{"id":457095,"date":"2026-02-08T22:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457095\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T22:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T22:02:08","slug":"tracking-fbs-assistants-leaving-for-nfl-as-coaching-carousel-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/457095\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracking FBS assistants leaving for NFL as coaching carousel continues"},"content":{"rendered":"

In January 2024, Jeff Hafley<\/a> spoke<\/a> with On3 just days before he left the Boston College<\/a> head coaching job for a defensive coordinator role with the Green Bay Packers in the NFL. Hafley was blunt in his assessment of the battles he was fighting at Boston College between tampering in the college football transfer portal and building a roster. <\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you define tampering, right?\u201d he told On3 at the time. \u201cAgents calling kids and telling kids that they can get them at this school for this amount of money and this school is interested. What\u2019s true and what\u2019s not true? I\u2019ve had an example of hearsay. This school will take me out of the portal right now and give me this amount of money. And then I pick up the phone and call that school, call a buddy of mine, and it\u2019s, \u2018No, we don\u2019t even know who that kid is.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Hafley was named the Miami Dolphins head coach last month, less than two years after leaving Boston College. His exit in 2024 was the latest evidence of a college coach citing NIL and the portal as his reasoning for leaving for the NFL. Hafley told On3 at the time he had gotten away from coaching the game, to spending almost all hours on roster construction. <\/p>\n

Not much in the college game has changed since Hafley\u2019s exit. The portal windows have been shortened and revenue sharing has been introduced, yet industry sources continue to tell On3 that college assistants are seeking NFL opportunities. Over the last month, at least 17 FBS assistant coaches have left for NFL roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost college coaches are willing to take a pay cut if that means working in the NFL,\u201d one industry source told On3. The source also noted that college assistants\u2019 buyouts are the only factor slowing the rate of departures.<\/p>\n

Navy<\/a> defensive coordinator P.J. Volker<\/a> recently accepted a job on the Ravens staff. Notre Dame lost<\/a> multiple defensive assistants. In the last 72 hours, Michigan saw defensive line coach Lou Esposito<\/a> for the same role on the Ravens staff. <\/p>\n

As Super Bowl Sunday arrives, multiple FBS programs are conducting coaching searches to fill holes on their staff due to NFL departures. And sources across the industry tell On3 that this carousel could continue until mid-February, at least.<\/p>\n

Here is the full breakdown of FBS assistants who have accepted NFL jobs in recent weeks:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In January 2024, Jeff Hafley spoke with On3 just days before he left the Boston College head coaching…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[206851,213638,208863,213639,210291,213640,211106,399,213641,84861,213642,211923,213643,213644,204229,398,396,397,213645,99,213646],"class_list":{"0":"post-457095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-al-washington","9":"tag-bobby-april-iii","10":"tag-c-j-ah-you","11":"tag-c-j-cox-08-north-garland","12":"tag-chandler-whitmer-10-comm-dist-99-south-sch","13":"tag-chidera-uzo-diribe-10-corona","14":"tag-eric-henderson","15":"tag-football","16":"tag-harland-bower-05-east-ridge","17":"tag-jeff-hafley","18":"tag-jimmy-clausen-07-oaks-christian","19":"tag-lou-esposito","20":"tag-matt-applebaum","21":"tag-matt-merritt","22":"tag-mike-mickens","23":"tag-ncaa","24":"tag-ncaa-football","25":"tag-ncaafootball","26":"tag-noah-pauley","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-will-lawing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}