Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell again is going with an Ohio native to round his Bearcats' offensive coaching staff.
The Bearcats are adding Eastern Michigan wide receivers coach Darren Paige to fill their final offensive on-field vacancy, open since Dan Enos' departure to become offensive coordinator at Maryland.
Paige is a Rossford, Ohio, native who graduated from Findlay and also played briefly in the Arena Football League 2. Paige also coached briefly in the high school ranks in Florida.
Paige had been a finalist for the position alongside Cincinnati Princeton High School head coach Mike Daniels, a former Bearcats player who's coached at both the prep and collegiate levels. Daniels was among Fickell's first interviews for this vacancy and has been considered for other positions on past Bearcats staffs.
Enos served as Cincinnati's running backs coach, but the Bearcats have some staff flexibility as it pertains to Paige's potential fit.
Mike Brown, the Bearcats' wide receivers coach this past season, has in the past worked with running backs at Delaware, Liberty, which is Brown's alma mater, and as an analyst and assistant running backs coach at Michigan in 2016.
Paige has coached receivers for nine-straight seasons, per his Eastern Michigan bio, but he also served as the quarterbacks coach and co-offensive coordinator at Haines City High School (Florida) in 2009.
Paige, per sources, is expected to be the Bearcats' running backs coach and Brown will continue to work with wideouts.
Fickell lost Enos and defensive coordinator Marcus Freeman to Notre Dame after the Bearcats' undefeated regular season culminated in a Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl bid against Georgia.
Fickell earlier replaced Freeman with Mike Tressell as defensive coordinator. Bearcats offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock also was a candidate for some Power-5 positions, including interviewing with Clark Lea at Vanderbilt for the Commodores' offensive coordinator position.