Wilcox leaves for Tennessee; Kwiatowski appointed to defensive coordinator

JOSH RASMUSSEN - Justin Wilcox will head one of the most storied programs in the SEC with Tennessee.

Four year Boise State defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox has accepted the same position at the University of Tennessee, joining former Louisiana Tech and Western Athletic Conference coach Derek Dooley, according to BSU head coach Chris Petersen.

“We’re excited for Justin and we’re very appreciative of everything he’s done for our program,” Petersen said. “He’s made us better and he just felt this was the next step in his progression and we support him 100 percent and really thank him for all of his efforts.”

Wilcox’ name has been brought up for several positions at other big name schools since BSU’s impressive performance against Texas Christian in this year’s Fiesta Bowl win. Most recently, Wilcox was reportedly in the running for the defensive coordinator position at Texas A&M, but that never panned out.

“I never looked at it as surprised, but I just felt very fortunate because of knowing how coaches are,” Petersen said about being able to keep his staff together as long as it did. “Coaches are very goal oriented and are constantly trying to climb the ladder. We’ve been really lucky.”

For Wilcox, the opportunity to run a Southeastern Conference defense was too much to turn down — the nice pay raise probably played a factor also.

Tennessee’s defensive coordinator last year, Monte Kiffin, earned close to $1.3 million. At BSU, Wilcox made more than $200,000 and his salary was expected to exceed $250,000 with the latest 19 percent raise that came along with Petersen’s new contract.

“I’m scared everyday of my life, there’s always something going on,” Petersen said of the possibility of losing his coaches. “Hopefully they’ll stay here for a long time and make a strong contribution to what we’re all about and when they feel like it’s time to go it’s my job to help them through their path. It’s his (Wilcox) decision to make.”

Petersen announced the replacement for Wilcox will be BSU defensive line coach Pete Kwiatowski.

“He was a slam dunk,” Petersen said of the Kwiatowski hiring. We feel awesome about Pete (Kwiatowski) taking the reigns and the rest of the guys stepping their game up, and we’ll find the next guy to fill in.”

Kwiatowski, a stand-out on BSU’s defensive line from 1984-1987, was the defensive coordinator at Montana State for six seasons before returing to the Broncos in 2006. During his last four seasons at Montana State, the Bobcats defeated in-state rival Montana three times.

BSU’s defensive line has been stellar under Kwiatowski during his time at the helm and has led the WAC in several categories during the last three seasons with Kwiatowski.

Kwiatowski graduated from BSU in 1990 and is a member of the Boise State Athletic Hall of Fame.

Petersen said that BSU has not hired a new defensive line coach to replace Kwiatowski as of now, but did say they hope to have the position filled in the next week or so.

“We’ve got to find another guy to add to the defensive staff. We don’t know exactly what we’ll do because Pete (Kwiatowski) gives us a lot of flexibility,” Petersen said. “There’s a chance he could continue to head coach the defensive line.”

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Posted by Trent Lootens on Feb 3 2010. Filed under Blue-N-Orange, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.