In a bit of a surprise, Boston College head coach Jeff Hafley is leaving college football to join the Green Bay Packers as their defensive coordinator. Hafley last coached in the NFL from 2016 to 2018 with the San Francisco 49ers as the defensive backs coach.
The newest Packers assistant has also made stops with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Cleveland Browns, before returning to the collegiate game with the Ohio State Buckeyes in 2019.
Hafley becomes the latest member of the coaching carousel, in an offseason that has been full of twists and turns. According to the report by Pete Thamel of ESPN, Hafley wanted to focus on coaching football and not everything else that comes with being a coach at the FBS level.
“He wants to go coach football again in a league that is all about football,” a source told ESPN. “College coaching has become fundraising, NIL and recruiting your own team and transfers. There’s no time to coach football anymore.
“A lot of things that he went back to college for have disappeared.”
With Hafley now leaving to rejoin the NFL, the Boston College Eagles will need to find a new football coach just days before National Signing Day. Not an ideal situation but that is the hand dealt to BC.
The Eagles could look at a few different candidates but the top ones might include Notre Dame offensive coordinator Al Golden and Texas offensive coordinator Kyle Flood. Both have experience running programs but have remained as assistants in recent years.