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Lions hire former Miami head coach Al Golden as tight ends coach

Al Golden formerly played tight end at Penn State when Jim Caldwell was coaching at the school.

By Chris Perfett
Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

I'm a fan of college football, which is why I'm a little bewildered, befuddled and bemused at the recent rash of coaches that I normally ascribe to the collegiate realms coming into the Detroit Lions. First it was Ron Prince, and I said nothing. Then Randy Edsall got some top secret project assigned to him. Now, on Monday, the Lions announced they had hired Al Golden, formerly the head coach of the University of Miami, to coach the Lions tight ends. Really y'all, not sure how to feel about all this.


Al Golden has never coached tight ends as a position coach before, but he played the position with the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1987 to 1991. It was there at Penn State he met Jim Caldwell, who was the quarterbacks coach at the time. He spent a single year playing tight end in the NFL for the New England Patriots in 1992.

Golden is fresh off a four-year stint as the head coach of the University of Miami Hurricanes, where he was not well regarded by fans, but managed the team under the shadow of sanctions and a self-imposed bowl ban. He went 32-25 at Miami with two bowl appearances. Before the Miami gig, Al Golden was the head coach of the Temple Owls and brought the team two winning seasons in 2009 and 2010, along with a share of the Mid-American Conference East division title in 2009.

Al Golden replaces Ron Prince as the tight ends coach for the Lions. Prince is still with the Lions, but signs point to that he's moving to coach the offensive line full time now, a position he gained after the Lions fired Jeremiah Washburn and Terry Heffernan.

Eric Ebron, who will be one of the tight ends he will have the responsibility to coach, instantly recognized Al Golden. Ebron, as a North Carolina Tar Heel, had a 199-yard game against Golden's Hurricanes.

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