Coach Mason hired Jeff Genyk as special teams coach and C.J. Ah You as defensive line coach to replace special teams and running backs coach Charles Bankins who was let go by Coach Mason after the season, and Coach Frank Maile, who left the program to take over as defensive coordinator at Utah State. Maile is from that area. They join new offensive line coach Cameron Norcross on the staff.
Genyk, who is 55 years old, is a coaching veteran of 25 years and comes to the program after coaching special teams at Northwestern, Cal and most recently Wisconsin, where he worked with VU offensive coordinator Andy Ludwig. Genyk was at Wisconsin two years (2013-14) and the Badgers went 19-7 over those two years. Genyk served at Cal prior to that and at Northwestern under Gary Barnett in the mid 90’s and under Randy Walker in the late ’90’s and early 2000’s seasons in which Northwestern had good success including going to the Rose Bowl in 1995. Genyk was part of back-to-back Big Ten championships at Northwestern as he coached special teams, running backs and other positions. He became Northwestern’s recruiting coordinator in 1998. He was also a head coach at Eastern Michigan, and had some success there. Genyk could very well coach running backs, too.
Ah You comes to VU after spending a couple of years at Oklahoma as a special teams and defensive assistant. The 33 year old played five seasons in the NFL as defensive end for the St. Louis Rams. The California native was All-Big 12 first team as a defensive end at OU in 2006.
Genyk and Ah You join 37 year old offensive line coach Norcross as our newest coaches. Norcross is coming to Vanderbilt after serving four successful seasons as Fresno State’s offensive line coach, and prior to that at Nevada. He has been a part of some prolific offenses at both stops.
With Genyk, Ah You, and Norcross, we add some major recruiting energy and expertise, and valuable coaching experience to the staff. Along with 29 year old safeties coach Mark Matioli and 36 year old wide receivers coach Corez Hankton, both entering their second years, we really have some added some energy to our coaching staff.
Also, cornerbacks coach Brett Maxie is interviewing with the Indianapolis Colts for the same job there. We’ll see how that develops and what Coach Mason does in case Maxie takes the Colts’ job. We got good play from our cornerbacks, but a new coach might add some fresh ideas.