Jaguars announce bevy of personnel staff additions, promotions

Jaguars announce bevy of personnel staff additions, promotions

The Jaguars announced a bevy of moves within their personnel department Monday, formalizing nine staff additions and eight promotions involving football administration, scouting, player and personnel relations, and player engagement.

Jacksonville hired Tom Gamble as senior personnel executive; Chris Ash as a pro scout; Corey Peters and Josh Scobey (not to be confused with former Jaguars kicker Josh Scobee) as college scouts; Mimi Bolden-Morris, Austin Leake and Max Rosenthal as scouting assistants; Tara Goolsby as player finance and football administration assistant; and Savannah Reier as manager of player and personnel relations.

Gamble and Ash‘s appointments had previously been reported.

Both are returning to the team after previous stints with Jacksonville: Gamble will occupy the same role he held in 2021 with the Jaguars, while Ash has moved to scouting after coaching the team’s safeties the same year. Ash coached Las Vegas’ defensive backs from 2022-23.

A 13-year NFL defensive lineman, Peters finished his playing career with the Jaguars in 2022 and is now embarking on a career in scouting, of note.

The Jaguars promoted John Stevenson to assistant director of college scouting; Ryan Stamper to national scout; Jason DesJarlais to pro scout; Holden McAbee, Antonio Robinson, Mickeel Stewart and Tyler Walker to college scouting roles; and Nikki Donoff to player engagement manager.

Find brief biographies for each staff member below, provided by Jaguars public relations.

Additions

Tom Gamble: Gamble is entering his 31st season in the NFL. He spent the last two seasons as the director of player personnel for the University of Michigan (2022-23), who in 2023 were crowned the College Football Playoff National Champions. In 2021, he served as a senior personnel executive for Jacksonville.

Chris Ash: Ash returns to Jacksonville after two years as the defensive backs coach for the Las Vegas Raiders (2022-23). In 2021, he served as the Jaguars’ secondary coach. Ash coached collegiately for 24 years, including roles as head coach at Rutgers (2016-19) and defensive coordinator at Texas (2020), Ohio State (2014-15), Arkansas (2013) and Wisconsin (2011-12).

Corey Peters: A longtime NFL defensive lineman, Peters played five seasons in Atlanta (2010-14) and six in Arizona (2016-21). He finished his career in Jacksonville in 2022, helping the Jaguars to the divisional round of the playoffs. He was drafted by the Falcons in the third round (83rd overall) of the 2010 NFL Draft out of Kentucky.

Josh Scobey: Scobey spent the past 12 seasons (2010-23) with the Arizona Cardinals’ scouting department, most recently as their director of college scouting (2022-23). He was also drafted by the Cardinals in the sixth round (185th overall) of the 2002 NFL Draft.

Mimi Bolden-Morris: Bolden-Morris most recently served as director of operations for women’s basketball at the College of William & Mary in 2023. Before arriving at William & Mary, Bolden-Morris spent the 2022 season as an offensive graduate assistant/assistant quarterbacks coach for the University of Michigan.

Austin Leake: Leake spent the past two seasons as director of player personnel for Army West Point (2023-24) and Eastern Illinois University (2023). Before going into player personnel, Leake coached tight ends at Henderson University (2022) and was a longtime high school coach, including one season as head coach at Mark Twain High School (2021) in Center, Missouri.

Max Rosenthal: Rosenthal served as an offensive and special teams quality control coach at the University of Illinois in 2023. The Chicago-area native was a two-year starter at fullback for Michigan State University prior to spending the final year of his playing career at Illinois.

Tara Goolsby: Goolsby joins the Jaguars as player finance and football administration assistant from Samford University’s football program, where she was director of football management (2022-24) and chief of staff (2024). She is a two-time graduate of Tulane University, receiving her J.D. in 2022.

Savannah Reier: Reier was most recently the director of on-campus recruiting at the University of Southern California (2024). Before entering that role, she spent two years at the University of Hawai’i as director of football recruiting (2023) and director of player development for the women’s basketball program (2022).

Promotions

John Stevenson: Stevenson was promoted to assistant director of college scouting after two seasons as a national scout. He spent six seasons with the San Francisco 49ers’ scouting department prior to Jacksonville, most recently as a college scout (2017-21).

Ryan Stamper: After three seasons as director of player assessment in pro scouting, Stamper has been promoted to national scout. Before joining the Jaguars, he spent nine seasons at Ohio State and was named assistant athletic director for player development in 2018.

Jason DesJarlais: DesJarlais has been promoted to pro scout after spending 18 years as a college scout in the Southeast and Midwest. He first came to the Jaguars in 2007 as the Bears-Lions-Eagles-Talent-Organization (BLESTO) scout.

Holden McAbee: McAbee was promoted to college scout after two seasons as a scouting assistant. Prior to joining the Jaguars, he served as director of player personnel at Gardner-Webb University (2021), where he led the evaluations and operations of the recruiting department.

Antonio Robinson: Robinson will once again serve as a college scout after two seasons as the NFS scout. Hired by the Jaguars in 2013, he spent the prior 10 years as a college scout.

Mickeel Stewart: After two seasons as a scouting assistant, Stewart has been promoted to college scout. Before coming to the Jaguars, he served as the assistant director of scouting and recruiting communications at West Virginia University.

Tyler Walker: Walker was promoted to college scout after three seasons as a scouting assistant. He came to the Jaguars after seven years with the University of Oregon, most recently as a pro liaison (2020-21).

Nikki Donoff: Donoff has been promoted to player engagement manager as she enters her third season with the Jaguars. She is a graduate of Georgia Southern University, where she worked as a football operations assistant.

Former Rutgers football head coach Chris Ash is back in the NFL

Former Rutgers football head coach Chris Ash is back in the NFL.

Chris Ash, who spent over three years as a head coach with Rutgers football, has returned to the Jacksonville Jaguars with a role in their personnel department.

Having spent the last two years as a defensive backs coach with the Las Vegas Raiders, Ash will work with the Jaguars as a scout. A former defensive coordinator at Ohio State prior to his time at Rutgers, Ash has spent the last three years of his coaching career in the NFL.

Ash faced a pretty massive rebuild at Rutgers (2016-19). During his time at Rutgers, he posted an 8-32 (3-26 Big Ten) record. He was let go four games into the 2019 season.

He spent two years at Texas as their defensive coordinator before joining the coaching staff of the Jaguars as a safeties coach in 2021.

He then spent the last two years as the defensive backs coach of the Raiders. He was not retained by new Raiders head coach Antonio Pierce.

The role for Ash was first reported by John Shipley of Jaguar Report, a part of Fan Nation.

 

A number of his recruits went on to have success in the Big Ten and then the NFL, including Green Bay Packers wide receiver [autotag]Bo Melton[/autotag] and Kansas City Chiefs running back [autotag]Isiah Pacheco[/autotag].

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Both Melton and Pacheco played for Ash and then spent their final year in college under current head coach [autotag]Greg Schiano[/autotag]. Melton and Pacheco were Day 3 selections in the 2022 NFL draft.

Report: Jaguars hire former assistant coach under Urban Meyer as scout

Report: Jaguars hire former assistant coach under Urban Meyer as scout

The Jaguars have added Chris Ash, the team’s safeties coach under former head coach Urban Meyer in 2021, to their scouting department, according to John Shipley of Jaguar Report.

Ash spent one season with Jacksonville during his previous stint with the team. He was hired by Meyer in Feb. 2021, marking his first coaching role in the NFL, and not retained the following offseason, after Meyer was fired 13 games into his inaugural campaign as the Jaguars’ head coach.

The Jaguars drafted current starting safety Andre Cisco that year, making Ash his first NFL positional coach. Ash also coached current Jacksonville safeties, Andrew Wingard and Daniel Thomas, at that time.

Ash spent the past two seasons as defensive backs coach for Las Vegas. He was not retained this offseason, following the Raiders’ firing of former head coach Josh McDaniels and hiring of Antonio Pierce to succeed McDaniels.

Before his jump to the pros, Ash served as a defensive analyst for Texas in 2019 before his promotion to defensive coordinator and safeties coach for the 2020 campaign. It followed his three-plus-season tenure as Rutgers’ head coach, where he compiled an 8-32 record between 2016-19.

Ash previously occupied the title of defensive coordinator for Ohio State (under Meyer), Arkansas, Wisconsin and Drake.

Nate Hobbs has ‘found a home’ back in the slot for Raiders

Raiders seem to have learned from last season and where Nate Hobbs does his best work.

Two years ago, Nate Hobbs came on strong as a round five rookie out of Illinois. He did it by grabbing ahold of the slot corner job in training camp and never letting go of it.

He was so good, in fact, that in his second season, the Raiders new coaching staff asked him to do more. In particular, they moved him to the outside. Mostly it was out of necessity, but ultimately it meant they weren’t getting the best work out of Hobbs.

That’s not a knock on Hobbs at all. The slot corner job is not easy. Not a lot of corners in the league can do it well. In part because of the unique coverage responsibilities and in part because of the tackling requirements.

It would appear this Raiders staff learned from that experience. Because despite once again being without two established outside starters, they haven’t been messing around with Hobbs’s position. He is the man in the middle. Just as it should be.

“Yeah, I’m comfortable there,” Hobbs said of playing in the slot. “I get to open my vision, see the field, use my instincts.”

I asked Raiders DB coach Chris Ash if he would say Hobbs has found his niche in the slot for this team.

“Yeah, I would,” Ash said. “I think he has the ability to do anything we need him to, but I think he’s really found a home at that position and has an opportunity with his skillset to really excel there.”

Both Ash and fellow DB coach Jason Simmons agree that Hobbs is talented enough to play anywhere in the secondary. And that may be true. But they know where he his bread and butter is and are wisely keeping him where he makes the greatest impact.

Year-by-year salaries of Rutgers head football coaches since 2012

Rutgers Wire revisits the annual salaries of the Scarlet Knights’ head football coaches over the past decade.

The salaries of college football head coaches have skyrocketed in recent years, as the cost of doing business among the nation’s Power Five programs has quickly escalated.

Although the Rutgers Scarlet Knights haven’t spent wildly on their head coaches, the program’s salary arc has risen significantly over the past decade. From Kyle Flood to Chris Ash to Greg Schiano, Rutgers has sharply boosted its level of compensation with the goal of competing for a Big Ten championship.

To get an idea of how rapidly coaching salaries are rising, Rutgers Wire lists the annual compensation paid out to Rutgers University head football coaches over the past decade below.

[Source: USA TODAY college football coaching salary database; figures do not include income from non-university sources, incentive bonuses or the value of perks and benefits.]

Report: Raiders to hire Chris Ash as defensive backs coach

Chris Ash, who spent last season with the Jaguars, is to be Raiders new DB coach

Within days of Patrick Graham taking over as Raiders defensive coordinator, he has found his DB coach. He is former Jaguars DB coach Chris Ash according to Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post. Bruce Feldman of The Athletic confirmed the hire.

Prior to spending the 2021 season with the Jaguars, Ash was a coach at the college level. Most prominently spending four seasons as head coach at Rutgers (2016-19).

Ash started out the DC at Drake (1998-99). From there he spent nine years as a DB coach at the Division I level at Iowa State (2002-06, 2009), San Diego State (2007-08), and Wisconsin (2010).

He got the DC gig at Wisconsin (2011-12), then Arkansas (2013), then Ohio State (2014-15) and later Texas (2020) before joining Urban Meyer’s staff in Jacksonville.

The Jaguars’ team was terrible overall last season, so it’s hard to know how good of a job he did. Opponents didn’t put the ball in the air much (fifth fewest attempts) and therefore they were near the bottom in interceptions (7), just above the Raiders (6) at dead last.

Texas edge rusher Joseph Ossai says Jags have shown interest in him

With there being a connection between him and Chris Ash, Texas edge rusher Joseph Ossai says he’s met with the Jags this offseason.

Aside from having great quarterback play, the key to winning in the NFL is rushing the passer. The Jacksonville Jaguars didn’t do that very well and will need to add a pass-rusher or two this offseason to help K’Lavon Chaisson and Josh Allen out.

Luckily, the draft has a decent amount of options to help them on the edge. One of the more notable prospects who could get snagged early is Texas pass rusher Joseph Ossai, who told the media that the Jags are one of the teams who’ve met with him this offseason during his pro day. Of course, this should come as no surprise as his former defensive coordinator, Chris Ash, is on the Jags staff as their secondary and safeties coach.

Ossai turned heads Thursday at his pro day after showing great burst by registering a 10-foot, 11-inch broad jump and a 41.5-inch vertical jump. In terms of his measurables, Ossai’s official height was 6-foot-3, while his weight was 256 pounds.

Ossai obviously has the explosion a team would want on the edge and also is effective with his hands. He also has a knack for causing fumbles (like a certain former Jag) but is raw in the eyes of scouts and has a lot of developing to do on the edge. As most fans know, athleticism alone will only get a player so far in the NFL, but with a teacher like defensive coordinator Joe Cullen on the staff, the sky could be the limit for Ossai.

A lot of mocks have Ossai being taken late in the first round or early in the second. The Jags have picks No. 25, 33, and 45, which could provide them with several chances to snag Ossai if they wanted.

Former Longhorns head coach officially joins Urban Meyer’s staff in Jacksonville

Former Texas head coach Charlie Strong will serve as the Jacksonville Jaguars inside linebackers coach.

Former Texas Longhorns head coach Charlie Strong has officially been hired by Urban Meyer and the Jacksonville Jaguars. Continue reading “Former Longhorns head coach officially joins Urban Meyer’s staff in Jacksonville”

Report: Former Texas DC Chris Ash joins Jaguars staff as secondary coach

Former Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash will serve as the secondary coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars under head coach Urban Meyer.

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Former Texas defensive coordinator Chris Ash will be reuniting with Urban Meyer in Jacksonville. Continue reading “Report: Former Texas DC Chris Ash joins Jaguars staff as secondary coach”

Texas defensive end Jacoby Jones announces his return for 2021

Senior defensive end Jacoby Jones ended the speculation on Tuesday when he announced he would forgo the NFL Draft and return in 2021.

With the loss of Joseph Ossai to the NFL Draft, a major question mark rises on who will handle edge duties in the 2021 season. Continue reading “Texas defensive end Jacoby Jones announces his return for 2021”