New Houston coach Major Applewhite has been busy filling holes on his coaching staff just about as soon as they pop up and that was the case on Friday as the school announced three new hires for the Cougars.
Most notable among the trio of names is former Miami defensive coordinator Mark D’Onfrio, who will hold the same position in Houston. The long time coach was one of the notable staff hires by Al Golden when he went to Coral Gables but D’Onfrio was not retained by Hurricanes coach Mark Richt when he took over the program.
Also donning new colors are Darren Hiller, who previously served as co-offensive coordinator at AAC-rival USF but will not follow Willie Taggart to Oregon. He will serve as the Cougars’ run game coordinator and offensive line coach.
Finally, Dan Carrel was promoted to outside linebackers coach after spending two seasons with the program as a graduate assistant.
Given that most of the previous staff at Houston followed Tom Herman to Texas, Applewhite has needed to make several outside connections for his coaching staff and did so on Friday with a trio of new additions.
