Miami Hurricanes hire new offensive line coach
The Miami Hurricanes are parting ways with offensive line coach Butch Barry and have hired Garin Justice to replace him.
“We’re excited to welcome Garin to our offensive staff,” coach Manny Diaz said. “He boasts an extensive and impressive background as a position coach, coordinator and head coach, and we’re looking forward to seeing him work with our offensive linemen.”
Justice was most recently at UNLV and was the Rebels’ offensive coordinator and offensive line coach last season.
In his final season with the Rebels, two offensive linemen (Julio Garcia, Justin Polu) earned All-Mountain West Conference recognition while running back Charles Williams, Jr. was named first-team All-Mountain West.
Last season, UNLV allowed 29 sacks (94th in the country) but UM -- whose line had more highly-recruited players than the Rebels’ line - relinquished 51, which was 127th, in Barry’s only season as offensive line coach.
UNLV also rushed the ball more successfully than UM did last season, even though the Hurricanes had more highly-recruited backs. UNLV averaged 4.6 yards per carry, which was 58th in the country. Miami averaged 3.8 yards, which was 120th.
Justice worked as offensive line coach at FAU in 2016 and 2017. He joined UNLV as running game coordinator and offensive line coach in 2018 and was promoted to the offensive coordinator job last season, which retaining his job as offensive line coach.
Justice was a head coach previously, at Campbell - an Athens, West Virginia-based Division 2 school - and went 40-17 from 2011 through 2015, leading the program to two conference championships and two playoff appearances.
At FAU, he was the only assistant coach retained by Lane Kiffin and in 2017, FAU ranked in the top 10 nationally for scoring offense (40.6) and rushing offense (285.3), while ranking 12th for fewest sacks allowed (16). Three of Justice’s offensive lineman were named first-team All-Conference USA.
Justice was a three-year starting offensive tackle for West Virginia and served as team captain in 2005 for a Mountaineer team that went 11-1, defeated Georgia in the Sugar Bowl and ranked No. 5 in the season-ending AP Poll. The former second team All-America earned his bachelor’s degree from the school in 2006.
Justice began his coaching career as a student assistant and then a graduate assistant at West Virginia, where he worked with the offensive line. He then spent two years as an offensive graduate student at Florida State in 2007-08.
Justice has a Regents Bachelor of Arts degree from West Virginia (2006) and a Master’s of Sports Administration from Florida State (2008).
Diaz did not want to make a decision on any offensive assistants until new offensive coordinator Rhett Lashlee was hired to offer input. It’s unclear if there will be any more staff changes.
This story was originally published January 11, 2020 at 1:20 PM.
