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The Ducks have filled their assistant coaching vacancy on the defensive line with 27-year college veteran Jerry Azzinaro. A Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Azzinaro coached defensive line at Marshall University in 2008 after serving the same role at New Hampshire in 2007.

All told, Azzinaro brings 12 years of experience as a defensive coordinator and one year as a head coach in the collegiate ranks to Eugene.

Time will tell, but I think it is a great hire.

Azzinaro is in a family and financial position where the only reason to coach college football, is because he loves the game, the challenge, and the kids!

Welcome aboard, Coach A!

I noticed he has Bachelor's in Psychology and a Master's in Educational Psychology. I bet those degrees come in handy when getting into the heads of the players and getting them excited and psyched to play!!!! I think he will be a great fit for the Ducks and help get them to the next level!

I like this hire. I assume since he worked at NH he has some connection with Kelly? Anyway, i really like him and seems like he has a great passion.

I'm optimistic that there is something I don't know. But, to be honest, I'm not so sure about this one.

Was Gray under-performing?

Is there anything in Azzinaro's resume that makes him a clear improvement?

He has coached for a long time. But, none of the programs as far as I can tell had great records on D. Duke? Marshall?

I could be wrong. But, on the surface, it seems like we replaced a good coach with another potentially good coach.

wheaton4prez wrote:I'm optimistic that there is something I don't know. But, to be honest, I'm not so sure about this one.

Was Gray under-performing?

Is there anything in Azzinaro's resume that makes him a clear improvement?

He has coached for a long time. But, none of the programs as far as I can tell had great records on D. Duke? Marshall?

I could be wrong. But, on the surface, it seems like we replaced a good coach with another potentially good coach.

CK knows the guy and obviously likes him for whatever reasons. If our d-line underperforms the next couple years I'll question this, but right now I think we give him a chance before we second-guess. CK came from a D-2 school I believe... I trust the coaches with knowing who can coach

Azzinaro coached at New Hampshire the season after Chip left for Oregon.

"After spending his first two years as the defensive ends coach at Syracuse, Azzinaro welcomed the tackles to his ranks, in addition to his duties as recruiting coordinator, prior to the 2001 campaign. During that season Azzinaro guided Syracuse's Dwight Freeney to finalist recoginition for the Lombardi Award, Nagurski and Bednarik Trophies, in addition to consensus All-America honors. A two-time unanimous All-BIG EAST selection, Freeney earned the 2001 BIG EAST co-Defensive Player of the Year Award. Freeney was named BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week four times during the 2001 campaign. Azzinaro's defensive line collected 29 of the team's 40 sacks, including Freeney's NCAA, BIG EAST and SU single-season record 17.5 sacks. Azzinaro's crew also collected 62 tackles for a loss. His troops also forced 10 fumbles and recovered eight." (Remember, we're talking about just the D-Line here...)

The thing you notice abpout Azzinaro's resume, is he hasn't worked at schools who are recruiting hotbeds or football powers. Syracuse, UMass, New Hampshire, and Duke don't exactly leap into a Duck fan's thoughts when a discussion of college football is taking place. (Well, maybe NH, thanks to CK!)

I'm not so sure of this guy either but that's why they pay the coaches what they do...lets just hope it works out! I liked Gray and I think he did a great job with what he's had but our recruiting at DT has sucked...

We will see how this turns out soon enough I'm optimistic that CK knows more than me...

GO DUCKS!!

An upgrade in coaching and recruiting.

I didn't know much about Chip Kelley either before he was hired. Point being if MB is high enough on the guy to hire him, I can't wait for him to get here!

The DLine wasn't underperforming but the recruiting there was...that's why the change was made IMO

Recruits Gray is credited with on Rivals 2009 - Terrance Montgomery
2008 - Hamani Stevens
2007 - Drew Davis, Daniel Padilla, Myles Davis
not a lot for 3 years but to his credit, some of these young men will be studs and he didn't finish the 2009 recruiting year.

Recruiting might be one of the isues for getting rid of Gray. He did make references to recruiting after the announcement of his release. But, I think that Chip wanted to get this guy on his staff and Gray was just a casuality. 27 yrs of experience is huge and I think that he will be good for the program and recruiting.

DL coach should ultimately be responsible for DL recruiting, and we've been sub-par in that area. The top notch guys we did get didn't qualify and the position coach should bear some of the blame for that

Azzinaro was hired at a base salary of $150,000 and given a contract that runs through June 30, 2010. With Azzinaro coaching the line, Marshall’s defense allowed 164.4 rushing yards per game last fall, sixth in Conference USA; the Ducks allowed 119.4 rushing yards per game in 2008, second in the Pac-10.



OH.