Jacksonville State football: Rich Rodriguez filling out coaching staff
Since Rich Rodriguez was hired as Jacksonville State's head football coach on Nov. 30, he has been hard at work filling out his coaching staff.
Just as he promised at his introductory news conference, Rodriguez has added coaches with familiar names for JSU and college football fans, but also some names that are lesser known.
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One of the most recent hires was on New Year's day, when Rodriguez re-hired Kelvin Sigler as a defensive assistant with the Gamecocks. Sigler has spent the last four seasons as the Gamecocks' associate head coach and coaching safeties.
He lettered for four years at Alabama from 1995-98.
Calvin Magee has been hired as the associate head coach and offensive coordinator. Magee played tight end for Tampa Bay in the NFL from 1985-88 and served as offensive coordinator for Rodriguez at both West Virginia and Michigan. He recently served as the running backs coach at Duke in 2021.
Rick Trickett is another coach with a lot of experience, serving as offensive line coach. Trickett has coaching stops as the offensive line coach at Southern Miss (1982-84), New Mexico (1985), Memphis (1986-88), Mississippi State (1989-92), Auburn (1993-98), LSU (2000), West Virginia (2001-06), Florida State (2007-17) and his alma mater Glenville State (1999, 2019-21).
Trickett was on the staff with the 2013 undefeated national championship FSU team.
Mike DiAngelo also joins the staff as an assistant coach. DiAngelo coached with Rodriguez at ULM in last season and also in Arizona.
Rod McDowell joins the staff as running backs coach, the same role he filled with ULM under Rodriguez last season. McDowell played for Clemson from 2010-13, accounting for 1,983 career all-purpose yards and 14 touchdowns
Ryan Garrett will be promoted from agraduate assistant for the 2021 season at ULM to an offensive assistant coach this season.
Another addition from the Warhawks, Dusty Rutledge will serve as chief of staff. He held the same position last season. Rutledge has held various titles on Rodriguez's staffs at Glenville State (1994-96), West Virginia (2001-07) and, in an external relations role, at Michigan (2008-10).
Cole Dial will serve as director of football operations for JSU, the same title he held in 2021 with the Warhawks. He was director of recruiting and player personnel the prior four seasons with ULM.
Kurt Kennedy is set to become recruiting director, a title he held in 2021 at ULM. He started his career as a student assistant under Bobby Bowden at Florida State in 2009 and was part of the 2013 national championship team.
Blake McCall joins JSU's staff as strength and conditioning coach, making the transition from LSU, where he was an assistant strength and conditioning coach who worked with the Tigers' football, beach volleyball and swimming and diving programs.
McCall joined the Tigers staff prior to the 2019 perfect 15-0 national championship season. McCall played offensive line for one season at Jackson State in 2014 and before he transferred to West Florida, where he finished his career.
Contact Ehsan Kassim at 256-300-5313 or ekassim@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Ehsan_Kassim.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: Jacksonville State football: Rich Rodriguez filling out coaching staff
