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We've been covering the Green Bay Packers' coaching hires this morning, when we learned that Ron Zook and Sam Gash were brought aboard. However, the team announced today that they have completed the hiring of their entire staff, and there is one big surprise among today's announcements.
That surprise is that the team will not hire a coach from outside the organization to coach the outside linebackers. Instead, Winston Moss is going to coach both the inside and outside linebackers, while Scott McCurley has been named assistant linebackers coach. McCurley, you might remember, was someone we had mentioned as the top in-house candidate to replace Kevin Greene. He spent the past few years as the team's defensive quality control coach, he played linebacker in college, and he helped assist with the linebackers in the past as well.
This effectively shuts the door on our hopes that Wade Phillips might be brought aboard to coach the outside backers.
Here is a list of all the new coaches and existing ones who will have new titles for 2014:
Winston Moss: Assistant head coach/linebackers
Scott McCurley: Assistant linebackers coach
Jason Simmons: Defensive/special teams assistant
John Rushing: Defensive quality control coach
Alex Van Pelt: Quarterbacks coach
Sam Gash: Running backs coach
Luke Getsy: Offensive quality control coach
Ron Zook: Assistant special teams coach
Chris Gizzi: Strength and conditioning assistant
Of all of these coaches, Gash, Zook, Getsy, and Gizzi are the hires who were not on the team's staff in 2013, as the others will just be serving in different roles. Getsy comes to the Packers from Western Michigan University, where he coached the wide receivers. Playing quarterback in college, he led the Akron Zips to the 2005 MAC title.
The name Chris Gizzi should be familiar to Packers fans, as he was a member of the team during the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The linebacker and alumnus of the Air Force Academy is probably remembered best for carrying the American flag onto Lambeau Field in the first Monday Night Football game after the September 11th attacks. Gizzi re-enacted the flag run ten years later, in 2011, for a game against the New Orleans Saints.
