Report: Wisconsin defensive assistant expected to join Clark Lea’s Vanderbilt staff

Clark Lea’s Vanderbilt coaching staff could start with an impressive hire.

College football insider Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reports that Wisconsin defensive line coach Inoke Breckterfield is expected to be named the new Commodores defensive line coach. Breckterfield would be coming over from a Badgers defense that led the Big Ten in total defense and run defense this season.

Breckterfield, 43, completed his sixth season at Wisconsin. He has been in coaching since 2007, starting at Oregon State, his alma mater, as a grad assistant in 2007. He has also been a defensive line coach at Weber State (2009), Montana (2010), UCLA (2011) and Pittsburgh (2012-15).

Breckterfield’s most successful pupil, Pittsburgh product NFL star Aaron Donald, was a first-round pick of the Rams franchise (then St. Louis, now Los Angeles) in the 2014 NFL Draft following a senior season that saw the consensus All-American sweep the nation’s top defensive honors by claiming the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, Chuck Bednarik Award, Outland Trophy and Rotary Lombardi Award. Donald led the nation with 28.5 tackles for loss and ranked 11th in the country with 11.0 sacks as a senior.

SDS Staff

Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.