On Monday evening, the University of Miami announced that Associate Head Coach and Defensive Line coach Craig Kuligowski is leaving the program.

Here’s the full release from Miami Athletics

CORAL GABLES, Fla. – The University of Miami announced Monday that assistant head coach/defensive line coach Craig Kuligowski is leaving the program to pursue other opportunities.

Kuligowski coached two seasons in Coral Gables after spending the previous 15 years as the defensive line coach at the University of Missouri.

That’s a big blow for Miami’s coaching staff. Kuligowski is one of, if not the best DL coaches in football, and losing him hurts the staff. Coach Kool, as he’s affectionately known, has coached multiple All-Americans and NFL Draft Picks. Under Kuligowski’s tutelage, Miami’s DL went from laughingstock to dominant group in the 2 years he was at Miami.

One area in which Kuligowski struggled was recruiting. He missed on several targets this past cycle, which was more noticeable due to the many departures from the roster to graduation and the NFL. Even with that being the case, Kuligowski is unquestionably one of the best coaches and talent developers at the DL position in all of football, so his departure will be felt by the Canes.

While several names will likely come up as Miami looks to replace Kool, the top of my wishlist is NC State DL coach Kevin Patrick. He’s a former Canes DL, and has been a very solid DL coach and recruiter at many stops. Most recently (like, his current job), Patrick developed Bradley Chubb at NC State into a top 5 draft pick and had a top 5 (maybe 10) DL in football. Yeah, that’ll work.

But for now, we thank Craig Kuligowski for his 2 years of service at the University of Miami, and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

UPDATE: speaking of those future endeavors, Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports had this report for where Kuligowski is going next

Go Canes