In college football, few coaches carry the special teams reputation as that of Buffalo head coach Pete Lembo.
Now, the multi-time FootballScoop Special Teams Coordinator of the Year finalist Lembo is adding a new charge to run special teams in his Buffalo program.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Lembo is tabbing former Ivy League Championship-winning Columbia special teams coordinator Garrett McLaughlin to run the Bulls' special teams unit.
McLaughlin, formerly honored by the Our Coaching Network as a "Special Teams Coordinator on the Rise," arrives in Buffalo following the past two seasons at Columbia -- including the program's 2024 Ivy League crown -- and three prior seasons at fellow Football Championship Subdivision program New Hampshire.
The leap to Buffalo, a Football Bowls Subdivision program which is just a year removed from Lembo's nine-win 2024 debut campaign -- the winningest first year for a coach in Buffalo program history, for McLaughlin also is something of a homecoming.
A Syracuse graduate who launched his coaching career as a student assistant for the Orange, McLaughlin has said previously he grew up a mere 20 minutes from the University of Buffalo campus.
He previously coached in his home area as an assistant at Buffalo State earlier in his coaching career.
McLaughlin also has shined as a defensive assistant, helping tutor multiple all-conference selections in his coaching career, most notably at both New Hampshire and Columbia. It was at New Hampshire where McLaughlin helped Dylan Ruiz earn a trio of All-America honors during the 2022 season when Ruiz ranked among the nation's leaders at the FCS level with 14.5 quarterback sacks.
The 2024 Columbia staff was named the Ivy League's Coaching Staff of the Year.
Lembo has been a decorated special teams coordinator, with his last stop at South Carolina prior to landing the head job at Buffalo.
The Bulls, after a 5-7 2025 campaign, open their 2026 season Sept. 3 at home against FCS program Albany, which will be under the guidance of first year head coach Tom Perkovich.
Buffalo then launches a two-game road trip before one more non-conference game gives way to the Bulls' Mid-American Conference slate. The Bulls travel Sept. 12 to Florida International University (FIU) followed by a visit a week later to Penn State, which will be under the first-year guidance of former Iowa State head coach Matt Campbell.
