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Ray Rhodes, beginning his second week as head coach of the Green Bay Packers, today named eight members of his coaching staff.
The list is headed by Emmitt Thomas, who will serve as defensive coordinator, the same role he filled with Philadelphia under Rhodes for the past four years. It also includes four other members of the Eagles' staff and two members of the Packers' 1998 staff under Mike Holmgren.
In addition to Thomas, Rhodes' newly-named assistants include:
OFFENSE
- Jeff Jagodzinski, tight ends
- Harry Sydney, running backs
- Ken Zampese, offensive assistant/quality control
- Mike Trgovac, defensive line
- Johnny Holland, linebackers
- Joe Vitt, defensive backs
- Chuck Knox, Jr., defensive assistant, quality control
Zampese, Trgovac and Knox will be staffing the same positions with the Packers that they held in Philadelphia. Sydney also will be reprising his Green Bay role as running backs coach while Holland, previously special teams coach for the Packers, will become linebackers coach.
The 55-year-old Thomas, like Rhodes himself, is known for his aggressive approach to coaching defense as well as for his ability to extract optimum performance from average talent.
Under him, the Eagles ranked fourth, fifth, 13th and 17th in total defense over the past four years and in the NFL's top ten in passing yards allowed and quarterback sack percentage each season.
Also like Rhodes, Thomas brings to his task a rich background of postseason experience, having played in Super Bowls I and IV as a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, during a 13-year playing career, and helped Washington win Super Bowls XXII and XXVI as a member of the Redskins' coaching staff.
His coaching acumen was impressively illustrated during the 1997 season when, despite injuries to three key starters on his defensive unit, the Eagles' platoon gave up just one touchdown to the three previous Super Bowl winners (San Francisco, Dallas and Green Bay) in four games.
A quarterback and receiver at Bishop (Texas) College (1963-65), Thomas signed with Kansas City as a free agent and made a successful transition to defensive back, posting 58 career interceptions and becoming a six-time Pro Bowl selection.
Trgovac (pronounced TER-guh-vak) turned out consistently effective defensive lines for the Eagles during his four-year Philadelphia tenure (1995-1998), a span he launched in 1995 by producing a front four which led the NFL in quarterback sacks with 42.5, including 13 from William Fuller, subsequently named to the Pro Bowl.
Prior to joining the Eagles, the 40-year-old Trgovac spent three years at Notre Dame as an assistant to Lou Holtz, markedly improving the Fighting Irish's defensive line while sending three players to the NFL. In 1994, he saw two of his players selected early in the NFL draft - tackle Bryant Young by San Francisco with the seventh pick in the first round and tackle Jim Flanigan by the Chicago Bears in the third round.
Trgovac, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater, Michigan, later served on staffs at Colorado State, Navy and Ball State, before moving into the NFL.
A three-year starter at middle guard on Bo Schembechler's defense at Michigan, he twice earned All-Big Ten honors as a collegian and was a member of three Big 10 championship teams.
Vitt, who coached linebackers for Rhodes and the Eagles the past four seasons, brings 20 years of NFL coaching experience to his role on the Packers staff.
The 44-year-old Blackwood, N.J., native, launched his pro coaching career as the weight training coordinator for the Baltimore Colts in 1979 before joining the Seattle Seahawks in a similar capacity three years later. Subsequently, when Chuck Knox Sr., became the Seahawks' head coach, he named Vitt the club's special assignments coach. Vitt later became Seattle's secondary coach, serving in that role for eight years (1983-91) and followed Knox to the then Los Angeles Rams as that team's assistant head coach in 1992, serving in that capacity through the 1994 season.
The former Towson (Md.) State linebacker joined Rhodes' Philadelphia staff in 1995 and, in that first season with the Eagles guided linebacker William Thomas to his first Pro Bowl berth. He also was instrumental in helping the Eagles' defense rank fourth in the NFL in total yards allowed and second in the league in pass defense.
Jagodzinski, who has been the offensive coordinator at Boston College the past two years, is a Wisconsin native and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, where he was a four-year letterman in football as a running back.
A veteran of 13 coaching years at the collegiate level, Jagodzinski launched his professional career as offensive line coach at Northern Illinois University in 1986. He subsequently spent two years at Louisiana State (1987-88) in the same capacity, followed by an 8-year stay at East Carolina University, where he coached the tight ends for three years and the offensive line for five before joining the Boston College staff as offensive coordinator in 1997.
A native of West Allis, Wis., the 35-year-old Jagodzinski won all-state honorable mention as a fullback for West Allis Central High School, graduating in 1981.
Zampese, son of Ernie Zampese, a longtime offensive coordinator for the San Diego Chargers, Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys, joined Rhodes' Eagles staff in 1998 as an offensive assistant. In that role, he assisted the offensive coaches in game-planning, the studying of games of both the Eagles and their opponents, and with various on-field responsibilities.
The 31-year-old California native previously had spent nine seasons as a collegiate coach. A former wide receiver and special teams standout at the University of San Diego, he began coaching at his alma mater upon graduation in 1989, before joining the USC staff in 1990. He later was a member of the Northern Arizona (1992-95) and Miami of Ohio (1996-97) staffs before joining the Eagles last year.
Chuck Knox, Jr., 33, is beginning his fifth season as an NFL assistant coach. He launched his coaching career with the Los Angeles Rams, for whom his father, Chuck, Sr., was head coach from 1992 through 1994. He served as running backs coach and, in that role, worked closely with Pro Bowl RB Jerome Bettis.
Rhodes signed him to his defensive staff in 1995 as a quality control aide, assisting in game-planning and the study of game tapes, in addition to other on-field responsibilities.
As a prep, the younger Knox was the leading rusher on his Orchard Park, N.Y., High School football team as a junior and, a year later, transferred to Bellevue, Wash., High School, where he earned all-state honors before going on to play varsity football at the University of Arizona.
Sydney, who has helped two teams win Super Bowls, has coached a pair of 1,000-yard running backs, during a five-year tour of duty under Mike Holmgren. In 1995, the 39-year-old Virginian officiated at Edgar Bennett's development into the Packers' first 1,000-yard (1,067) rusher since Terdell Middleton in 1978. Two years later, he presided over Dorsey Levens' emergence as the most productive running back in the Packers' then 77-year history, Levens amassing a club-record 1,805 yards from scrimmage in 1997 (1,435 rushing and 370 receiving).
Between those two seasons, Sydney tutored a 1996 offensive backfield trio - Bennett, Levens and William Henderson - that rolled up the imposing total of 2,817 yards rushing and receiving yards as the Packers swept to a 13-3 regular-season record and through the playoffs to capture Super Bowl XXXI.
Earlier, as a player, he helped the San Francisco 49ers win two Super Bowls (XXIII and XXIV) during the course of a six-year NFL career as a running back.
Holland, in joining Rhodes's staff, will be coaching the position - linebacker - that he played with distinction for seven seasons in a Green Bay uniform (1987-1993), posting more than 100 tackles for six consecutive seasons.
The 33-year-old Texas A&M alumnus, defensive assistant/quality control on the Holmgren staff from 1995 to 1997, was promoted to special teams coach in 1998. Under his direction, Roell Preston set three Packers' single-season records - for most kickoff returns, 57, most kickoff return yards, 1,497, and most combined return yardage, 1,895 (including 398 yards via punt returns).