Ad Disclosure
Florida Atlantic head coach Willie Taggart announced on Monday that Hines Ward has been promoted to wide receivers coach on the FAU staff, according to multiple reports.
The former Georgia star and longtime NFL vet joined the Owls in April of this year as a special assistant to Taggart.
“We gotta get better and it’s my job to make sure that we continue to evaluate and continue to move forward,” Taggart said Monday when asked what prompted the move, via 247Sports. “It’s something I thought would be best for us moving forward to help us.
“… I think Hines will do great. I think he’ll be really good. Not only for our players but also in the staff room. And his experience, his knowledge of the game, now that he can coach and be more involved, I think it will help us tremendously, in every aspect. … I don’t know if he can still run around like he used to but hopefully he can get our guys to assimilate how he played and more importantly, get them to do things the right way and the way we want to play.”
In 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, Ward appeared in 217 games, made 1,000 receptions, and produced more than 12,000 yards and 85 touchdowns. He was selected to the Pro Bowl 4 times and won a Super Bowl twice.
Quite the pedigree for a college wideout coach.
After his playing career ended, he dabbled in various things on the media side—Dancing with the Stars, an NFL analyst role on NBC—but landed on the coaching side in 2017. He was an intern with the Steelers that season and later was an offensive assistant for the New York Jets.
The Owls are 5-5 on the season. They travel to Western Kentucky on Saturday for a noon ET game against the C-USA East leaders.
Derek Peterson does a bit of everything, not unlike Taysom Hill. He has covered Oklahoma, Nebraska, the Pac-12, and now delivers CFB-wide content.
