The Green Bay Packers named Shawn Mennenga special teams coordinator on Feb. 1, 2019.
Mennenga (MEN-in-guh) comes to the Packers after serving as the special teams coordinator for Vanderbilt last season. In 2018, he helped punter Parker Thome average 44.9 yards (No. 4 in the Southeastern Conference) on 51 punts with 14 traveling 50-plus yards and 19 landing inside the 20-yard line. Prior to joining the Commodores, Mennenga spent seven seasons (2011-17) as the special teams assistant for the Cleveland Browns. During his tenure in Cleveland, he teamed with special teams coordinator Chris Tabor and helped numerous players set NFL and franchise records. Punter Britton Colquitt set the Browns’ net punting average record in consecutive seasons with 40.3 in 2016 and 40.6 in 2017. In 2015, kicker Travis Coons set an NFL record by making the first 18 field goals of his career. Cleveland was the only team in the NFL to earn at least one AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award each season from 2011-2016. In 2009-10, Mennenga was the linebackers coach at South Dakota State. From 2005-08, he served as the defensive coordinator at Fort Hays (Kan.) State University. Previously, Mennenga worked at Culver-Stockton (Mo.) College, where he was the defensive coordinator (2001) and then head coach (2002-04). The former defensive back at the University of Missouri also held collegiate assistant positions at Hutchinson (Kan.) Community College (defensive coordinator, 1998-2000), Western Kentucky University (outside linebackers, 1997) and Southwest Baptist (Bolivar, Mo.) University (1995-96, secondary; 1994, graduate assistant).
