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The new staff at Southern Miss is starting to develop an SEC flavor. The program announced Thursday it has hired three SEC staffers to serve under Will Hall.
Georgia analysts Greg Meyer and Dan O’Brien join Hall’s staff as on-field assistant coaches alongside departing Ole Miss assistant director of football strength and conditioning Lance Ancar as Southern Miss’ new strength and conditioning coach.
Meyer will serve in the role of special teams coordinator, while O’Brien will oversee the safeties.
Meyer joins the staff in Hattiesburg after spending the last three seasons as special teams analyst at Georgia. During that time, Georgia has posted a 30-7 record and gone to the Sugar Bowl in each of the past two seasons.
In 2020, the Bulldogs rank in the Top 10 nationally in kickoff returns (No. 4/31.33 per return), net punting (No. 7/42.66) and kickoff return defense (No. 10/16.80).
Prior to his stint at Georgia, Meyer worked at Eastern Kentucky as special teams coordinator and running backs coach, where he spent two seasons. Meyer served as the special teams quality control coach at Tennessee for three seasons (2013-15). Before that he served in the same role during the 2012 season at Cincinnati. Meyer got his collegiate coaching start as a staff intern at Mississippi State in 2009. He then served as a special teams graduate assistant for the Bulldogs during the 2010 and 2011 seasons.
He earned a bachelor’s in business management and a bachelor’s degree in English from Case Western Reserve University in 2010. Meyer completed a master’s degree in kinesiology at Mississippi State in 2012.
O’Brien heads to Southern Miss after spending the last two years at Georgia in defensive quality control.
O’Brien moved to UGA after working five years at the Naval Academy, along with four coaching in the secondary, with his main focus on the safeties his final two years.
O’Brien came to Navy from Elon, where he was the defensive backs coach for three years.
Prior to working at Elon, O’Brien spent four seasons as a defensive analyst and defensive graduate assistant at Alabama under the tutelage of Nick Saban and Kirby Smart. In O’Brien’s four years at Alabama, the Crimson Tide went 43-11 and won the 2009 BCS National Championship. The Crimson Tide ranked fifth nationally in total defense, third in scoring defense and 10th in rushing defense in 2010 and ranked third in all three categories in 2009.
Lance Ancar starts his new role at Southern Miss after spending the 2020 football season at Ole Miss as assistant director of football strength and conditioning.
Ancar came to Ole Miss after spending the last three seasons as director of football strength and conditioning at South Alabama.
Prior to joining the Jaguars, Ancar spent four seasons as a strength and conditioning coach at Alabama. While with the Crimson Tide, he assisted with the football program as it made three straight appearances in the College Football Playoff — winning the national championship in 2015 — and served as the head strength and conditioning coach for the baseball and men’s tennis programs. In his role, Ancar worked with Alabama’s swimming and diving and rowing teams as well.
Saturday Down South reports and comments on the news around the Southeastern Conference as well as larger college football topics.
