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Coaching Staff daily update: 1/4. Almost finished

Mark Richt has almost finished assembling the staff of coaches who will help him return The U to greatness.

By Cameron J. Underwood
"So, what we're gonna do is bring in a whole new staff and play real Miami Hurricanes football" - CMR (maybe)
"So, what we're gonna do is bring in a whole new staff and play real Miami Hurricanes football" - CMR (maybe)
Joe Skipper/Getty Images

Another day, another update. Let's go

6:20PM UPDATE

Miami officially announces CB coach Mike Rumph, OL coach Stacy Searels, and Safeties coach Ephraim Banda as staff members.

5:30PM UPDATE

A couple reports for you. First for a non-coaching staffer

Then, for a coaching staffer

1:30 PM UPDATE

Per report, Larry Scott declined offer to stay at Miami and is heading to Tennessee

10:40 AM update

Per Peter Ariz of CanesInSight.com, former UM CB and current American Heritage HS coach Mike Rumph is expected to be on Mark Richt's staff in a yet-to-be-known capacity.

More as it's available. More is available.

Ariz further reports that Rumph, a starter on the 2001 National Championship team (the best collegiate team ever) will coach Cornerbacks

Christy Cabrera-Chirinos of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel offers confirmation of Ariz's report

Stacy Searels coming as OL coach

I know this was reported yesterday, but we're still waiting on the official announcement on this. Searels, who has more than 20 years coaching experience, worked with new DC Manny Diaz at Texas and Mark Richt at Georgia in previous years.

This, to me, is yet another strong hire for CMR as he builds his staff here at Miami. For more info on Searels, you can click over to yesterday's update (link at the bottom of this article).

Current Staff

There are but precious few open spots on the staff remaining. Why, you ask? Here's the relevant section of the NCAA handbook (bylaw 11.7.2 for those interested).

NCAA Article 11: Conduct and Employment of Athletics Personnel:

11.7.2 Football Bowl Subdivision - There shall be a limit of one head coach, nine assistant coaches and two graduate assistant coaches who may be employed by an institution in bowl subdivision football.

And, if you combine that with the next section (bylaw 11.7.2.1), you get a more complete picture

11.7.2.1 Exceptions to Number Limits FBS - No individual other than coaches designated to fill the coaching categories set forth in Bylaw 11.7.2 may participate in any manner in the coaching of the intercollegiate team of a member institution during any football game, practice or other organized activity, with the following exceptions:

The subsequent sections basically deal with Strength and Conditioning coaches and undergraduate coaches, so they don't really matter in this equation.

Now, let's break those bylaws down for those confused. There can be nine (9) assistant coaches on a staff who coach on the field and recruit. There can be two (2) graduate assistants on staff. There can be infinite non-coaching staff members, but those individuals cannot give instruction (think director of football operations, quality control, and the like). Many call the last part about non-coaching staff members the "Alabama rule", cuz they have about a million non-coaching staff members.

With that in mind, here's the list of assistants at current:

  • Co-OC/RBs - Thomas Brown
  • OL - Stacy Searels
  • DC - Manny Diaz
  • DL - Craig Kuligowski
  • CBs - Mike Rumph
  • S - Ephraim Banda
  • Special Teams - Todd Hartley
Here are the available coaching spots: (2 coaching spots open per NCAA rules)
  • QB coach - (Richt?)
  • WR coach (Beard? Other)
  • TE coach (Scott? Nope, he's headed to Tennessee)
  • LB coach (Diaz)
Now, Jon Richt, Mark's son, is on staff as an unspecified offensive assistant. If he's quality control or another non-coaching type of position, then that leaves 3  open assistant spots.

If you look at the list, there are 4 open positions. Let's play out the hypotheticals:
If the elder Richt takes QB coach (he's said he wants to be more involved with this position) and/or Diaz takes LBs (a position he's coached multiple times in the past), then that could mean Miami brings in as many as 3 additional assistants to fill out the staff.

If you assume that Larry Scott will be retained as TE coach, then you're looking at Miami being able to bring in 2 additional assistants for a full staff of 9. Hartley coaching STs only is weird, and he's worked with DBs before, so maybe he takes Safeties, and his position is S/ST now. Makes sense, and could easily work. Nope. Banda coaching S.

No, those hypotheticals aren't set in stone or imminent to be announced, but that could very well be how things end up falling, in my opinion.

The last 2 spots on the staff will obviously make a big impact, but they're not make-or-break type hires. Miami could go in a number of directions with the remaining spots, and it will be interesting to see who they get to fill out the staff.

1/3 recap

Miss anything yesterday? Here's where you can get caught up.

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That's it for now. Be sure you check back for updates.

Go Canes