John Kuceyeski, who’s been both an on-field assistant coach and has high-level personnel experience at the Power 5 level of the collegiate game, is returning to the Football Bowls Subdivision in a prime position.
Sources tell FootballScoop that Kuceyeski has accepted the director of player personnel role at Western Kentucky University under Tyson Helton, who’s coming off a career-best year and entering his fourth season atop the helm of the Hilltoppers’ program.
After spending the past half-dozen years in on-field assistant coaching roles, including the past three as the offensive coordinator at Football Championship Subdivision program Eastern Illinois University, Kuceyeski is poised to take over for the Hilltoppers after last month’s departure of the highly regarded Zach Grant into a DPP role for Ryan Day at Ohio State University.
Kuceyeski, who also spent three years as an offensive assistant at Cornell, previously helped in key roster-building roles at Iowa State, Toledo and Western Michigan, with each programming building championship-caliber rosters in its respective conference. At Iowa State Kuceyeski, who also has coached for Pat Fitzgerald at Northwestern, was director of scouting under Matt Campbell before transitioning his career at the time into an on-field role at the FCS level.
The Hilltoppers finished last season 9-5, garnered national attention for quarterback Bailey Zapper and wideout Jerreth Stearns, faced UTSA for the Conference-USA crown and capped their season with a resounding bowl win against Appalachian State.
After opening this season Aug. 27 against FCS Austin Peay, WKU travels Sept. 3 to face Hawaii.