A report says that Jeff Hafley, head coach of Boston College, is leaving to become defensive coordinator for the Packers.
Jeff Hafley, the head coach of Boston College, is leaving the highest level of football to work at a lower level.
Hafley has been a defensive backs coach over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Cleveland Browns, and the San Francisco 49ers over seven years in the NFL.
ESPN’s Pete Thamel says that Hafley, who has been the Eagles’ coach for four years, is likely to leave the school and become the Green Bay Packers’ defensive coordinator.
Joe Barry was fired from the Packers after being fired for being a bad coach. Barry’s defenses ranked 27th at DVOA this season or 25th last season, even though the team spent four straight first-round selections on that side of the ball.
The team has some good players—they went 9-8 in their regular season and beat the Dallas Cowboys easily in the wild-card round—but they could have done better.
According to SB Nation, the Packers interviewed at least seven other candidates for the defensive coordinator job.
Former Los Angeles Chargers offensive coordinator Brandon Staley was one of them, but they chose to hire someone who wasn’t quite what they expected.
In 2019, he went back to college football. For one season, he was co-defensive coordinator or defensive backs coach at Ohio State before taking the job at Boston College.
Jeff Hafley has quit his job as head coach of Boston College to become defensive coordinator for the Green Bay Packers.
Joe Barry was fired last week after three years as Green Bay’s defensive coordinator. The Packers announced Wednesday night which Hafley will take over for Barry.
In four years, Hafley was in charge of Boston College and went 22–26. This past season, they went 7–6 and beat SMU in the Fenway Bowl.
“I loved my four decades at Boston College,” Hafley said in a school statement. “The quality of the athletes that we recruit, the facilities, and the support from University and BC fans make this a great place to coach.”
I will miss the players who gave so much over the last four years. My wife Gina and I will also miss the people of British Columbia and all the friends we’ve made here.
Because of his move, the coaching job market is once again open, and Boston College has the only open spot in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Hafley takes in a defense that didn’t play well for most of the season but came together in the end.
As an NFL secondary coach, Hafley worked for Tampa Bay from 2012 to 2013, Cleveland from 2014 to 2015, and San Francisco from 2016 to 2018. In 2019, he became Ohio State’s defensive coordinator as well as secondary coach.
Packers coach Matt LaFleur said in a statement that Jeff had “an impressive track record in cultivating players at every level” and had been successful at every job he had as a coach. “We’re excited for him to be in charge of our defense.”
This season, Green Bay’s defense had eight players who were picked in the first round of the draft.
They were ranked 10th in points allowed every game (20.6), 17th in yards allowed per game (335.1), and 23rd in yards allowed per play (5.4).
The Packers’ defense did a lot better the rest of the season after giving up 29.3 points per game against the New York Giants, Tampa Bay, and Carolina in a two-game stretch in December.
In their last two regular-season games, the Packers only gave up one touchdown. That score came when Minnesota caught a muffed punt on the Green Bay 7-yard line.
After firing Steve Addazio as he couldn’t get more than seven wins in seven years in Chestnut Hill, BC hired Hafley instead of Ohio State, who was getting ready for the College Football Playoff.
Even though Hafley had to get used to his new job during a pandemic, he still managed to win six games in each of his initial two seasons.
After that, the Packers didn’t let Dallas score until the very last play for the first half, which gave them a 48–32 wild-card win.
The Eagles may have been the best team in the country at handling the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
They only had one positive test throughout the entire season, and it happened in the last week. But the players chose not to play in a bowl game so they could spend Christmas with their families. The Military Bowl was canceled in 2021 because of an outbreak of COVID.