Three Purdue Assistants to Follow Jeff Brohm to Louisville
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Newly-hired Louisville head football coach Jeff Brohm's staff is already starting to come together.
Speaking to the media following Brohm's departure for his alma mater, Purdue athletic director Mike Bobinski said, via ESPN's Adam Rittenberg, that co-defensive coordinator and secondary coach Ron English, wide receiver coach Garrick McGee and running backs coach Chris Barclay would all be departing the Boilermakers to join Brohm's first staff with the Cardinals.
All three assistants have ties to either the University of Louisville or the city of Louisville. English served as the Cardinals' defensive coordinator in 2008 under then-head coach Steve Kragthorpe, McGee was their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach from 2014 to 2015 in Bobby Petrino's second stint with UofL, and Barclay is a Louisville native who played his high school football at Male from 1998 to 2001.
English joined the Purdue staff in 2021, and made an instant difference on that side of the ball. Ranking 56th in total defense (399.0 ypg), 67th in scoring defense (29.8 ppg) and 94th in passing defense (254.2 pypg), the Boilermakers improved in all three departments in English's first year, rising to 48th (366.6 ypg), 34th (22.4 ppg) and 33rd (208.7 pypg), respectively. This season, Purdue is at 37th (349.9 ypg), 53rd (24.6 ppg) and 50th (213.8 pypg), respectively, heading into the Citrus Bowl.
The Pomona, Calif. native also had a five-year stint as the head coach at Eastern Michigan, going 11-46. He was the defensive coordinator for San Diego State in 2016, the safeties coach at Mississippi State in 2017, and the safeties coach at Florida from 2018 to 2020 before going to Purdue.
McGee spent just one year with the Boilermakers, but his presence made a huge difference. Purdue wide receivers tallied 2,555 receiving yards for the season for an average of 196.5 per game. Transferring from Iowa, wide receiver Charlie Jones put together a remarkable season, catching 110 passes for an FBS-best 1,361 receiving yards and the fourth-most receiving touchdowns with 12. He was tabbed as a Second-Team All-American by The Athletic and CBS.
Following his stint with Louisville, the Tulsa, Okla. native spent two years at Illinois as their offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, two years at Missouri as an analyst and then their wide receivers coach, and then two seasons at Florida as an analyst and then their quarterbacks coach.
Barclay was with Brohm for all of his six years with Purdue. While the Boilermakers have tallied just 123.1 rushing yards per game so far in 2022 for the 105th-ranked rushing offense, Devin Mockobee was a standout. The walk-on and former two-star recruit has rushed 920 yards and nine touchdowns so far this year, which is good for seventh and eighth in the Big Ten, respectively.
The Louisville native and former Wake Forest star had been the running backs coach at William & Mary, Marshall and Western Kentucky before joining Brohm's staff at Purdue. Barclay was a three-time All-ACC selection with the Demon Deacons, as well the 2005 ACC Player of the Year.
Since Scott Satterfield opted to leave Louisville for the head coaching position at Cincinnati earlier this week, seven of his 10 assistant position coaches have departed the Cardinals. Defensive coordinator Bryan Brown, quarterbacks coach Pete Thomas, offensive line coach Nic Cardwell, inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson and running backs coach De'Rail Sims all decided to follow Satterfield up I-71 and join the Bearcats.
Co-defensive coordinator/secondary coach Wesley McGriff left for Auburn and offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach is left to become the head coach at Western Michigan.
The Cardinals finished the regular season at 7-5, and 4-4 in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Louisville, ironically, will face Cincinnati in the Fenway Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 17 at 11:00 a.m. EST.
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