Georgia Southern announced on Wednesday the addition of five new members to the football coaching staff and the retention of two assistant coaches for the 2014 season.
Joining new head coach Willie Fritz are four assistant coaches from his former program of Sam Houston State: offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Doug Ruse, wide-receivers coach Matt Barrett, defensive-ends coach Johnny Jernigan and linebackers coach Michael Mutz. Kevin Peoples, who coached at Ala.-Birmingham last season, will coach the defensive line.
Defensive coordinator Jack Curtis and assistant coach Chad Lunsford have been retained. Curtis will work with the Eagles secondary, while Lunsford moves to the role of tight-ends coach after his first season with the wide receivers in 2013.
Ruse joins Georgia Southern in the same role as offensive coordinator. He was a finalist for the Football Championship Subdivision Coordinator of the Year award in 2012 at SHSU.
Peoples became the defensive-line coach at UAB in 2013 after three seasons at Arkansas. Barrett was wide-receivers coach in 2012 and 2013 for Fritz at Sam Houston State and will assume that same role for the Eagles.
Jernigan arrived at SHSU in early 2010 and helped Sam Houston State’s defensive rankings in several categories rise more than 50 spots from the year prior. Mutz spent three years as a defensive coordinator, two at Missouri Southern State and one at Blinn College, before returning to Sam Houston State last season.