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We here at Hustle Belt previously covered Chuck Martin's first few assistant coach hires at Miami University. After the Christmas holiday, a whole slew of new names are confirmed to be joining the staff in Oxford. It looks like all that remains to be named are the recruiting coordinator and special teams coach. (Bill Brechin, whose position we did not know in the prior post, has been named wide receivers coach.) Without further ado, here's a brief look at the new additions:
OFFENSE
Autry Denson (RB Coach)
If you've followed Notre Dame football for some time, Denson should sound familiar: he's the leading rusher in Fighting Irish history, racking up over 4300 yards and a total 43 touchdowns in South Bend while playing for Bob Davie and Lou Holtz in the mid-1990s. After a brief pro career in the NFL and CFL, he took several years away from football before taking the head position at John Paul II High School in Boca Raton, Florida. He parlayed his experience at JPHS into a job at Bethune-Cookman of the MEAC, where he has coached the running backs for the past three years. In 2012, he coached the Isidore Jackson to B-C's first 1000-yard rushing season since 1997, and gave the Wildcats their best overall rushing attack in MEAC play since 2002. Denson also has an excellent pedigree as an up-and-comer, having been invited to the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaches Program by Tony Dungy, where he interned with the Colts and Buccaneers staffs. He also maintains close ties to his position coach from his playing days at Notre Dame, some guy named Urban Meyer.
DEFENSE
Matt Pawlowski (DC)
Pawlowski will certainly be the dean of this staff, having started his coaching career back in 1977. After graduating from Montana State, he started coaching on offense at Eastern Montana College (now MSU-Billings) before returning to his alma mater to coach the offensive line. He then moved to the MAC, coaching linebackers and the secondary under Bob Kappes and Brian Burke at Ohio. After leaving Athens, he spent 13 years as the defensive coordinator at St. Cloud State University, where his Huskies finished among the top 10 in Division II in defense six times. After his tenure in St. Cloud, he coached linebackers and special teams at Eastern Michigan, where he and Chuck Martin were part of the same staff. When he left EMU staff after the 2000 season, Pawlowski bounced around, serving as the head coach at Stow High School in Ohio, an assistant at Marietta College, the offensive line coach at Allegheny College, and the defensive coordinator at Ashland University. Following his time at Ashland, Chuck Martin hired him to be the defensive coordinator at GVSU, where his defensive units were part of the Lakers' record-setting Division II win streak. He also coached two winners of the Gene Upshaw Award, given each year to the best interior lineman in Division II. After Martin left GVSU for Notre Dame, Pawlowski became the assistant head coach and defensive coordinator at Western Carolina. He was relieved of his duties in 2011, and doesn't appear to have done much since then, but his stellar performance under Martin before gives reason to be optimistic.
Corey Brown (DL Coach)
Corey Brown joins Miami from Notre Dame, where he has been a GA working with the defensive line for two years. Before that, he coached the line for Iowa Western Community College from 2008-10, where he also doubled as strength and conditioning coach. From 2006-07, he served in the same twofold position at North Iowa Area Community College. A 2005 graduate of the University of Iowa, Brown played defensive line for the Hawkeyes from 1995-99, where his teammates included new UConn head coach Bob Diaco and interim Notre Dame defensive coordinator Kerry Cooks (who served as cornerbacks coach before Diaco's departure to Storrs). His defensive coordinator was current Irish safeties coach Bob Elliott, and his head coach was the legendary Hayden Fry.
Joe Palcic (LB Coach)
Here's a name that should be familiar to those who pine for the glory days of Ben Roethlisberger and Josh Betts. He played linebacker for the Redskins/RedHawks under Randy Walker, then took a one-year GA job at Eastern Michigan under Rick Rasnick, where he crossed paths with Chuck Martin, then the Eagles' linebackers coach. Palcic returned to Oxford to coach the linebackers under Terry Hoeppner in 1999, switching to defensive backs in 2001. He mentored some of the best defensive players in recent Miami history, including Matt Pusateri, Alphonso Hodge, and Darrell Hunter. After Pat Narduzzi did his best Benedict Arnold impression following the 2003 season, Palcic and Brian George were named co-DCs of the RedHawks, and they followed Hoeppner to Indiana in the same capacity, serving under both Hoeppner and his tragically all-too-soon successor, Bill Lynch. When Kevin Wilson was hired to coach the Hoosiers, Palcic landed at Ashland, where he coached the secondary for two seasons. This past year, he was a defensive quality control assistant under Nick Saban at Alabama.
John Hauser (DB Coach)
Hauser comes to Oxford from The Citadel, where he has been the safeties coach since 2012. Immediately before joining the Bulldogs' staff, he had gotten out of the coaching game, serving two months as director of player personnel at Illinois -- but he caught the coaching bug again. He came to Illinois from Wayne State, where he was the defensive coordinator for four seasons and coached against Chuck Martin for two years. His 2011 defensive unit led the Warriors, a program with no football history to speak of, all the way to the 2011 national championship game, where they lost to Pittsburg State. That 2011 season marked Wayne State's first-ever playoff appearance. Before heading up the Wayne State defense, Hauser coached at Northern Illinois for five years, first as a GA and then as a defensive backs coach. He was part of Joe Novak's staff that returned the Huskies to prominence in the MAC, winning at least a share of West Division titles in 2004 and 2005 and gaining bowl bids in 2004 and 2006. He is a 2003 graduate of Wittenberg, where he started at safety for four years and was named a Division III All-American in 2002.
