Gophers defensive line coach Chad Wilt leaving to become Indiana defensive coordinator

The Gophers also named two new assistant coaches in Danny Collins (safeties) and Greg Harbaugh (tight ends).

January 10, 2022 at 4:48PM
The Gophers had one of the top defenses in the country this season and their assistant coaches are getting plucked for promotions elsewhere. (Aaron Lavinsky, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The turnover on Gophers coach P.J. Fleck's staff continues.

On Monday, Gophers defensive line coach Chad Wilt left to become the defensive coordinator at Indiana, a source confirmed.

That marks the third time in four days, the Gophers have lost a coach to a promotion elsewhere.

On Friday, defensive backs/safeties coach Joe Harasymiak left the Gophers to become defensive coordinator at Rutgers.

The Gophers ranked sixth in the nation last season in scoring defense (17.3 points per game), led by defensive coordinator Joe Rossi and two assistants — Harasymiak and Wilt — who have left to become Big Ten defensive bosses.

On Sunday, tight ends coach Clay Patterson left to become tight ends coach/passing game coordinator at Colorado. Patterson is working under former Gophers offensive coordinator Mike Sanford, who was replaced at Minnesota by Kirk Ciarrocca.

New coaches named

On Monday afternoon, the Gophers named two new assistant coaches — Danny Collins (safeties) and Greg Harbaugh (tight ends) — pending the usual background checks.

Collins has been on the Gophers staff since 2017, serving most recently as a senior defensive analyst. He started working for Fleck as a graduate assistant at Western Michigan in 2015.

Harbaugh worked in a quality control role for the Gophers in 2017 and 2019 before working as the receivers coach at Western Michigan the past two seasons. He also started working for Fleck as a graduate assistant at Western Michigan in 2015.

about the writer

about the writer

Joe Christensen

Sports team leader

Joe Christensen, a Minnesota Star Tribune sports team leader, graduated from the University of Minnesota and spent 15 years covering Major League Baseball, including stops at the Riverside Press-Enterprise and Baltimore Sun. He joined the Minnesota Star Tribune in 2005 and spent four years covering Gophers football.

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