UCF has formally announced four assistants to Josh Heupel‘s staff on Sunday.
The Knights have hired Shane Burnham as defensive line coach, Anthony Tucker as running backs coach, Darrell Wyatt as wide receivers coach and Jeff Lebby as an offensive assistant.
The Burnham and Tucker hirings represent coups for Heupel, as both were hired away from Power 5 staffs. Burnham spent the past two seasons as defensive line coach at Rutgers, and Tucker the past two seasons as running backs coach at Maryland. Wyatt was hired away from Houston, where he worked as wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator; he coached from 2011-13 as co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach at Texas.
Lebby spent the 2017 season as the offensive coordinator at Southeastern University, an NAIA school at Lakeland, Fla. He is a former member of Art Briles‘s staff at Baylor, and his connection to the disgraced coach actually goes one step further than that: Lebby is Briles’s son-in-law. Lebby was also sanctioned by the NCAA for a recruiting violation for showing up on Tulsa’s sideline for a game at Oklahoma while working as an assistant at Baylor.
Additionally, UCF has bolstered Heupel’s support staff by hiring Steve Smith as director of player development, Marc Votteler as assistant director of player personnel, and Rodney Hill and Dave Young as assistant directors of sports performance.
Heupel and the rest of his newly-formed staff will wait to take over the 12th-ranked Knights until after UCF faces No. 7 in the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl on New Year’s Day (12:30 p.m. ET, ESPN).