This week, Rivals.com is releasing its Next Up series looking across Power Five football at assistant coaches or recruiting department staffers who could emerge as the next big-time names in the sport. Today, we move to the ACC.
THIS SERIES: Ten up-and-coming recruiters in the Big Ten | SEC
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Nunzio Campanile - Syracuse
While most coaches on these lists are slightly younger, Campanile still has a lot of years left in his 40s and has all the makings of a future head coach in college football. Campanile comes from a football family with deep roots in New Jersey and the Northeast. His brothers are in the coaching profession, he was a successful high school coach and assistant at Rutgers for a handful of years and is now coaching tight ends at Syracuse.
From his recruiting acumen in the Northeast and especially in the Tri-State area and his coaching experience, Campanile is definitely a hot commodity in coaching circles.
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Josh Crawford - Georgia Tech
Not only does Crawford have extensive high school coaching experience in the state of Georgia, he won wherever he went, which could help propel his career even faster and further. That experiment has worked so far at Texas Tech, which hired Joey McGuire, whose only head coaching experience was at the high school level.
Connections across the state could help Crawford down the line, too. After a decade coaching Georgia high school football, Crawford spent two seasons at Western Kentucky and now coaches receivers at Georgia Tech.
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Nick Eason - Clemson
At only 42 years old, Eason has extensive experience as a player and coach in the NFL and that is always something that can be utilized for not only career advancement to a head coaching position but also in recruiting.
Eason came to Clemson after one year at Auburn, and coaching in the SEC is never a bad thing for the resume. He has the trifecta – played in the league, coached in the NFL and can recruit – so Eason should be a top name for years to come.
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Russ Kieselhorst - Wake Forest
The director of player personnel cannot get all the credit for winning records at Wake Forest the last two seasons, but Kieselhorst’s direction inside his department certainly didn’t hurt the Demon Deacons in back-to-back successful campaigns since he took over the post.
It’s not easy to win in Winston-Salem at a high level, but recruiting has improved, more top prospects – especially in the Carolinas – are intrigued and Kieselhorst has been on an upward trajectory in his career.
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Derek Miller - Duke
Duke football is trending up under the leadership of second-year coach Mike Elko, who led the Blue Devils to a rare nine-win season a year ago, and it also corresponded with Miller’s first full year in Durham. The new staff has reenergized the program not only on the field but in recruiting, as Miller and his staff have gotten top prospects to visit, take a look and then target players they can get in the class. The 2024 group is off to a solid start with a bunch of high-level three-stars.
Miller’s experience elsewhere and his early success now in Durham make him a top priority in the world of player personnel directors.
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Fontel Mines - Virginia Tech
Only 38 years old, Mines already has a full resume from playing at Virginia and in the NFL to starting his coaching career at Chowan to now becoming the wide receivers coach and offensive recruiting coordinator on coach Brent Pry’s staff in Blacksburg.
For a team possibly looking for a head coach down the road, especially in the Mid-Atlantic region, there might not be a person with more history or connections than Mines, who is from Richmond and has coached at Richmond, Delaware, James Madison, East Carolina, Old Dominion and is now with the Hokies.
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Garrett Riley - Clemson
It does not hurt that Lincoln Riley is his older brother, but the 33-year-old Garrett Riley is putting together an outstanding resume and should be on track toward getting a head coaching job at some point soon in his career. Riley’s coaching career even into his early 30s has been incredibly impressive as he started at the bottom coaching quarterbacks at Roosevelt High in Texas and then has quickly gone from Augustana, Ill., to East Carolina, Kansas, Appalachian State, SMU and TCU and is now the offensive coordinator at Clemson. That is a big-time job, and if it goes well it wouldn’t be a shock if a head coaching job is next.
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Patrick Suddes - North Carolina
Suddes is well-connected, well-traveled and considered one of the top recruiting general managers in the country. He has done an outstanding job wherever he’s been. He has worked with some of the biggest names in the sport including Mack Brown, Nick Saban, Gus Malzahn and others.
Coming to UNC from Georgia Tech a year ago, he helped oversee a recruiting class with a major focus on local prospects that finished with seven four-stars.
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Demarcus Van Dyke - Miami
With connections galore in South Florida, Van Dyke is definitely one of the big-time up-and-comers in college football. The former Rivals250 four-star played at Miami before a stint in the NFL and then coached at ASA College and now with the Hurricanes, where he’s done a great job in recruiting as well.
Van Dyke was responsible for getting five-star CB Cormani McClain to pick Miami over Florida and others before that recruitment spun out of control. Other big-time prospects will play for the Hurricanes, and Van Dyke should have a hand in many of those recruitments.
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Darrick Yray - Florida State
Wherever Yray has been in the recruiting department, that school has been successful. So it’s no surprise the trend at Florida State is now up, up and away. Sure, coach Mike Norvell and his staff have implemented a plan that is working and should continue to build the Seminoles back into a national power. But now that Yray has been in Tallahassee for a year that strategy might only be hastened.
Yray helped Oregon State recruit really well – especially finding some diamonds in the rough. He’s also been other places where things have picked up with him on staff. Florida State's general manager of personnel is a big-time job, and Yray is doing exceedingly well with it.
