Smooth Transition for new Miami Hurricanes DL Coach Jess Simpson

The transition to becoming the Miami Hurricanes new Defensive Line Coach has been a smooth one according to Jess Simpson. Simpson was hired to replace Craig Kuligowski who left Miami after two years to join Nick Saban’s coaching staff at Alabama.

Simpson joined Mark Richt’s staff with the Miami Hurricanes from the Atlanta Falcons. He had been the Assistant Defensive line coach with the Falcons, Defensive Line/Assistant Head Coach at Georgia State and a highly successful High School Head Coach with seven state championships in Georgia.

Simpson played collegiately at Auburn. He also began his coaching career there as a graduate assistant. Simpson inherits a very talented but inexperienced Miami Hurricanes Defensive Line.

Miami lost defensive ends Trent Harris and Chad Thomas to graduation and tackles Kendrick Norton and R.J. McIntosh who decided to skip their Senior seasons to declare for the NFL Draft.

Miami should be good at the end positions. They return Joe Jackson and Demetrius Jackson who rotated with Harris and Thomas last season. Joe’s 50 tackles were sixth on the Hurricanes and second to McIntosh on the defensive line. He also had 10.5 tackles for loss and finished second on the team with 6.5 sacks.

Demetrius Jackson had an outstanding season despite missing more than half the year with an injury. He finished with 7.5 TFL’s and 3.5 sacks in just six games.

If he would have played enough games to qualify, Demetrius would have finished second in the nation in sacks per game at 1.25. Harris finished 25th with 0.85 sacks per game.