Miami to hire former Texas star as defensive ends coach

Mario Cristobal’s staff at Miami is coming together.

The Hurricanes are set to hire UTSA co-defensive coordinator Rod Wright as their defensive ends coach, a source confirmed to On3’s Matt Zenitz. Wright was an All-American defensive lineman at Texas had a brief NFL career with the Miami Dolphins.

Miami is set to hire UTSA co-DC Rod Wright as defensive ends coach, a source tells @on3sports. First reported by @johndbrice1.

Wright, a former Texas All-American d-lineman, was previously in Miami as a defensive lineman for the Dolphins from 2006-08.https://t.co/k5bN5NhJoE

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) March 3, 2022

Wright spent the last three years at UTSA, starting as defensive line coach in 2019 before adding run game coordinator to his title in 2020 and co-defensive coordinator in 2021. He also worked as the defensive line coach at East Carolina and Sam Houston State during his coaching career.

At Texas, Wright earned First Team All-Big 12 honors and was a Consensus All-American on the Longhorns’ defensive line in 2005. He had 46 tackles, 14 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks that season.

Cristobal’s staff is coming together nicely as he gets ready for his first season as the head coach at his alma mater.

Breaking down Mario Cristobal’s staff at Miami

Wright is just the latest hire to Cristobal’s first staff as Miami head coach. He brought in some big names to try and turn the program around, too.

Current rundown of Mario Cristobal’s on-field staff at Miami:

OC/WR — Josh Gattis
DC — Kevin Steele
QB — Frank Ponce
RB — Kevin Smith
OL — Alex Mirabal
TE — TBD
DT — Joe Salave’a
DE — Rod Wright
LB/co-DC — Charlie Strong
DB — Jahmile Addaehttps://t.co/k5bN5NhJoE

— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) March 3, 2022

The biggest names are his offensive coordinator and defensive coordinator. Josh Gattis heads to the 305 after serving as Michigan’s offensive coordinator the last three years, and Kevin Steele comes aboard as defensive coordinator after he was preparing to take the job at Maryland.

Miami also made a big splash by landing former Texas coach Charlie Strong as linebackers coach and co-defensive coordinator. The Hurricanes continued the Texas connection by bringing in Wright, as well.

Now, Cristobal has to focus on finding a tight ends coach to round out his staff. He’s taking over a Miami team that went 7-5 overall and 5-3 in ACC play under Manny Diaz in 2021. He got busy on the recruiting trail, too, bringing in the nation’s No. 11 recruiting class from the class of 2022, according to the On3 Consensus Team Recruiting Rankings.