UNC CHARLOTTE |
fe a t u re Napoleon Sykes Outside Linebackers Coach
Jeff Mullen Offensive Coordinator
Relational Guys
Football coaching staff tight knit, committed to University
By Tom Whitestone
To say the coaching staff of the UNC Charlotte football team is tight knit is an understatement. The connections are — well — dizzying. Are you ready? Offensive coordinator Jeff Mullen coached alongside head coach Brad Lambert at Wake Forest. Secondary coach James Adams, outside linebackers coach Napoleon Sykes and linebackers coach Drew Dayton played for Lambert, also at Wake, and were there at the same time. Adams and Sykes went on to coach with Lambert, too. Offensive line coach Phil Ratliff played under Lambert at Marshall. Assistant secondary coach John Russell played for Lambert at Wake and coached at Duke alongside Dayton. 14 UNC CHARLOTTE magazine
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Running backs coach Damien Gary played at Georgia in Lambert’s final season there. Wide receivers coach Joe Tereshinski was a teammate with Gary for two years after Lambert coached there. Defensive coordinator Bruce Tall coached at West Virginia, leaving the Mountaineers the year Mullen joined that staff. Strength coach Jim Durning played alongside Ratliff and for Lambert at Marshall. Tight ends coach Johnson Richardson played at Wofford while Adams coached there. To sum it up (take a breath): Lambert and Mullen coached Dayton, Adams, Sykes and Russell. Dayton, Adams, and Sykes were teammates and later coached together, and Dayton and Russell also coached together.
Gary played for Lambert and was a teammate of Tereshinski. Ratliff and Durning played for Lambert at one school and coached together at another. Tall left one school just as Mullen arrived, and Richardson played for Adams. OK, at ease — and why does this matter? Assembling an inaugural coaching staff with so many links was by design. ‘RELATIONAL GUYS’ “The big thing is that these are all relational guys,” Lambert said. “That’s what we do. We deal with kids and their families and ultimately we have to be able to motivate these players. These guys are people persons.” “I know how they work with the players www.UNCC.edu