All off season, people are glued to The Scoop page and our Staff Tracker pages as new coaches fill out their staff hire-by-hire.
When it's all said and done, Zach annually does an outstanding job putting together a list of the most important hires across major college football on a case-by-case basis.
After visiting with a handful of the new staffs around college football the past several months off season, we felt like one area that gets overlooked far too often is the collective makeup of the staff as a whole.
There's no exact formula known for putting together a staff that is going to put a successful formula on the field Saturday's in the fall, so generally speaking, coaches look for a mix of guys they have a prior relationship with, or have worked with coaches they have ties to and trust, or are excellent recruiters, have a ton of experience, or have learned under some of the most respected coaches in the game. Really, any mix of all those and so much more go into building a quality staff, and all while being able to do it with the salary pool allotted as well.
Today, we begin a new series where we look at the most impressive new staffs assembled by new head coaches in 2023.
There were 24 new head coaches hired this cycle, and we're going to take a closer look at the top 10 staffs that were put together by those new hires.
Our list begins at #10 with Charlotte and head coach Biff Poggi, where he was able to build an impressive staff with a lot of guys he has a history with.
COORDINATOR RECAP
Poggi, who arrived at Charlotte after a few seasons on the staff at Michigan, was able to grab a hometown guy in Mike Miller, who spent the past four seasons at Maryland as tight ends coach before adding the co-offensive coordinator title heading into last season. Miller spent much of his childhood in Charlotte, and earlier in his career actually coached at Charlotte Christian HS (NC). Miller's background includes time spent working under coaches like Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, and of course, Mike Locksley.
For his defensive coordinator, Poggi grabbed a familiar colleague in Ryan Osborn, who also spent a few seasons with him in Ann Arbor in a support staff role before leaving for an NFL opportunity with the Ravens last off season. This may mark Osborn's first opportunity to be a defensive play caller, but he is very highly regarded in defensive circles and has worked closely alongside Mike Macdonald in both Ann Arbor and Baltimore.
BIGGEST HIRE
Nearly every new coach taking over a new program will tell you that the most important hire they make is their head of strength and conditioning, and Poggi hit an absolute home run in his hire of former FootballScoop Strength and Conditioning Coach of the Year Lew Caralla.
Caralla, spent the last few seasons at Georgia Tech, and prior to that won our award as Lance Leipold's strength coach at Buffalo.
Lew, who is overseeing his fifth FBS strength program now in his mid-30s, is highly regarded in the strength profession and also previously crossed paths with Biff during his time in Ann Arbor
BIGGEST CHALLENGE AHEAD FACES DEFENSIVE STAFF
Charlotte ranked 116th or lower in scoring defense (39 ppg), run defense (206 ypg), pass defense (278 ypg), and third down conversion defense (44 ppg) so it goes without saying that the defensive staff faces the most immediate challenge.
A whole new defensive philosophy that has proven success at Michigan and in the NFL should be a breath of fresh air to the returning players, and the players that the staff has been able to land from the transfer portal.
Tasked with transforming the defense, alongside Osborn, are former Poggi assistant from the high school ranks Wayne Dorsey (DL), former SEC graduate assistant and four-year Notre Dame starter at linebacker Greer Martini (LBs), former Buffalo defensive backs coach Rod Ojong (DBs), and former Texas Southern defensive backs coach Justin Sanders, who helped East Mississippi (JC) win back-to-back JuCo national titles in his three seasons with the program.
MOST UNDERRATED HIRE
To me, while both the coordinator hires for Poggi were impressive, the addition of Kyle DeVan stands out most.
Not only is he another coach with familiar ties to Poggi from Ann Arbor where he worked closely with a Joe Moore Award winning offensive line unit, DeVan won a Super Bowl as an offensive lineman with the Colts, and spent one season coaching the offensive line at Colorado. In addition to coaching the offensive line at Arizona under Kevin Sumlin, DeVan also held the run game coordinator title and also coached the offensive line at Ball State. Early on in his coaching career, DeVan worked an offensive line graduate assistant on Steve Sarkisian's staff at USC, and went on to spend a year on Sean Payton's staff in New Orleans as the assistant offensive line coach.
UP-AND-COMING
Selected among our Rising Minority Watch List / Rising Stars, Rod Ojong has quickly climbed the coaching ranks to oversee his own unit in the defensive backfield. Early in his coaching career he worked under guys like Kirby Smart and Dan Lanning at Georgia and Mack Brown and Gene Chizik at North Carolina and landed full-time positions on the field at Austin Peay (FCS - TN), and Furman (FCS -SC) before heading to Buffalo to be on Maurice Linguist's staff, where he spent the last two seasons.
To add to that already impressive young resume, Ojong recently accepted a Bill Walsh Minority Fellowship position with the New England Patriots as well.
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