BC Expected to Hire UCF’s Darrell Wyatt as New WR Coach
Andy Backstrom (@andybackstrom)Publisher
Spring ball starts this week for Boston College, and it appears as if the Eagles have filled their last remaining coaching vacancy.
Matt Zenitz of On3 and Jason Beede of the Orlando Sentinel reported Monday night that BC is expected to hire UCF wide receivers coach Darrell Wyatt to take on the same position in Chestnut Hill.
Wyatt would replace Joe Dailey, who helped the Eagles’ wide receiving corps break out during Frank Cignetti Jr.’s two-year stay as offensive coordinator yet took a job coaching the Carolina Panthers’ wideouts earlier this month.
Wyatt has been with the pass-happy Knights since 2018 and was the only coach Gus Malzahn kept on staff when he took over as head coach in 2021.
This past season, Wyatt oversaw a wideout room that was led by Ryan O’Keefe (84 catches, 812 receiving yards and seven touchdowns) and Tennessee transfer Brandon Johnson (38 catches, 565 receiving yards and 11 touchdowns). O’Keefe’s 84 receptions were the most by a UCF player since 2006, and Johnson’s 11 touchdown grabs were the most in the AAC in 2021.
Wyatt also mentored the likes of Marlon Williams and Gabriel Davis, both of whom turned in 1,000-yard receiving seasons while Wyatt was on staff. Davis, of course, starred in this year’s AFC Divisional Round game against the Kansas City Chiefs with eight catches for 201 yards and four scores for the Buffalo Bills in an overtime defeat.
Wyatt has been coaching wide receivers for more than three decades. He worked as an intern in the NFL for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1996, for the Denver Broncos from 1998-99 and for the Philadelphia Eagles in 2005. His last year in the league was in 2006 when he was a wide receivers coach for the Brad Childress-led Minnesota Vikings.
Wyatt has spent most of his coaching career in the collegiate ranks. Before UCF, he was a wideout coach for Arkansas State in 2017, which had a top-five passing offense that season. The year prior, he was at Houston, serving as the Cougars’ wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. That one-year stint came after spending a good bulk of the 2010s in the Big 12.
He started as Kansas’ co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2010 before making the jump to Texas, where he stayed the next three years. In addition to coaching the Longhorns’ wide receiver corps—which featured Marquise Goodwin, Mike Davis and Jaxon Shipley—he doubled as Texas’ co-recruiting coordinator in 2011-12 and as the program’s co-offensive coordinator in 2013.
In 2011, Texas signed the No. 3 recruiting class. The following year, the Longhorns reeled in the second-ranked class, according to the Rivals.com recruiting database.
During the 2013 season, the Longhorns were ranked three weeks, finished 8-5 and boasted an offense that put up 29.3 points per game, good for 65th in the FBS.
Wyatt would offer BC quite a bit of coaching experience but also recruiting connections in the South, where the Eagles continue to grow their footprint under head coach Jeff Hafley.
