When Trent Dilfer hired Cole Peterson a few years ago into a top, off-the-field role, it was a move seen as key hire of one of college football's fastest-rising directors of football operations.
It was proved correct when the reigning Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles snagged Peterson away from UAB earlier this year.
Now, multiple sources tell FootballScoop, Dilfer has his next DFO.
Jeffrey Goldsmith, who's been Sacramento State's director of football operations for several seasons and aided in the program's transition to new head coach Brennan Marion, is returning to the Deep South as UAB's DFO.
Goldsmith is a Mississippi College graduate.
Goldsmith had been in football operations at Sacramento State since 2020.
At UAB, he will be one of Dilfer's top off-the-field staffers in what shapes up to be a pivotal year for the program. UAB has won just seven of 24 games in Dilfer's first two seasons at the helm after he had generated record-breaking, national headline-producing success at Nashville's Lipscomb Academy.
UAB has shown some growth; five of its past nine losses have been by 10 or fewer points.
UAB opens its 2025 season at home against Alabama State but has stiff opening-month tests against Navy and Tennessee, a College Football Playoff team a year ago.