David Dean has his made a hire to complete his coaching staff.
Sources tell FootballScoop Dean and Delta State have hired Matt Moriarty as the new defensive line coach and defensive run game coordinator, rounding out the staff Dean has assembled ahead of his first season leading the Statesmen.
Moriarty comes to Cleveland after two seasons at East Texas A&M, the FCS program in Commerce. Before that he built his reputation almost entirely on the defensive side at the FCS level, with stops coaching defensive line at North Alabama, Drake and Samford. He has also logged time at the FBS level, working at Central Michigan, Memphis and Northern Illinois earlier in his career.
That is a coach who has taught the position across a lot of levels and a lot of buildings, which is exactly the kind of background that travels well into a Gulf South Conference room. Dean is asking his defensive linemen to do more than get off blocks. Handing the run game coordinator title to the same coach who develops the front puts scheme and technique under one roof, and that continuity tends to show up on Saturdays.
The hire fills out a staff that Dean has been methodical about putting together since taking over. Delta State introduced Dean as its 20th head football coach back in February, and he arrives with one of the more decorated resumes in Division II. Dean owns three D=II national championships, two at Valdosta State and the foundation of a career that also included a run as the winningest coach in West Georgia history.
Delta State went 7-3 a year ago and remains one of the steadier programs in the Gulf South, so Dean is not walking into a rebuild so much as a reset. Getting the right people in place to hold up against the run in that league matters, and the defensive line is where those games are often decided. Last year's defensive line, coached by Azar Wilson, collected 24 sacks and helped to keep opponents under 20 points per game.
Moriarty has coached the defensive front at nearly every stop on his journey, he now adds the coordinator title tied to the run game, combined with joining a head coach who has won at the highest level of this division. That combination usually points to a front that shows up on tape.
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