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Welp!
Of course, Eddie Faulkner coached Jaylen Samuels at NC State. Perhaps Mike Tomlin and #Steelers brass liked what they saw while scouting Samuels. https://t.co/hpEc5p9UaE
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) January 16, 2019
In addition to his duties as the Fullbacks & Tight Ends Coach and Special Teams Coordinator, Faulkner was also the Recruiting Coordinator for the Wolfpack. Not to undermine his coaching talent, but given the current direction and success of recruiting, losing Faulkner as State’s Recruiting Coordinator is going to be the biggest loss with his moving to the NFL.
This marks the fourth assistant to leave the Wolfpack coaching staff this offseason, following the departures of Offensive Coordinator Eli Drinkwitz (new Appalachian State Head Coach), Associate Head Coach & Co-Defensive Coordinator Ted Roof (new Appalachian State DC), and Offensive Line Coach Dwayne Ledford (new Louisville OC and OL Coach).
The departures are not - or at least shouldn’t be - total surprises. NC State has posted back-to-back nine-win seasons, and for a school without a heck of a lot of history of doing things like that, and with an assistant coaching pool that ranks outside of the Top 25 nationally in total salary, other programs are going to take notice (along with offers of bigger paychecks). Success has a way of doing things like that.
It’s great to see the assistant coaches from your program taking promotions instead of lateral moves, but coaching staff turnover is never desired. So far Dave Doeren has done a good job of plugging the holes in his staff with talented coaches; it would be nice, though, if he didn’t have to keep doing it so often... but this is a good problem to have.