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Willie Taggart has hired two new assistants: David Reaves (wide receivers coach) and Eric Mathies (defensive line coach).
Reaves -- and yes, he's the son of Florida Gator/Tampa Bay Bandit/Florida Flop beneficiary John Reaves -- played key recruiting roles for Lou Holtz and later Steve Spurrier at South Carolina, and also Lane Kiffin at Tennessee. He later rose to the level of offensive coordinator, but we'll try not to hold that against him since it was during the disastrous Mike Locksley era at New Mexico. He's also worked at IMG Academy and Tampa Catholic, and has no shortage of local ties.
Eric Mathies has been defensive line coach at Western Kentucky for eight years and recruiting coordinator for three, having been promoted to the latter role when Taggart took over the team. Mathies is credited with WKU's Sun Belt-leading (and Florida-heavy) recruiting classes from 2010 to 2012.
Reaves and Mathies help answer the Chuck Bresnahan question. With talented recruiters like Reaves, Mathies, Ron Cooper, and Larry Scott on staff as position coaches, it make more sense for USF to hire a defensive coordinator with little college experience or recruiting ties.
As Greg Auman notes, Mathies is the fourth assistant to follow Taggart from Western Kentucky to USF. But none of those assistants was named Marquel Blackwell, who was a graduate assistant under Taggart last season. Blackwell isn't on Bobby Petrino's WKU staff, and hasn't resurfaced anywhere else that I could find. The one remaining assistant job at USF seems to be running backs coach. Ol' #10 was a pretty good rusher - could Marquel Blackwell be returning to East Fowler in that capacity?