Columbia Names Football Coaching Staff
1/2/2006 7:00:00 PM | Football
Jan. 3, 2006
NEW YORK - Columbia head football coach Norries Wilson has named his coaching staff. The group includes two former Lion coaches and a coach who played in the national championship game in 1996.
Wilson retained Carlton Hall from the Lions' previous coaching staff, and also retained administrative staff members Jeff Kupper (assistant athletics director and director of football operations) and Marko Glavic (video coordinator).
The seven new members of the Columbia football staff are as follows:
OFFENSE Vinny Marino rejoins head coach Norries Wilson, with whom he spent four years on the Connecticut coaching staff, as the Lions' offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Marino was the Huskies' wide receivers coach since rejoining his alma mater's program in February 2002. In 2005, he was also UConn's recruiting coordinator. Marino has also coached at Rhode Island (running backs), Richmond (wide receivers and quarterbacks), Holy Cross (offensive coordinator, wide receivers, running backs), Western Carolina (defensive backs, quarterbacks) and Bowdoin (wide receivers).
Cheston Blackshear will coach the Lions' tight ends. Blackshear spent the 2005 season as offensive graduate assistant coach at Illinois. From 2002-04, he was offensive graduate assistant coach at his alma mater, the University of Florida. As a player for the Gators, Blackshear was a three-year starter and played in four bowl games, including the Sugar Bowl for the national championship in 1996. As a coach, Blackshear also completed a coaching fellowship with the Miami Dolphins in summer 2003.
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Chris Nugai, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator, is one of two members of head coach Norries Wilson's staff to be embarking on a second tour of duty with Columbia football. In 2002, Nugai was the Lions' quarterbacks coach. Most recently a graduate assistant coach at UConn, Nugai also has Ivy League experience at Harvard (running backs) and Yale (offensive assistant). Nugai has coached at Tufts (offensive coordinator), Coast Guard (offensive coordinator), Fitchburg (head coach), Maine (offensive assistant) and King's College (intern assistant coach) as well.
Kris Sweet has been named Columbia's offensive line coach. He comes to Columbia after a season in the same position at Kentucky State. In the spring of 2005, he served as guest coach for the Canadian Football League's British Columbia Lions. Prior to Kentucky State, he was offensive coordinator, offensive line coach and academic coordinator at Presbyterian College in South Carolina. Hired as tight ends coach and running backs coach in 2000, he was promoted to coordinator in 2002. He spent one year each at Elon as assistant defensive line coach, Holy Cross as centers and guards coach, and Tennessee Tech as a graduate assistant coach.
DEFENSE Lou Ferrari returns to the Columbia coaching staff as the Lions' defensive coordinator and linebackers coach 20 years after his first stint on Morningside Heights. In 1985, he was Columbia's defensive line coach. Ferrari is reunited with head coach Norries Wilson; Ferrari coached the outside linebackers and defensive ends at the University of Minnesota in 1989-90, during which time Wilson was a graduate assistant coach for the Gophers. Ferrari returns to college coaching after 10 years as defensive coordinator for Florida's Vero Beach High School, which had two undefeated seasons and reached the state playoffs in nine of his 10 seasons. Ferrari has also coached at Kent State (linebackers, special teams), Brown (defensive coordinator), Northwood (head coach, defensive coordinator, assistant head coach, offensive line), Eastern Michigan (defensive ends) and Murray State (running backs).
Andrew Cohen will be the team's defensive line coach. No stranger to Division I-AA football in New York City, Cohen spent the last three years at Fordham as defensive line coach and recruiting coordinator. While at Fordham, he coached Aki Jones, now of the NFL's Washington Redskins. Cohen went to Fordham from Stony Brook, where he was defensive coordinator, linebackers coach and recruiting coordinator from 2000 through 2003. It was his second stint at Stony Brook; he was the Seawolves defensive line coach from 1993-95. From 1995 through March of 2000, he coached at Bucknell, with three seasons as defensive line coach and the other two as outside linebackers coach.
Aaron Kelton will coach Columbia's secondary after five seasons at Virginia State as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach. The Trojans posted 6-4 records in each of the last two seasons and, in 2005, yielded 14-or-fewer points in five of their 10 contests. In 2004 under Kelton's guidance, the Trojans' defense collected 17 interceptions, 18 quarterback sacks for 116 yards lost, 15 forced fumbles (12 recovered) and scored two touchdowns.
