Nebraska football: Matt Rhule adds nine more full-time staff additions
Earlier this month, Nebraska football head coach Matt Rhule announced several full-time assistant coaching hires.
Rhule has added several other members to his coaching staff over the last month. The official Huskers.com directory began listing many of these new hires on Monday.
A few of these hires were already known because of social media involvement in recruiting. The titles and duties were not.
Adam DiMichele, Omar Hales and Mike Wallace were three of the people heavily involved in recruiting the last few weeks.
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Some of the more intriguing new staff hires are General Manager Sean Padden, who figures to have a heavy role in the Rhule operation.
Former San Diego head coach Kevin McGarry is another interesting hire, who followed Tony White from Syracuse to serve as his senior defensive analyst.
Below is a breakdown of all the latest staff additions made by Rhule.
Nebraska football: Latest official staff additions
| Name | Title | Bio |
| Adam DiMichele | Offensive Analyst | Adam DiMichele joins Matt Rhule after spending the previous 10 seasons at Temple. He worked under Rhule from 2013-2017 and was retained by three different Temple coaching staffs. In 2018, he was Temple’s quarterbacks and inside receivers coach while also coordinating the recruiting efforts for the offense. DiMichele served as an offensive analyst in 2019 and 2020, and he was the Owls’ director of player personnel in 2021 and 2022. |
| Omar Hales | Director of Player Personnel – High School | One of the key pieces in Rhule’s recruiting operation is Omar Hales. He has worked at Rutgers, along with under Rhule at Temple, Baylor and the Carolina Panthers. Hales played linebacker at Temple and was a two-year letter winner in 2007 and 2008. |
| Mike Wallace | Director of Scouting | Nebraska’s director of scouting is Mike Wallace. He previously spent three seasons under Rhule at Temple and three at Baylor. During his time at Baylor, nearly two dozen Bears went on to play in the NFL. |
| Jarrett Wishon | Assistant to the Head Coach | Jarrett Wishon joins Rhule after serving as the assistant to the head coach for him at Carolina in 2022. He’ll have that same title at Nebraska. Before football, Wishon worked a long career in law enforcement with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from 2014 until joining the Panthers in March of 2022. Before his work with the ATF, Wishon was a police detective for the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department for nine years from 2005 to 2014. |
| James Heiss | Associate Director of Football Strength and Conditioning | James Heiss comes to Nebraska after spending the previous four seasons at Buffalo as an assistant strength coach. Heiss worked under new NU strength coach Corey Campbell at Baylor in 2017 and 2018. |
| Tyler Miles | Assistant Director of Football Strength and Conditioning | Tyler Miles comes to Nebraska after serving as an assistant strength and conditioning coach at Duke (2022) and Miami (2021). In 2019 and 2020, Miles worked at Boost Performance in Nashville, helping prepare athletes for the NFL Combine. During his time at Boost, he was also the head strength coach at Tennessee State. He was also an assistant strength coach at Northwestern State (2019) and an intern at Tennessee (2018) and South Carolina (2017), along with serving as a paid intern for the New York Jets in 2018. |
| Phil Simpson | Defensive Quality Control | One of the more intriguing hires made by Rhule thus far is Phil Simpson, who comes to NU after serving as the head high school coach at Homestead in Miami (2019-2022). In 2022, Simpson led Homestead to teh Class 3M state title game. His teams went 23-4 over his final two seasons, and he was named the Miami Herald Coach of the year in 2021. Simpson also has high school coaching experience at both Southridge and Palmetto. He played at Temple from 2004-2007. Rhule was his position coach at Temple in 2006 and 2007. |
| Sean Padden | General Manager | Of all the hires made, this one is probably the most high-profile in terms of pay and title. Sean Padden will serve as Rhule’s General Manager. He’s worked with Rhule in nine of his 11 seasons as a head coach. He worked in the private sector at Kitman Labs before rejoining Rhule. Before joining Rhule’s Temple staff, Padden was a corporate account manager at Bentley Systems for three years and an institutional representative for Forest Pharmaceuticals for nearly six years. |
| Kevin McGarry | Senior Defensive Analyst | Kevin McGarry joins Nebraska after working under new defensive coordinator Tony White at Syracuse and San Diego State. He was with White at Syracuse from 2020-22 and SDSU for 11 seasons, working with White for nine of those. McGarry served various roles with the Aztecs, coaching the linebackers, defensive line and special teams while also filling the roles of director of player personnel and director of on-campus recruiting. Before that, he was the head coach at FCS San Diego from 1996 to 2003 and an assistant coach there from 1978-2003. He went 39-38 and was the head coach before Jim Harbaugh took over in 2004. |
