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Cincinnati Bearcats have a new RB Coach for the 2020 season, officially hiring Dan Enos on Tuesday.
SOURCE: Former #Miami OC Dan Enos has been hired as the running backs coach at #Cincinnati. @mzenitz first reported the move.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) March 3, 2020
Enos replaced Doug Phillips, who had been at Cincinnati since Luke Fickell’s arrival in 2017. He was the RB Coach for each of the last two seasons, playing a big role in the development of Michael Warren and other running backs.
Enos has a long history of coaching and a lot of ties to Cincinnati. He was the Bearcats’ QB Coach in 2004-2005 under Mark Dantonio. He left to take QB Coach job at Michigan State in 2006 and stayed on the staff as RB Coach from 2007-2009 when Dantonio left Cincinnati for Michigan State (unlike someone else).
Enos was named head coach at Central Michigan in 2010, replacing Butch Jones, who departed for Cincinnati. Enos coached the Chipewas for five years, going 26-36. He did lead them to two bowl games, including a win in the Little Caesars Pizza Bowl in 2012. He never won more than 7 games.
Since being fired after the 2014 season, Enos has bounced around as an offensive coordinator/QB coach at Arkansas, Michigan, Alabama and spent 2019 with Miami. His run at Miami was an absolute disaster as the Hurricanes offense was historically awful. Enos was fired after Miami lost the Independence Bowl 14-0. Word spread pre-game that he would be fired regardless of the result, but certainly getting shut out by a C-USA team in a bowl game in Shreveport is not a great look.
2009 at Michigan State is the last time Enos was a RB Coach. He has a lot to work with in 2020. The aforementioned Warren and his 1,265 yards and 14 TD from 2019 are gone. But Gerrid Doaks returns and is expected to be the lead back. Doaks led the team in rushing in 2017 and sat out the 2018 season due to injury. He returned 2019 to run for 526 yards and 5 TDs. His backups will include Charles McClelland (who sat out 2019 due to injury) and Jerome Ford, a former 4-star prospect who transferred from Alabama and has already been declared immediately eligible.
Head coach Luke Fickell and offensive coordinator Mike Denbrock operate with a run-oriented offensive scheme, so a lot of work will fall on the shoulders of Enos to help keep the running game going after Warren’s departure.