgado
Assistant to the Head Coach: Jarrett Wishon
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Kind of interesting (to me anyway) that Rhule felt he needed another assistant besides “Los” Delgado and promoted him to Chief of Staff while backfilling his old spot. Both those slots turned out to be temporary, of course.
Post 2022, staff turnover was massive. Some coaches were fired while others left on their own for what mostly turned out to be lateral moves. Fired - in addition to the midseason firing of Brady - were ST Coach Chase Blackburn, OL Coach Pat Meyer and DL Coach Frank Okam. Both sides of the trenches were apparently deemed not good enough. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it brought us two diamonds in the rough, James Campen and Chris Tabor.
The coaches who chose to depart were WR Coach Frisman Jackson (Steelers) TE Coach Brian Angelichio (Vikings) and DB Coach Jason Simmons (Raiders), all for basically the same spots with their new teams. Many of us saw this as rats deserting a sinking ship, and it turned out to have been a wise decision on their part.
At the OC spot, McAdoo had interviewed for the QB Coach position before but been turned down. This time he won out over mostly mediocre competition. The most important hire though turned out to be Steve Wilks who eventually took over as interim head coach when Rhule was fired. Wilks dumped some of Rhule’s assistants (most notably Phil Snow and Even Cooper) and put his own stamp on the staff for what turned out to be at least a decently impressive finish, but not enough to win him the full time job.
So that’s where we’ve been...and it wasn’t so hot.
But at least now we can look forward to where we go from here.
