Heupel Adds To Staff

ORLANDO (UCFKnights.com) – New UCF head coach Josh Heupel has announced the hire of eight new UCF Football staff members. Four will serve as assistant coaches, while four will work in support staff roles.
 
Shane Burnham will coach the defensive line. Jeff Lebby will be an offensive assistant coach. Anthony Tucker is slated to coach the running backs. Darrell Wyatt has been tabbed to lead the wide receivers. Rodney Hill has been named an assistant director of sports performance. Steve Smith has been named Director of Player Development. Marc Votteler will serve as an assistant director of player personnel. Dave Young will join the staff as an assistant director of sports performance.
 
The following is a thumbnail look at each of the eight new UCF Football staff members:  
 
Shane Burnham – Defensive Line
Burnham joins UCF Football from Rutgers, where he has been the defensive line coach for the past two seasons. In his first season with Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights' defense showed a seven-sack improvement over the previous season.
 
Burnham spent seven seasons at Iowa State prior to his stint at Rutgers. Six of his seasons with the Cyclones were spent coaching defensive tackles, while he worked with the inside linebackers for one year. He added oversight of special teams in 2012. His punt return unit ranked No. 3 in the nation in 2015. ISU returned a pair of kickoffs for touchdowns in 2013, the first time they returned a kickoff for a score since 2004 and the first time they tallied two in a season since 1994. ISU also ranked in the Top 20 nationally in kick and punt return defense in 2012.
 
During his time working with the defensive tackles at ISU, his unit improved dramatically, helping to lead the Cyclones to three bowl appearances.
 
Burnham coached at Elon from 2005-08, serving as linebackers/defensive ends coach and special teams coordinator. The Phoenix finished No. 19 in the 2008 FCS final rankings, while ranking No. 29 in the nation in total defense and No. 30 in scoring defense. Burnham coached the SoCon Defensive Player of the Year at Elon. As special teams coordinator, Burnham's punt return unit ranked No. 17 in 2007.
Burnham also has coaching experience at The Citadel and Richmond.
 
A 1998 graduate of South Carolina, Burnham was a four-year letterwinner with the Gamecocks and a two-year starter. He was named the team's most outstanding inside linebacker after his junior and senior years. He was a three-time Academic All-SEC honoree and won the Gamecocks' team leadership award.
 
Jeff Lebby – Offensive Assistant
Lebby joins UCF after one season as offensive coordinator at Southeastern University in Lakeland. Lebby helped lead Southeastern to a 5-0 conference mark and a berth in the NAIA playoffs last season. Southeastern had the No. 1 scoring offense and the No. 3 total offense in the NAIA in 2017.
 
Prior to joining the Southeastern staff, Lebby served in various capacities on the football staff at Baylor. He was the passing game coordinator and offensive recruiting coordinator for two years. He coached the running backs for five years. Prior to those roles, Lebby was the assistant director of football operations in charge of offensive quality control, while also serving as the team's liaison to the NFL.
 
In five seasons as running backs coach, Lebby coached five 1,000-yard rushers. Baylor's 2015 squad ranked No. 2 in the nation in rushing offense, while two Bears went over 1,000 yards that season. Lebby earned 2013 FootballScoop Running Backs Coach of the Year honors after coaching Baylor's first back-to-back 1,000 yard rusher.
 
Prior to his tenure at Baylor, Lebby served as the offensive line/tight ends coach at Victoria Memorial (Texas) High School. Lebby played high school football for his father Mike Lebby at Andrews (Texas) High and earned all-state honors as a senior. He signed with Oklahoma, but an injury ended his playing career. He then spent four years at OU as a student assistant coach.
 
Lebby earned a bachelor's degree from Oklahoma in 2007.
 
Anthony Tucker – Running Backs
Tucker comes to UCF after serving for two seasons as the running backs coach at Maryland. Prior to his time with the Terrapins, Tucker was a three-year member of the coaching staff at Arkansas State. He also has coaching experience at Idaho State and was on staff at Colorado.
 
During his first season with Maryland, Tucker helped lead a rushing offense that put up 2,594 yards and 26 rushing touchdowns. It was the first time the Terrapins had eclipsed 2500 rushing yards since 2003 and the most rushing TDs since the 2007 season.
 
In his three seasons with Arkansas State, Tucker coached the running backs (2014-15) and wide receivers (2013). The Red Wolves were extremely successful during Tucker's tenure at Arkansas State, winning the 2013 Sun Belt Conference title and earning trips to bowl games in all three seasons. In 2015, Tucker's running backs helped set school records for points scored and touchdowns, while rushing for 3,007 yards and averaging 4.95 yards per carry. The Red Wolves were No. 15 in the nation for rushing offense. In 2014, the Red Wolves set a school record for total offense and ranked No. 25 in the nation in rushing offense.
 
At Idaho State, Tucker coached wide receivers on a squad that was among the top 10 in the nation in passing in back-to-back seasons. Tucker was an offensive technical assistant at Colorado in 2010. He coached the wide receivers and was the passing game coordinator at Lakewood (Calif.) High School from 2006-09.
 
Prior to joining the coaching ranks, Tucker played professional football. He signed as a free agent with the New York Giants in 1999 and earned a practice squad spot in 2000. He played for the Amsterdam Admirals of NFL Europe in 2001 and signed with the St. Louis Rams in 2002 before suffering a career-ending injury.
 
Tucker holds a bachelor's degree from Fresno State, where he was a two-year starter at wide receiver. He was a WAC Scholar-Athlete, three-time member of the Dean's List and was once a member of the President's List by virtue of having a 4.0 GPA.
 
Darrell Wyatt – Wide Receivers
Darrell Wyatt comes to UCF after a two-year stint on the staff at Houston, serving as the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. The Cougars compiled a record of 16-8 during Wyatt's tenure at Houston. UH featured the No. 17-ranked passing offense in the nation in 2016, while ranking No. 39 this past season.
 
Wyatt is a 29-year veteran of collegiate coaching, taking part in numerous New Year's Six bowl games throughout his career. He has multiple years of experience as an offensive coordinator as well.
Wyatt was an offensive analyst at Oklahoma State in 2015, when the Cowboys went to the Allstate Sugar Bowl and ranked NO. 7 in the nation in passing yards and No. 14 in scoring offense.
 
Wyatt was on the coaching staff at Texas from 2011 through 2013. He was co-offensive coordinator and wide receivers coach for the Longhorns in 2013, while serving as co-recruiting coordinator and wide receivers coach in 2011 and 2012. During his time at Texas, Wyatt's wide receivers earned five All-Big 12 accolades. With Wyatt's help as co-recruiting coordinator, the 2012 Texas signing class was ranked No. 2 in the nation.
 
In 2008-09, Wyatt was the associate head coach/offensive coordinator/wide receivers coach at Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles were No. 18 in the nation in scoring offense and No. 31 in total offense in 2009. In 2008, Southern Miss broke 36 offensive school records en route to the No. 20 total offensive output in the country.
 
Wyatt also has coaching experience with the University of Kansas, the University of Arizona, the Minnesota Vikings, Oklahoma, Baylor, Wyoming, Sam Houston State and Trinity Valley Community College.
 
Wyatt is a graduate of Kansas State University, where he played for two seasons after transferring from Trinity Valley Community College.
 


Rodney Hill, Assistant Director of Sports Performance
Hill comes to UCF after spending the 2017 season as a strength and conditioning coaching intern with the NFL's New York Giants. Hill spent a year as the Director of Strength and Conditioning at Howard University prior to working with the Giants. He has also served as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at Mercer University and as an intern at Penn State. Hill was on the coaching staff, working with the defensive line, for one season at Kutztown State. He started in coaching as a strength and conditioning intern at Howard, his alma mater. With the Bison as a student-athlete, Hill was a three-year starter on the defensive line.
 
Steve Smith – Director of Player Development
Smith comes to UCF after four years on the staff at Southeastern University in Lakeland. Smith coached the defensive line at Southeastern, leading the Fire to a No. 2 national ranking in sacks per game in 2016. The Southeastern defensive unit was No. 3 in the nation in rushing defense in 2016 as well. Southeastern recorded 33.5 sacks and 95 tackles for-loss in just nine games during the 2015 season. Smith began his tenure at Southeastern as a graduate assistant in 2014 and was promoted to a full-time role in 2015. Smith has also coached at Ave Maria University and Warren Central High School in Indianapolis. He was an all-conference performer at Kentucky Wesleyan. He played professional indoor football with the Fairbanks Grizzlies and Wyoming Cavalry.
 
Marc Votteler – Assistant Director of Player Personnel
Votteler comes to UCF after one season as Associate Director of Player Personnel at Tennessee. He has spent more than four years on the Volunteer football staff. Prior to his time in player personnel, Votteler began working with Tennessee as a football video assistant. He earned his bachelor's degree from UT in 2013.
 
Dave Young, Assistant Director of Sports Performance
Young joins the UCF sports performance staff after a stint as head strength and conditioning coach at Vassar College. At Vassar, Young was responsible for the performance enhancement and injury prevention of the student-athletes in Vassar's 23 varsity and four club varsity programs. Young previously worked with the NFL's San Francisco 49ers, where he assisted with coaching and implementation of programming for NFL athletes. He also worked with injured athletes through return-to-play stages. He also worked as an assistant strength and conditioning coach, graduate assistant and intern during his tenure at Memphis. Young is a graduate of Central College, where he was a student strength and conditioning coach and also gained experience at the University of Iowa. In addition to his bachelor's degree from Central, he holds a master's degree from Memphis. Young is also an NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist and a USA Weightlifting Level 1 Sport Performance Coach.