Ole Miss set to name Arkansas State's Jake Schoonover as new special teams coordinator
According to a report from On3’s Matt Zenitz, the Ole Miss Rebels are expected to hire former Arkansas State special teams coordinator and defensive assistant Jake Schoonover as the team’s special teams coordinator.
Schoonover brings over 10 years of coaching experience with him to Oxford and Lane Kiffin’s coaching staff. At Arkansas State, he coached freshman kicker and First-Team All-Conference selection Dominic Zvada, who missed just one extra point and one field goal attempt last season.
Prior to his stop at Jonesboro with the Red Wolves, he was the special team coordinator at Kansas, where he made a tremendous improvement with the Jayhawks. Schoonover led Kansas to the second-highest-ranked team in the nation in kickoff return defense, along with the 11th best in punt returns and 38th best in kickoff returns.
The Rebels could use some help in their special teams, particularly in the return game. Last season they ranked 10th and 11th in the SEC in yards per punt return and yards per kickoff return, and hopefully, Schoonover can help create some more explosive plays on special teams for Ole Miss in the 2023 season.
Ole Miss expected to hire former Texas, Syracuse coordinator Sterlin Gilbert as analyst
Ole Miss is bringing on a former Power 5 offensive coordinator in an analyst role. Sterlin Gilbert, who has been the offensive coordinator at Texas and Syracuse, is headed to Oxford to work under Lane Kiffin, according to On3’s Matt Zenitz.
Gilbert was most recently the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Syracuse, where he worked for the 2020 and 2021 seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach at McNeese State for the 2019 season, the OC and QBs coach at South Florida in 2017-18, and held those same roles at Texas in 2016 under Charlie Strong.
The only time Gilbert has spent more than two seasons coaching one team was when he spent three seasons from 2008-10 coaching Lake View High School in Texas. He’s coached or been an analyst at 12 different schools — college and high school — since 2003. Ole Miss will be his 13th.
The full list of teams Gilbert has coached or been an analyst for: Springtown (Texas) High School, Houston, Cooper (Texas) High School, Lake View (Texas) High School, Temple (Texas) High School, Eastern Illinois, Bowling Green, Tulsa, Texas, South Florida, McNeese State, and Syracuse.
And now Ole Miss is added to that list.