Virginia football head coach Bronco Mendenhall has announced the hiring of Ricky Brumfield as the program’s special teams coordinator, the same position Brumfield held at the University of Texas at San Antonio the past two seasons.
Brumfield’s hiring comes on the heels of the NCAA Division 1 Council’s announcement last April that all Football Bowl Subdivision programs can have 10 on-field assistant coaches. The rule takes effect January 9, 2018.
“I had some specific criteria for this new position,” Mendenhall said in Virginia football’s official press release, which you can read by clicking here. “I wanted a great person. I wanted a great fit for our staff. I wanted a special teams expert. I wanted a very strong recruiter and I wanted someone who could be a mentor for the young men in our program. Ricky fits all of those things.
“I really like who he is as a person, his character and his values,” Mendenhall continued. “Ricky is a great fit for our coaching staff and their shared philosophies. He has proven himself as a coach based on his past performance and the knowledge he brings from almost 20 years in the profession. Everywhere he has gone, he has improved the production of his units. I also like his ability to be a dynamic recruiter for us. He will be a terrific ambassador for our program and University.”
Brumfield, who also coached tight ends at Texas-San Antonio, earned his undergraduate degree at Utah State, where he was a two-year starter at wide receiver. He earned his master’s degree in secondary education at Union. Brumfield has 17 years of college coaching experience, including stints at Nicholls State and Western Kentucky before heading to Texas-San Antonio, where he oversaw Lou Groza Award (nation’s top placekicker) semifinalist Jared Sackett and Ray Guy Award (nation’s top punter) semifinalist Yannis Routsas this past season.
UTSA’s special teams unit set school season records in touchbacks (27), points (79), extra points (43) and punting average (42.0) in 2016, Brumfield’s first year with the program.
Kelly Poppinga served as Virginia’s special teams coordinator each of Mendenhall’s first two seasons in Charlottesville. He remains the Cavaliers’ outside linebackers coach.
Wintrich Headed West?
Jamie Oakes of Wahoos247 reports that Frank Wintrich, the University of Virginia’s Director of Human Performance and Logistics, is on the verge of being hired by Chip Kelly to oversee UCLA football’s strength and conditioning operations.
Wintrich has worked as strength and conditioning coach under Coach Mendenhall the last three seasons – one at BYU and two at UVA. Mendenhall has consistently lauded Wintrich’s work, so this loss would be a blow to a Cavalier program coming off its first bowl appearance since 2011. If Wintrich’s departure is not final, I would expect UVA to try and sway him to stay in Charlottesville.
