Cincinnati football head coach Scott Satterfield announced his first wave of assistant coach and support staff hires.
Joining the Bearcats staff are assistant coaches:
- Bryan Brown (defensive coordinator)
- Nic Cardwell (offense)
- Derek Nicholson (defense)
- De'Rail Sims (offense)
- Pete Thomas (offense)
Official titles and responsibilities will be announced at a later date.
Additionally, Satterfield announced the hire of Mark Speir as his chief of staff and Carter Wilson as a member of the recruiting staff.
"I'm thrilled to announce our first wave of staff hires here at Cincinnati," Satterfield said. "I've worked with all of these coaches for several years. Not only are they great coaches, evaluators and recruiters, they are also men of character who are as committed to preparing student-athletes for what's off the field as they are for what's on the field. They have won everywhere they have been, and that's exactly what we plan to do here at Cincinnati. They are all already here in the office as we focus on recruiting ahead of the early signing day. We are excited to begin preparation for the 2023 season."
Satterfield previously announced last Friday that Kerry Coombs would return to the UC staff on a new three-year deal to serve as the secondary coach and special teams coordinator.
Coombs is currently in Boston, Mass., leading the Bearcats as interim head coach for the Wasabi Fenway Bowl, which will be played on Saturday at 11 a.m. ET and air live on ESPN.
Cincinnati's New Staff Hires:
Bryan Brown (Defensive Coordinator)
Brown comes to Cincinnati after four seasons as defensive coordinator/cornerbacks coach at Louisville. He was elevated to associate head coach in 2020. Taking over a defense that was ranked near the bottom of college football in 2018, Brown has seen his troops improve dramatically, ranking as one of the nation's top defenses in 2022. This past season, the Cardinals ranked second in the nation in sacks (43), third in turnovers gained (28), 12th in TFLs (87) and 19th in scoring defense (20.2). Brown came to Louisville after six seasons at Appalachian State. He was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2018, and coached cornerbacks beginning in 2012. Prior to App State, he had stints at Ole Miss, Rutgers and Delta State.
Nic Cardwell (offense)
Cardwell returned to the Cards as the offensive line coach in 2022. He coached offensive linemen Caleb Chandler and Bryan Hudson to second team All-ACC honors this fall. He joined the Louisville staff after two seasons coaching the offensive line at Appalachian State. In 2021, under his tutelage, App State's offensive line was one of 13 semifinalists for the Joe Moore Award. Cardwell played tight end for App State where he was on three FCS national championship teams and finished his career as a co-captain.
Derek Nicholson (defense)
Nicholson spent the last three seasons at Louisville as the Cardinals' inside linebackers coach. He coached Momo Sanogo to All-ACC honors in 2022. Sanogo has 86 tackles and 8.5 TFLs this season. Nicholson came to Louisville for the second time after spending four seasons at Southern Mississippi, where he served as the co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach (2018-19) and defensive line coach (2016-17). A standout linebacker at Florida State, he finished his career with 207 tackles, 25.5 tackles for loss, 3.0 sacks, two defensive touchdowns, and was named to the Butkus Award and Chuck Bednarik Watch Lists in 2008.
De'Rail Sims (offense)
Sims spent the previous two seasons at Louisville as the running backs coach. In 2022, Sims coached a running back group that accounted for 2,326 yards and 23 touchdowns with Jawhar Jordan taking over as the top running back, rushing for 700 yards and a pair of touchdowns. Before joining the UofL staff, Sims served as a running backs coach at East Carolina. Prior to that, he coached three seasons at James Madison where his teams combined for a 28-2 record and were 2017 FCS Runners-Up to pair with the 2016 national title. He was a two-year starter at Pikeville, where he played from 2006-08 before joining the coaching staff as a student assistant.
Pete Thomas (offense)
Thomas spent the previous four seasons on Satterfield's staff at Louisville. He was elevated to quarterbacks coach in January 2021. Thomas' first season saw quarterback Malik Cunningham become the second quarterback in school history to rush for 1,000 yards. In 2022, Cunningham became the sixth FBS player to pass for 9,000 yards and rush for 3,000 yards in a career. Before joining the Louisville staff as an offensive quality control coach, he spent two seasons at Appalachian State, as an offensive graduate assistant in 2017 and offensive quality control coach in 2018. A quarterback during his playing career, Thomas threw for more than 9,000 yards and 36 touchdowns and played one season for the Los Angeles Kiss of the Arena Football League.
Mark Speir (Chief of Staff)
Speir spent last season as the Chief of Staff at Louisville. He came to the Cards after serving at Appalachian State as a senior analyst for the 2021 season. He was a member of Jerry Moore's staff at App State from 2003-11, helping the Mountaineers win three straight national championships and six conference titles in those nine seasons. That success led to him being hired as the head coach at Western Carolina, where he was a finalist for the Eddie Robinson National FCS Coach of the Year award during his 10 years with the Catamounts.
Carter Wilson (recruiting)
Wilson joins Cincinnati in Satterfield's recruiting department. A Florida graduate, he has more than five years of experience working in recruiting at Louisville and with the Gators.
