Former Army Coach?
Former Army coach Todd Berry was hired by Miami as quarterbacks coach Friday, the first hiring by the Hurricanes since four longtime assistants were fired earlier this month.
Berry spent the past two seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Louisiana-Monroe. He was fired by Army in October 2003 after going 5-35 in parts of four seasons.
"Without question he will help our offense move forward," Miami coach Larry Coker said. "Todd has turned down opportunities to coach in the NFL, so we’re pleased to have him as part of our offensive staff."
The Hurricanes were 9-3 this past season, which ended with a 40-3 loss to LSU in the Peach Bowl. Three days after that defeat — Miami’s worst bowl loss ever — Coker fired offensive line coach Art Kehoe, offensive coordinator Dan Werner and running backs coach Don Soldinger, plus linebackers coach Vernon Hargreaves.
Coker said he hasn’t decided who will serve as offensive coordinator or if there will be any major schematic changes.
Berry’s team at Louisiana-Monroe this past season featured quarterback Steven Jyles, who was the Sun Belt Conference’s player of the year. Berry’s offense yielded only nine sacks while throwing the ball 405 times during the 2005 season.
Berry also was head coach at Illinois State from 1996-99 and the offensive coordinator at East Carolina from 1992-95. Berry played under Coker when he was an assistant at Tulsa in the early 1980s.
Miami has gone 53-9 in five seasons under Coker, but six of those losses have come in the past two seasons — and the Hurricanes haven’t won the Atlantic Coast Conference title in either of their first two years as a member of that league.
