Maurice Linguist already had assembled an impressive, widely experienced inaugural staff after he was hired to take over the Buffalo Bulls football program in the spring.
Now Linguist has added yet another veteran coaching mind to his football family.
Andy McCollum has joined Linguist's Buffalo staff as a defensive quality control coach.
For Linguist, a first-time head coach who's been heralded as one of the rising young stars in the profession, the addition of McCollum is significant for both McCollum's own past head coach experience as well as his five decades in the game.
McCollum, most recently the defensive coordinator at Football Championship Subdivision program Western Carolina, served seven years as head coach at Middle Tennessee State University and guided that program's transition into the NCAA Division I Football Bowls Subdivision.
Additionally, McCollum coached more than a decade in the Atlantic Coast Conference – as an assistant first at North Carolina State for three seasons and then eight years at Georgia Tech. He's also logged time at Baylor and UTEP plus spent a season as a scout for the NFL's Tennessee Titans.
Buffalo opens the Linguist era Sept. 2 at home against Wagner before it travels nine days later to face Scott Frost's Nebraska team in Lincoln, Nebraska.