Purdue Hires Marty Biagi as Special Teams Coordinator
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue head football coach Jeff Brohm has announced Marty Biagi as the Boilermakers’ special teams coordinator and defensive assistant. Biagi is a two-time finalist for the Football Scoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year.
“Marty is one of the leading coaches and brightest minds in the area of special teams,” Brohm said in a release from the school. “We are very excited to have him here.”
Here is the remainder of the text from the release:
Biagi joins Brohm’s staff after spending the previous three seasons in a similar capacity at North Texas. The Mean Green scored six special teams touchdowns, blocked nine punts, four kicks and had 10 players recognized with All-Conference USA accolades during Biagi’s tenure. North Texas won nine games in both 2017 and 2018, appearing in the New Orleans Bowl and the New Mexico Bowl, respectively.
Biagi’s special teams unit at UNT finished in the top 20 in the Football Bowl Division in blocked kicks/punts all three seasons in Denton, tying for 11th in 2017 (4), for 19th in 2018 (3) and for sixth in 2019 (4).
He improved the Mean Green’s kickoff return average from 19.0 yards in 2017 (106th in FBS) to 23.7 yards in 2018 (22nd) and 23.3 yards in 2019 (25th), scoring touchdowns on kickoff returns in each of the latter two years.
Biagi’s punt return units averaged 10.1 yards per return in his three seasons at UNT (55-554) and scored at least once each year.
Three different place kickers combined to make 55 of 64 field goal attempts (85.9 percent) under Biagi’s guide at UNT. In 2017, senior Trevor Moore finished with the most accurate season of kicking in school history, hitting 20 of 22 field goal attempts and all 55 PATs.
Biagi spent one season (2016) as a special teams analyst at Notre Dame. The Fighting averaged 23.1 yards per kickoff return (27th nationally) and returned a pair of kicks for touchdowns.
Prior to his lone season in South Bend, Biagi spent 2015 as the cornerbacks coach at South Dakota. With a 24-21 victory at five-time national champion North Dakota State highlighting the year, the Coyotes won their most games since 2011.
Biagi got his start in collegiate coaching as a graduate assistant at Arkansas and has served as the co-defensive coordinator at Arkansas-Pine Bluff (2011) and special teams coordinator and defensive backs coach at Southern (2012-14).
In 2014, Southern returned four kickoffs and three punts for touchdowns, finishing the season ranked among the top teams in the Football Championship Subdivision in blocked kicks, blocked punts, kickoff returns, punt returns, punt return defense and net punting.
A native of Shelbyville, Ky., Biagi was a punter and place kicker at Marshall. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physical education in 2008.
Biagi and his wife, Rachael, recently celebrated the birth of a son, MJ, in November.
