Kansas assistant Reggie Mitchell expected to join Arkansas staff
Kansas running backs coach and recruiting coordinator Reggie Mitchell is expected to join the staff of Arkansas coach Bret Bielema, according to a source.
This past season was Mitchell’s sixth of his second stint with Kansas. He coached the Jayhawks’ running backs each of those years and was the program’s recruiting coordinator every season excluding 2012–13.
A superb recruiter, Mitchell also helped former Kansas running back James Sims become the school’s first back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher during 2012–13 and also helped Sims finish third on the program’s career rushing list with 3,592 yards. Mitchell would fill the opening left by former Arkansas special teams coordinator and running backs coach Jemal Singleton, who left last week after one season to become the running backs coach for the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts.
Prior to Kansas, Mitchell was Illinois’s assistant head coach and running backs coach from 2005–09. He tutored future NFL running back Rashard Mendenhall, who set school records for single-season rushing yards (1,681) and rushing touchdowns (17) as the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year in 2007.
A Flint, Mich., native, Mitchell was an assistant at Michigan State from 1999–2004, spending his first season as wide receivers coach before moving to running backs and recruiting coordinator his final five years. He was Minnesota’s running backs coach from 1997–98.
Mitchell’s initial tenure at Kansas was from 1988–96. He was first Kansas’s defensive line coach for three seasons followed by four years as defensive ends coach and finally running backs coach his last two seasons.
Mitchell was Kent State’s wide receivers coach in 1987, Western Michigan’s running backs coach in 1986 and a graduate assistant at Michigan in 1985. He coached Ferris State’s wide receivers in 1984 after a year as a student assistant at his alma mater, Central Michigan.
He was a star running back for the Chippewas from 1978 through 1981, helping his team win consecutive MAC championships in 1979 and 1980.
Arkansas had an 8–5 record this past season under Bielema, the best campaign of his three years with the Razorbacks.
