Making the Case for Coordinator: A Big 10 assistant with West Virginia ties
By Joseph Smith
With rumors abounding over who the new head coach for West Virginia football will be, the Mountaineer faithful are excited for a new look in Morgantown.
But once the next head coach is brought aboard, he will have to fill up a staff full of assistant coaches. And there is one name who makes particular sense on the offensive side of the ball to earn the gig as offensive coordinator or quarterbacks coach.
He has Power 4 experience as a coordinator, originally hails from Pittsburgh, and spent over five years cutting his teeth at the Division 2 ranks inside the state of West Virginia. His name? Kirk Campbell.
Campbell most recently served as the offensive coordinator at Michigan in 2024 and the quarterbacks coach at Michigan in 2023. While he was dismissed by head coach Sherrone Moore after a 7-5 season with offensive struggles, the team's issues seemed to lie more with the talent than the coaching.
He also has a few big perks to his name from his time at Michigan. He is well-loved by former Michigan quarterback and first-round NFL Draft selection J.J. McCarthy, who spent his senior season under Campbell's tutelage.
"Wouldn’t be where I am without this man. Changed my career, as well as my life," McCarthy recently tweeted.
He also was heavily involved in Michigan landing four-star quarterback Jadyn Davis on the recruiting trail, who dropped slightly in his recruiting rankings before signing but was at one point listed as the No. 2 prospect nationwide in his recruiting class. Campbell also brings national championship experience, having been on Michigan's staff during the 2023-2024 title run. He was regarded as one of the favorite coach's in the Michigan locker room by numerous players.
Campbell also served as offensive coordinator at Old Dominion from 2020-2021, and served as an offensive analyst under James Franklin at Penn State from 2017-2019. Bt before he ventured into Division 1 ball, he cut his teeth in north-central West Virginia.
He served as the offensive coordinator and assistant head coach at Division 2 Alderson Broaddus from 2012-2016, where he helped head coach and former D1 and CFL defensive assistant Dennis Creehan revive a program which hadn't competed since the 1930s and lead them to a Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship and 9-2 record in just the program's fourth year since returning to action. His offense was paced by running back Brandon Jones, who finished in the Top 20 in rushbing yards at the D2 level under Campbell's tutelage.
Campbell was an GA under Creehan at West Virginia Wesleyan from 2009-2010 and an offensive assistant at Tiffin (OH) in 2011, where he learned his offensive system under then Wesleyan OC and Tiffin head coach Gary Goff -- Goff is a descendant of the Hal Mumme/Mike Leach Air Raid offensive system and was most recently the head coach at FCS McNeese State from 2022-2024. It's the same coaching tree that brought former West Virginia head coach Dana Holgorsen into coaching.