#coaching-hires

#coaching-hires

Aukerman is not a choice that will cause Falcons fans to party, but that would probably be true of any special teams coordinator. What he does bring to the table is a raft of experience-Aukerman has been coaching special teams off and on in the pros and college since 2003 and has been either an assistant or head special teams coordinator in the NFL since 2012-and a pretty solid history in those roles.

Of course, he is the son of franchise legend Doug Williams, which led some to speculate that this was an old-boys' club appointment with little substance. That seemed a little harsh. Williams earned the right. Head coach Dan Quinn wouldn't have given this his seal of approval otherwise - not with the mounting pressure on his own job status. And if offensive coordinator David Blough believes this is the guy to help Jayden Daniels reach new heights, fans should trust his judgment.

Most notable is the hiring of Thomas Whitsett as an assistant pitching coach under Bill Murphy. Whitsett has ties to Murphy from the Houston organization. He had coached in the Astros system as a pitching coordinator and was most recently their Triple-A pitching coach in 2024. Whitsett had come through the college ranks after working at the University of Arizona. This is his first job on a big league staff.

Arkansas' coaching staff is coming together under Ryan Silverfield, who is set to hire coordinators Tim Cramsey (offense) and Ron Roberts (defense), sources confirmed to ESPN. Cramsey served as Silverfield's offensive coordinator at Memphis the past four seasons, after coordinator stints at Marshall, Sam Houston State, Nevada and other programs. Since 2022, Memphis ranks No. 9 nationally in scoring offense (36.3 ppg), and 20th in passing average (273.6 ypg).

Driver began coaching after the end of his collegiate career, beginning his journey with the University of Puget Sound, for whom he played three years of college baseball. He then flipped between Central Washington University and Puget Sound before switching coasts to serve as a catching coach at Yale University. He got his first job in the major leagues with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2018, and stayed there through the 2019 season before he joined the Chicago Cubs in 2020.

Hallberg, 39, heads to the Twin Cities after eight seasons in the Giants organization. He coached and managed in the minor league system for a couple years before joining the MLB staff in 2020. Hallberg has spent the past four seasons as a base coach in San Francisco and interviewed for their managerial vacancy over the 2023-24 offseason. (The job went to Bob Melvin.)

Given the Danes are among Europe's most prolific coffee drinkers, chances are nearly every staff member will visit the one breakout area at FC Midtjylland's training complex several times daily. While there, not only will they receive their caffeine hit but also a reminder of the club's most important table, which sits directly above the machine dispensing espresso after espresso. It is not, though, the Superliga standings (which they have topped four times since 2015) but a graph showing Midtjylland's dead ball goal difference.

With the franchise's brutal decision to fire Jerod Mayo at the conclusion of his first season came an opportunity for owner Robert Kraft to change course. While Vrabel was an obvious top choice (and probably should have been during the 2024 hiring cycle), it was hard not to feel the allure of a young, offensive-minded guru like Ben Johnson, who wound up choosing QB Caleb Williams and the Chicago Bears.