It appears the last piece of LSU head football coach Brian Kelly’s staff will have a heavy Louisiana accent.
A day after reportedly promoting Joe Sloan and Cortez Hankton to become his co-offensive coordinators, Kelly finalized a deal to hire Louisiana native Slade Nagle as his tight ends coach and special teams coordinator.
FootballScoop was the first to report the news. LSU confirmed the news of Nagle’s hiring with a news release Wednesday evening.
“Slade brings a winning and an experienced collegiate resume to our staff,” Kelly said. “Whether calling plays or coaching tight ends, quarterbacks or special teams, Slade has excelled at all levels. A native of Louisiana, he has a great recruiting knowledge of the state and is known for developing his position group. We are excited about Slade becoming a member of the Tiger Staff.”
Kelly has hired six coaches over a three-week span, finishing up the past two days on offense after former offensive coordinator/tight ends coach Mike Denbrock left to become offensive coordinator at Notre Dame.
All 10 of Kelly’s hires have coached in Louisiana.
Nagle, a native of Lake Charles who spent the 2009 as an administrative assistant at LSU, worked the past eight years at Tulane where he was part of a staff for coach Willie Fritz that revitalized the Green Wave program.
He also received overtures from Ole Miss and the opportunity to follow Fritz to Houston and serve as offensive coordinator but accepted Kelly’s offer to join the Tigers’ staff.
During the 2023 season, Fritz’s last season at Tulane, Nagle served as assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. When Fritz left to become the head coach at the University of Houston, Nagle was elevated to interim coach and the Green Wave (11-3) lost 41-20 to Virginia Tech in the Military Bowl.
Nagle was the running backs coach and spent time with special teams at his alma mater McNeese for four years before moving to Tulane for the last eight years, the first seven as tight ends coach.
He had a sizable role in Tulane’s record-setting offense that totalled 6,200 yards in 2022. Tight end Tyrick James tied for fifth on the team in touchdowns with and contributed 287 all-purpose yards per game.
During his tenure at Tulane, the Green Wave participated in the Military Bowl, Cotton Bowl, Armed Forces Bowl and Cure Bowl. While at McNeese, the Cowboys went to the NCAA playoffs three times (2011, ’13, ’15) and in his one season with LSU, the Tigers took part in the 2009 Capital One Bowl.
NOTES: 247Sports reported that LSU’s Will Redmond, the team’s director of player personnel of Kelly, was moving to Auburn for a high-ranking personnel and recruiting position. That move could open the door for a return of Austin Thomas to LSU, who previously worked twice with the Tigers and most recently under head coach Ed Orgeron. … UConn will hire Jeremiah Bogan of LSU to serve as its Director of Player Personnel, per a report from On3 Sports. … Bogan worked under Redmond in LSU’s player personnel department.
Be the first to comment