Flores continues filling out Dolphins’ staff with hires from unexpected places
Brian Flores does not discriminate based on age or experience.
Just check out his most recent hires.
New additions to Flores’ coaching staff include a Medicare-eligible NFL lifer, an ex-high school coach and now a 29-year-old college assistant.
Flores’ latest hire: Austin Clark, the defensive line coach at the University of Illinois who will lead the Miami Dolphins’ outside linebackers.
The Miami Herald on Thursday morning confirmed the hire, first reported by NFL Network.
Clark, a native of Tampa, joins the Dolphins after spending the past two seasons working for Lovie Smith at Illinois. Before that, he had stints with USC and California, his alma mater. Clark played parts of six seasons at Cal, earning All-Pac-12 honorable mention recognition his final year.
Clark will lead a group that returns Andrew Van Ginkel, Jerome Baker, Sam Eguavoen, Raekwon McMillan and likely restricted free agent Vince Biegel — who is just three years younger than his new coach. Clark will presumably work alongside Rob Leonard, who coached the Dolphins’ entire linebackers unit in 2019.
Clark is the third Dolphins coach added in the last two weeks, joining offensive coordinator Chan Gailey and defensive backs coach Curt Kuntz. None has been a traditional hire.
Gailey, the 68-year-old two-time NFL head coach who replaced Chad O’Shea as Miami’s offensive play-caller last week, had been retired since 2017.
Kuntz, meanwhile, spent the past seven years as the head coach at Struthers High School in Ohio. Like Clark, this is Kuntz’ first NFL job.
The Dolphins still need to find an offensive line coach after parting ways with both Pat Flaherty and Dave DeGuglielmo in the past five months. Flaherty could be back in the league soon, however. He new and Panthers head coach Matt Rhule worked together with the Giants, and NFL Network reports Flaherty is “a strong contender” to end up as the Panthers’ offensive line coach.
This story was originally published January 9, 2020 at 11:26 AM.
