Ken Niumatalolo spent 15 seasons as the head coach of the United States Naval Academy, but this month he finds himself doing something for the first time of his 35-year career: constructing a coaching staff from scratch.
The headlining move Niumatalolo has made thus far is appointing Craig Stutzmann his offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Coach Kenny always said he'd leave the triple option in Annapolis if he got another job, and at SJSU he's proved it. Stutzmann runs the "Spread-N-Shead" offense he learned under June Jones and Nick Rolovich; at Texas State last season he was passing game coordinator for an offense that threw the ball 429 times.
In the only other move the school has announced thus far, offensive coordinator Kevin McGiven will return as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator. The former FootballScoop Quarterbacks Coach of the Year winner will enter his seventh season on the SJSU staff.
Elsewhere on offense, sources tell FootballScoop that Navy slot backs coach Marcus Thomas will coach the Spartan running backs, former Navy fullbacks coach Mike Judge will coach tight ends.
Utah Tech quarterbacks coach Billy Ray Stutzmann, younger brother of Craig and a former assistant of Niumatalolo at Navy, is also expected to come aboard as an analyst.
On defense, defensive coordinator Derrick Odum is expected to return to lead the unit and coach the safeties.
Greg Burns is expected to join Niumatalolo from UCLA, where he was an analyst, as cornerbacks coach. Josh Irvin, a former Spartans GA who coached defensive ends at Northern Arizona before working alongside Niumatalolo on the UCLA support staff, will coach outside linebackers.
Off the field, Nu’u Tafisi will lead the strength staff with Antonio Leonard as the lead assistant. Tafisi played two seasons for the Seattle Seahawks and most recently spent seven seasons running BYU's strength staff.
Beca Perez, an SJSU graduate, will come over from Stanford as director of player personnel and Clesi Crochet will serve as assistant DFO and director of on-campus recruiting.
Several keys hires remaining, including offensive line, defensive line and inside linebackers are expected to be completed in the next week.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.
Thursday Update: Sources tell FootballScoop that John Estes will be the Spartans' offensive line coach, Al Lupuaho the D-line coach, and Bojay Filimoeatu will coach inside linebackers.
Estes coached offensive lines in the XFL and the Spring League, Lupuaho spent the past two seasons coaching the defensive line at Nevada, and Filimoeatu is set to return to San Jose after coaching the Spartans' linebackers from 2017-18. He most recently coached the defensive line at UNLV.