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Football

Syracuse offensive coordinator Hackett to join Marrone with Buffalo Bills, multiple reports state

By Chris Iseman

Nathaniel Hackett is leaving his role of offensive coordinator at Syracuse to join Doug Marrone and the Buffalo Bills, multiple reports stated Tuesday.

Brett McMurphy of ESPN and Tim Graham of The Buffalo News both stated via Twitter Hackett would be joining Buffalo. A call made to Hackett Tuesday night was unsuccessful.

 



Hackett joined the Orange in 2010 as the quarterbacks coach, and was promoted to offensive coordinator and tight ends coach before the start of last season. He helped develop Syracuse quarterback Ryan Nassib into a projected early-round NFL Draft pick, and also revamped Syracuse’s offense into an up-tempo, no-huddle system.

This past season, Marrone and Hackett helped Syracuse’s offense become one of the best in the Big East. They changed their game plans to shift some of the load onto the running backs in the second of the season, and they helped lead the Orange to a 5-1 finish and a win over West Virginia in the Pinstripe Bowl.

In 2012, Syracuse led the Big East in total offense with 476 yards per game, and that was also good for 18th in the nation. The Orange was also third in the conference in scoring offense with an average of 30 points per game, and second in passing offense with 289 yards per game.

Hackett said earlier this season that much of what he implemented at Syracuse came from what he learned during his time as the offensive quality control coach with the Bills. Specifically, he said he learned the “K-gun” offensive system, which the Bills ran under Hall of Fame quarterback Jim Kelly.

“When I first learned about it was the K-gun with Jim Kelly when I was coaching at the Bills,” Hackett said during the season. “He’s the one that explained a lot of it to me, and how he did it. … Obviously we weren’t doing everything the Bills were doing, so then we obviously had to build it on that.”

Hackett, the son of longtime NFL and college coach Paul Hackett, was on the staff of the Bills in 2008 and 2009 as the offensive quality control coach. He held the same position with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2006 and 2007.

He also spent time coaching at Stanford and University of California-Davis early in his career.

Marrone said at his introductory press conference Monday that he will let his offensive coordinator call the plays for the Bills, but the calls will run through him.

Multiple reports state Syracuse defensive coordinator Scott Shafer will be promoted to head coach to replace Marrone, which would bring some stability to the team. But Hackett’s departure from Syracuse could have an effect on the Orange’s recruiting class now that both he and Marrone are gone.





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