Coleman officially announced; Banaszak's staff set

[Andrew_Chiappazzi]

Cornelius Coleman, who was originally hired as defensive line coach at Robert Morris way back before Christmas, was formally announced as being part of the staff today.

The hire should officially set John Banaszak's coaching staff for 2014.

Scott Farison will be the defensive coordinator and probably be Banaszak's right-hand man. Darrin Hicks will be the offensive coordinator and likely work a lot with the quarterbacks.

Andrew Richardson returns as the offensive line coach, and for the last few years he's also been the assistant recruiting coordinator under Farison.

Bill Hurley returns as the secondary coach, with Paul Mulbah back helping him out.

Pat Shepard is back as the tight ends coach, but he'll now also coach the receivers. Bob Morris is not returning, which enabled RMU to hire Coleman. Shepard is also the team's video coordinator.

Myles Russ will complete his graduate assistant tenure in May, but he'll stay as running backs coach.

Jeff Sinclair will return as quarterbacks coach, likely working as an assistant under Hicks.

Alex DiMichele is back as a graduate assistant coach. He worked a lot with the defensive line and will likely work all over the defense this year.

 

[Original_RMC]

Who is coaching the LBs? Is that Farison? Why do we need 2 DB coaches, 2 QB coaches and 2 DL coaches (3 if you count Banny)? And any insight who is taking over Special Teams.
With Shepard being both the WR and TE coach, I think this is telling us that the traditional TEs are no longer required within this new offense.
The TEs will go with Richardson to block and then back with Shep to go over passing schemes.

Now that the coaches are set, hopefully we can get some more direction on who is coaching what?
Here is my take on how the coaches should be broken out: [my changes are in bold]


John Banaszak - Head Coach
Scott Farison - Associate Head Coach/Defensive Coordinator
Darrin Hicks - Offensive Coordinator/QB Coach
Andrew Richardson - Assistant Coach (Offensive Line)
Bill Hurley - Assistant Coach (Secondary)
Patrick Shepard - Assistant Coach (Tight Ends/Receivers/Special Teams)
Paul Mulbah - Assistant Coach (Asst. Secondary/Asst.Special Teams)
Myles Russ - Assistant Coach (Running Backs)
Alex DiMichele - Graduate Assistant (Linebackers)
Jeff Sinclair - Assistant Coach (Quarterbacks/Asst. Special Teams)
Cornelius Coleman - Assistant Coach (Defensive Line)

 

[Andrew_Chiappazzi]

Farison coaches the linebackers.

What usually happens with the DBs is that when the team splits into two groups 1-on-1s, 3-on-3s, 7-on-7, 9-on-7, etc., Hurley will work with one group and Mulbah will work with the other.

Banaszak told me in our interview in December that he would still run special teams. But he also said he'd coach the defensive line, and here he's hired a DL coach, so something has changed in that regard.

Even when Banaszak ran special teams, Hurley, Shepard, Russ, Mulbah and Morris all helped. For instance, on kick returns, Morris would advise the returners, Shepard and Russ would advise the blockers, Hurley would help arrange the scout team kickoff unit. On punt returns, Hurley was again in charge of the scout team, with Mulbah working with the gunners, Shepard helping out with "punts" (chucking the ball down the field) and Morris would work with returners.

They would all distill down what Banaszak wanted. Banaszak focused on the scheme while the others helped focus on very specific parts of special teams.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a similar set-up this year, even if the roles aren't publicly revealed.

Two coaches for one position is becoming more and more common. NDSU has two defensive line coaches (at least they did under Craig Bohl). Duquesne has two LB coaches and two DB coaches. YSU has two linebackers and two DB coaches. Same with Wagner.

 

[GoRMU]

Coleman's bio seems quite impressive. Should be a great addition to the staff.

I would suspect that Hicks and Coleman will be able to bring in a few recruits this year that previously were not on RMU's radar.

 

[Andrew_Chiappazzi]

FYI, Hicks just told me - as part of an interview for a story that will run Sunday - that he'll work with the quarterbacks, but he'll move around a lot at practice to work with every position group. So in some respects, it makes sense to have someone like Sinclair working with the QBs when Hicks isn't.