After four seasons under Will Healy, including a disastrous 2022 season where Healy went 1-7 before being fired, the Charlotte 49ers have turned to a new coach in Biff Poggi to lead them to success in their beginning seasons in the American Conference.
Charlotte 49ers Coaching Staff 2023
Head Coach: Biff Poggi
The 49ers hired Poggi away from the University of Michigan, where he served as associate head coach for 2021 and 2022 under Jim Harbaugh.
Before coaching at Michigan, Poggi served as a long-time high school coach. Poggi first made waves as the chief man behind the turnaround of Saint Frances Academy, a school designed to serve poor students, into an icon of hope.
Prior to building Saint Frances Academy up into a nationally known name, Poggi led his high school alma mater, Gilman School, to 13 Maryland state titles in nineteen seasons.
Poggi has often been described as a no-nonsense people coach. His work in helping Michigan football turn itself around from a laughing stock to national title contender was instrumental and many feel the credit was owed to him more than any other coach on staff.
Defensive Coordinator/Outside Linebackers: Ryan Osborn
Osborn joined the 49ers after being an assistant coach working with the Baltimore Ravens’ outside linebackers and defensive line in 2022. Prior to his one-year stint with the Ravens, Osborn was an analyst for Michigan in 2021 and served as the Defensive Line/Co-Special Teams coordinator for UT-Martin in 2020. Osborn served as a defensive assistant under Dan Mullen at both Mississippi State and Florida. His full coaching career can be found below:
- Mississippi State (Assistant Linebackers, 2016; Assistant Outside Linebackers, 2017)
- Florida (Defensive Assistant, 2018-19)
- UT-Martin (Defensive Line/Co-Special Teams Coordinator, 2020)
- Michigan (Defensive Analyst, 2021)
- Baltimore Ravens (Assistant Defensive Line/Outside Linebackers, 2022)
Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks: Mike Miller
Mike Miller started coaching quarterbacks as a student coach at Clemson, where he worked with Deshaun Watson on an undefeated Clemson season. Miller was then hired by a local Charlotte high school, Charlotte Christian, as their offensive coordinator.
Charlotte Christian finished 10-2 and averaged 40 points per game.
After that season, Miller became a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama for their 2017 and 2018 seasons, working mainly with their quarterbacks and wide receivers under Brian Daboll and Mike Locksley.
Miller was then brought over to Maryland by Locksley to serve as his tight ends coach, where he coached Chigoziem Okonkwo into a fourth-round selection in the 2022 NFL Draft.
He eventually worked his way up to being Maryland’s co-offensive coordinator/passing game coordinator. His full coaching career can be found below:
- Clemson (Student coach/quarterbacks, 2015)
- Charlotte Christian High School (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks, 2016)
- Alabama (Graduate assistants/quarterbacks/wide receivers, 2017-2018)
- Maryland (Tight ends coach, 2019-2021; co-offensive coordinator/tight ends, 2022)
Associate Head Coach/Offensive Line Coach: Kyle DeVan
Kyle DeVan’s coaching career began as an offensive graduate assistant working with tight ends at his alma mater, Oregon State, in 2013. DeVan then coached as a graduate assistant under Steve Sarkisian at USC for 2014 before being hired by the New Orleans Saints as an assistant offensive line coach in 2015.
He was hired to coach Ball State’s offensive line in 2016, where he coached until 2019 when he was hired at Arizona by Kevin Sumlin. DeVan spent two years as Arizona’s offensive line coach before joining the Michigan coaching staff as an analyst in 2021. He spent 2022 as Colorado’s offensive line coach.
Special Teams Coach/Running Backs Coach: Greg Froelich
Greg Froelich served as a special teams and running backs analyst at Michigan from 2017-20 before joining the staff at Illinois as a special teams analyst for the past two years. Froelich has worked on some of the best special teams units in the country at both schools, including coaching Blake Hayes and Will Hart, who both finished as Ray Guy semifinalists.
Wide Receivers Coach: Mike Hartline
A former quarterback for the Kentucky Wildcats, Mike Hartline started his coaching career as a quarterback coaching intern at Ohio State for two years, working with Cardale Jones, JT Barrett, Joe Burrow, and Dwayne Haskins.
From there, Hartline took a job at Cincinnati for two years as the offensive quality control coach and assistant quarterbacks coach before being hired as the offensive coordinator for Ohio Dominican for three years. Hartline led explosive offenses each of his three seasons there and was hired as an analyst by Auburn in 2022. Hartline was quickly promoted to quarterbacks coach in November of 2022.
Offensive Tackles/Tight Ends Coach: John Morookian
A Toledo alum, John Morookian got started as a tight ends coach at Findlay (Ohio) in 2012-13 before becoming a graduate assistant at Toledo in 2014. Morookian became the full-time offensive line coach at Tiffin University from 2015-16 before pivoting to a graduate assistant role at Indiana in 2017.
He spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons at Iowa State as an offensive quality control assistant, and in 2020, he was hired as an offensive analyst at Kansas and was quickly promoted to offensive line coach.
Defensive Line Coach: Wayne Dorsey
Wayne Dorsey has been the defensive line coach at Saint Frances Academy since 2018. Dorsey worked from 2018-2020 at Saint Frances with Poggi, where he has produced several top-150 recruits.
Linebackers Coach: Greer Martini
A former standout linebacker at Notre Dame, Greer Martini stuck around the practice squads of the Green Bay Packers and Minnesota Vikings before finding some success in the XFL for the Dallas Renegades. After his stint with the Renegades, Martini was hired as a defensive quality control assistant at Vanderbilt in 2021.
Martini pivoted that role into a graduate assistant role at LSU for the 2022 season.
Defensive Backs Coach: Rod Ojong
Rod Ojong comes to Charlotte from Buffalo, where he served as safeties coach in 2021 and defensive backs coach in 2022. Buffalo led the MAC in interceptions in 2022, and Ojong coached safety Marcus Fuqua into a third-team All-American selection last season.
Ojong has spent time coaching cornerbacks at Furman and at Austin Peay in 2018 and 2019 before joining the Georgia coaching staff in 2020 as an analyst.
Safeties Coach: Justin Sanders
Justin Sanders spent the last four years as the defensive backs coach at Texas Southern University. TSU led the Southwestern Athletic Conference with 17 interceptions in 2022.
Sanders was a graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 2014-15, where he coached NFL safeties Justin Evans and Donovan Wilson.
