FIU hires Kirk Doll as special teams coordinator
Former East Carolina special teams coordinator and running backs coach Kirk Doll is the new special teams coordinator for Florida International coach Ron Turner, according to a source.
It’s a reuniting of Doll and Turner, who were assistants together at Texas A&M in 1988. Doll was the Aggies’s inside linebackers coach and special teams assistant that season, while Turner was the program’s quarterbacks coach.
This past season was Doll’s fourth in his positions at his alma mater, East Carolina. New Pirates coach Scottie Montgomery, who was hired in mid-December, did not retain Doll.
The 64-year-old Doll replaces former Florida International special teams coordinator Shannon Moore, who last month became East Carolina’s special teams coordinator and tight ends coach.
While with the Pirates, Doll tutored running back Vintavious Cooper, who rushed for more than 1,000 yards in consecutive seasons in 2012 and ’13, the first time that had happened in nearly two decades. Doll also helped East Carolina average more than 42 yards per punt from ’12–14, the first that had happened for three straight seasons since the early 2000s.
Before Doll’s time in Greenville, he was San Jose State’s special teams coordinator and running backs coach in 2011, special teams coordinator and linebackers coach for the United Football League’s Omaha Nighthawks in ’10 and special teams coordinator and linebackers coach at Texas A&M from ’08–09.
Doll was linebackers coach for the NFL’s Denver Broncos from 2005–06 after spending a season as the franchise’s special teams assistant and assistant defensive backs coach. He was assistant head coach, linebackers coach and specials teams assistant at LSU from ’02–03, winning a BCS national championship in his final season.
He was an assistant at Notre Dame from 1994–2001, serving as assistant head coach and special teams assistant each of those seasons. Doll also coached linebackers each season in South Bend except in 1995 when he was defensive line coach.
He was at Texas A&M from 1988–93, coaching special teams each of those years. He was inside linebackers coach for the Aggies in ’88 and outside linebackers coach the rest of his time in College Station. That was after three seasons as outside linebackers coach and special teams assistant at Arizona State.
A Wichita, Kan., native, Doll was an assistant at Tulsa from 1980–84, coaching offensive tackles and tight ends before moving to offensive guards and centers. He was a part-time assistant at Iowa working with tight ends in ’79. Doll coached defensive ends and the offensive line at Texas City High from ’77–78 and was a student assistant at Wichita State working with defensive ends from ’75–76.
Florida International’s 5–7 record this past season was Turner’s best in his three years with the Panthers. FIU’s win total has increased in each year under Turner.
