Larry Fedora has hired the first eight assistants for his North Carolina football coaching staff, with six coming with him from Southern Mississippi and an old UNC assistant returning to the program after a seven-year absence.
Gunter Brewer, a former Wake Forest player, will be UNC's receivers coach and passing-game coordinator. He spent five seasons in Chapel Hill, leaving after the 2004 season. Vic Koenning, most recently Illinois' defensive coordinator, will work on the defensive staff.
The assistants hired off Fedora's Southern Mississippi staff are Dan Disch, the defensive coordinator; Blake Anderson, the offensive coordinator; Deke Adams, the defensive-line coach; David Duggan, the special-teams coordinator who will also work with the defense; Walt Bell, the tight-ends coach, and Chris Kapilovic, the offensive-line coach.
The six had a combined 18 years' experience working with Fedora at Southern Mississippi. Fedora said that bringing most of his staff with him will help build the UNC program under his plans.
"We bring the core of the guys that I felt really strong about that would be successful here and make this place successful," Fedora said.
"We don't have to go through a learning curve. These guys don't have to learn what I'm all about and how we want to run the program. They know."
Anderson's fourth Southern Mississippi offense generated 6,459 yards in a no-huddle system, an average of 461.4 yards a game. Southern Mississippi was one of only 11 major-college teams in the 2011 college season to average at least 200 yards rushing and 200 yards passing in winning 12 games, the most in school history.
"We've carried this system for years, both with what Coach Fedora did before myself and what we've continued at several places in getting here," Anderson said.
"We're going to play really fast and with high tempo. We're going to play with fanatical effort."
Under Disch, Southern Mississippi played a defense that had four down linemen, two linebackers and five defensive backs. This season's defense set an NCAA record by returning 11 interceptions for touchdowns in Disch's first season in the program.
Koenning will be associate coach for defense. He was Clemson's defensive coordinator from the 2005 season through 2008. Fedora said he has not decided which coach, either Koenning or Disch, will construct the defense and will make the defensive game calls.
Disch and Koenning should not get in each other's way. They worked together at Illinois in the 2010 season.
A running backs coach is still to be hired. Fedora said that he used a recruiting coordinator at Southern Mississippi but has not decided whom to put in the position at UNC.
Tom Myslinski has been retained from the previous UNC staff as strength and conditioning coach. Fedora hopes to have the staff filled in about two weeks.
"I started shaping this staff a long time ago," Fedora said. "My philosophy is to always think about the future and always know who are the good coaches out there and who I would like to hire."
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