Pat Narduzzi is continuing to retool his defensive staff with a few hires today.
Sources tell FootballScoop one of his latest hires is coming from the MAC coordinator ranks.
Joe Bowen, who has spent the past two seasons as Pete Lembo's defensive coordinator at Buffalo, where he also coached the team's linebaackers, is joining Pat Narduzzi's staff.
We're told his role will be linebackers coach he will also carry the run game coordinator designation.
ESPN has also reported the move.
Bowen won the FootballScoop Linebackers Coach of the Year award last season for his work with the defensive unit.
That season, he had a pair of linebackers record more than 137 tackles a piece, the only team in the country that could stake claim to that.
With a game remaining in the season, 2024 senior linebacker Shaun Dolac led the nation in tackles with 168 tackles, 82 of those coming in the solo variety. He posted double-digit stops in nearly every game of the 2024 season, and also ranked among the top 15 nationally in tackles for loss and among the top five nationally in interceptions - leading all linebackers in the picks category.
Alongside Dolac was a junior in Red Murdock, who finished 2024 with with 156 stops, 73 of them solo.
At the year's end in 2024, Dolac and Murdock ranked #1 and #2 in tackles nationally, an incredible feat for Bowen's unit.
Murdock followed that up by ranking 3rd nationally in tackles this past season.
With Bowen leading the Buffalo defense, the unit made huge strides in year one, chopping nearly 35 yards per game off their rushing yards allowed average, while improving from 3-9 to 8-4 while becoming one of the more impressive turnaround stories in college football.
Bowen is a two-time graduate of Miami University (OH), where he began his career as a student assistant in 2011, and served as an offensive intern from 2013-14 before moving to a GA from 2015-16.
Further stops took him to Michigan State, South Carolina and Florida State before finally landing an on-field role at his alma mater in 2022, where he was the linebackers coach and run game coordinator. There, he helped the RedHawks win the MAC title and tutored the MAC Defensive Player of the Year.
He joins a retooled defensive staff where he will see a familiar face in Harlon Barnett, who is reportedly leaving his associate head coach role at Northwestern to join Narduzzi's staff at Pitt. The three of them (Narduzzi, Barnett and Bowen) previously worked together in East Lansing on Mark Dantonio's staff at Michigan State.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.