Sources: Maryville College adding former Miami Hurricanes staffer to Scots’ coaching staff
Ben Fox saw his first fall-season Maryville College squad close the 2021 campaign with considerable momentum; the Scots rolled to a 4-2 finish across the season’s final six weeks and positioned themselves for a potential leap-ahead year in 2022.
Now Fox, still a week from opening just his second-ever fall camp as an NCAA head football coach, has positioned his program for even more momentum into the fall, multiple sources tell FootballScoop.
Maryville College, an NCAA Division III program outside Knoxville and in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, is adding Jake Flaherty, a former Bucknell University wideout with experience at football’s top levels, as the Scots’ new wide receivers coach, per sources. It’s another key move for MC, which also saw Fox recently add well-regarded Knoxville-area prep coach Albert Long-Hill to the Scots’ staff as defensive line coach.
Flaherty, set to start immediately for the Scots’ program, replaces Justin Zimmerman, with whom the program recently parted ways.
In Flaherty, Fox adds an energetic young position coach whose experience includes an internship with the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys as well as work as the Miami Hurricanes’ assistant wide receivers coach and also the ’Canes’ interim tight ends coach during that program’s coaching transition from Al Golden to Manny Diaz.
Additionally, Flaherty most recently is bringing three years’ experience from his role at Lafayette College’s wide receivers’ coach for the NCAA Football Championship Subdivision program.
He’s also logged time at his alma mater as well as Montana State University, and Flaherty’s early-career work includes time with noted football minds Al Golden (Notre Dame’s current defensive coordinator), Jason Garrett (the long-time Cowboys’ head coach) and Ron Dugans (Florida State’s current wideouts coach).
Maryville College returns 16 starters in what essentially is Fox’s first full autumn campaign, after his hiring in January 2021 and the program’s return alongside its peers to fall competition following the COVID-19 pandemic.
