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Report: LaFleur Adds Local Coach to Staff

LaFleur hired Kevin “Butch” Barry as senior offensive assistant.
Bill Huber|
Report: LaFleur Adds Local Coach to Staff
Report: LaFleur Adds Local Coach to Staff

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur added to his coaching staff but it wasn’t filling the vacancy at receivers coach.

According to NFL Network, LaFleur hired Kevin “Butch” Barry as senior offensive assistant.

It’s a homecoming of sorts for Barry, who is from Sturgeon Bay – a city located less than hour from Green Bay – and played for the high school’s Division 3 state runner-up team in 1993. He graduated from the school in 1996 and played at Central Michigan, where he was academic all-conference in 2000. After his playing days, he started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Central Michigan in 2002 and 2003. He spent the 2004 and 2005 seasons as offensive line coach at Southwest Minnesota State, 2006 through 2008 seasons as offensive line coach at Michigan Tech and 2009 season as offensive coordinator at North Greenville. Barry returned to CMU as tight ends coach from 2010 through 2013 and offensive line coach in 2014.

Video: LaFleur on offense, Rodgers

Barry got his first NFL job as assistant offensive line coach for Tampa Bay in 2015.

“My dream was always to be in the NFL,” Barry told the Door County Advocate in February 2015. “I wasn’t a good enough player to make it, so to be here as a coach is a dream. It's really cool.”

He joined the University of Miami’s coaching staff as offensive line coach in 2019. The Hurricanes finished third-to-last in the nation with 51 sacks allowed.

LaFleur has not replaced receivers coach Alvis Whitted, who he let go after the season. Offensive assistant Jason Vrable scouted the receivers at the Scouting Combine. Having worked alongside offensive coordinator Nathaniel Hackett last year with a focus on the receivers, Vrable could end up with the job.

The hiring of Barry is the latest change for LaFleur as he begins Year 2 as coach. When defensive backs coach Jason Simmons went to Carolina, LaFleur hired longtime NFL assistant Jerry Gray.

“Just a calming, veteran, confident (voice),” LaFleur said of Gray at the Scouting Combine. “I think our players are going to be really receptive to him. He’s been a coordinator in this league. He’s just been around this league for such a long time. I think he’s going to bring a lot of value to not only our defensive staff but our whole staff maybe and to our team.”

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Bill Huber
BILL HUBER

Bill Huber, who has covered the Green Bay Packers since 2008, is the publisher of Packers On SI, a Sports Illustrated channel. E-mail: packwriter2002@yahoo.com History: Huber took over Packer Central in August 2019. Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillHuberNFL Background: Huber graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he played on the football team, in 1995. He worked in newspapers in Reedsburg, Wisconsin Dells and Shawano before working at The Green Bay News-Chronicle and Green Bay Press-Gazette from 1998 through 2008. With The News-Chronicle, he won several awards for his commentaries and page design. In 2008, he took over as editor of Packer Report Magazine, which was founded by Hall of Fame linebacker Ray Nitschke, and PackerReport.com. In 2019, he took over the new Sports Illustrated site Packer Central, which he has grown into one of the largest sites in the Sports Illustrated Media Group.

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