Illinois hiring Archie McDaniel as new linebackers coach

The Illinois Fighting Illini have made a new addition to their coaching staff ahead of the 2024 season, hiring Archie McDaniel as their new linebackers coach according to Matt Zenitz.

McDaniel spent the last three seasons as the linebackers coach at Houston, bringing over a decade of coaching experience with him to Champaign.

But as a former player, he a was a three-year starter and team captain at Texas A&M where he recorded 213 tackles, five sacks, and two interceptions during his three-year career with the Aggies in the early 2000s.

McDaniel’s coaching beginnings start at Trinity Valley Community College where he was a defensive assistant, following by another one-year stint as a graduate assistant at his alma mater before securing the first assistant coaching job of his career.

Following one season as Texas Southern’s linebackers coach McDaniel jumped to the FBS level on Tulsa‘s coaching staff, spending one season as tight ends and h-backs coach and another coaching the defensive line before becoming the defensive line coach at New Mexico in 2012.

McDaniel spent four total seasons at New Mexico in various defensive position coaching roles, which bookended a three-year stint as the linebackers coach at SMU between 2015 and 2017. Prior to his time at Houston, he spent two seasons Texas State‘s linebackers coach where he’d coach Sun Belt All-Conference talent like First-Team selection Bryan London II and Third Team selection Nikolas Daniels.

With the Cougars McDaniel coached another All-Conference talent in Donovan Mutin, who led the team in tackles twice in the last three seasons, also seeing high production from linebackers like Deontay Anderson, Mannie Nunnery, and Jamal Morris.

McDaniel is a Texas native with extensive experience recruiting within the state, an area in which Illinois head coach Bret Bielema expressed interest in recruiting more moving forward during his press conference on Wednesday specifically in Dallas.

Bielema parted ways with former linebackers coach Andy Buh and defensive backs coach Antonio Fenelus following the season. And with outside linebackers coach and pass rush coordinator Charlie Bullen returning to the NFL to coach outside linebackers for the New York Giants, McDaniel represents just one of several hires that Bielema will have to make this offseason as he enters his fourth season with the Fighting Illini program.