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Who is Jim O'Neil?

O'Neil spent the last two seasons as the defensive backs coach for the Raiders.
O'Neil spent the last two seasons as the defensive backs coach for the Raiders. (Las Vegas Raiders)

Northwestern head coach Pat Fitzgerald has found his replacement for the retired Mike Hankwitz.

ESPN's Adam Rittenberg reported on Tuesday that the Wildcats would be hiring Las Vegas Raiders defensive backs coach Jim O'Neil as the program's defensive coordinator.

O'Neil, 42, spent the last 12 years coaching in the NFL for the Jets, Bills, Browns, 49ers and Raiders. He served as the defensive coordinator for both the Browns and 49ers.

While O'Neil hasn't coached college ball since 2008, his seven years of experience in the college game includes two as a recruiting coordinator. More importantly, he has ties to no fewer than six of the coaches on Northwestern's staff.

This will actually be O'Neil's second stint in Evanston. He was a graduate assistant helping to coach the defensive backs at Northwestern from 2003 to 2004.

Northwestern's linebackers coach during that time was none other than the man who just hired him, Fitzgerald. On top of that, two players during O'Neil's years at NU were current linebackers coach Tim McGarigle and running backs coach Lou Ayeni.

After leaving Evanston, O'Neil spent one season as the defensive coordinator at his alma mater, Towson. He then went on to become the safeties coach and recruiting coordinator from 2006 to 2009 at Eastern Michigan, where current Northwestern special teams coordinator Jeff Genyk was the head coach.

Genyk isn't the only connection to the current NU staff that O'Neil made at Eastern Michigan. Current Wildcats' offensive line coach Kurt Anderson served at the Eagles' tight end coach, while current Northwestern defensive backs coach Matt MacPherson coached safeties.

All of that is to say, NU's staff knows him pretty well.

Probably the most impressive part of O'Neil's résumé is that he has been an NFL defensive coordinator twice. His first year as a DC was in 2014 with the Cleveland Browns. The Browns allowed 21.9 points per game, good for ninth-best in the league, and they also allowed the seventh-fewest passing yards per game. On the down side, the Browns allowed the most rushing yards in the league.

O'Neil returned to coordinate the Browns' defense in 2015, and it did not go well: they allowed the fourth-most points per game and sixth-most yards per game in the NFL. However, O'Neil's defense was bitten hard by the injury bug -- by the end of the year, six starters ended up missing time. O'Neil was let go when head coach Mike Pettine was fired at the end of the season.

New 49ers coach Chip Kelly gave O'Neil another shot at a DC job the following year. It went as poorly as it possibly could've for a team that finished 2-14. The 49ers finished last in the league in points and yards allowed per game. O'Neil again lost his job, this time when Kelly was fired after one season in San Francisco.

After a year out of coaching, O'Neil spent one season as a defensive assistant and two as the defensive backs coach for the Oakland/Las Vegas Raiders under Jon Gruden. The team finished in the bottom 10 in the league in passing yards allowed per game in both seasons, in 2019 and 2020. Defensive coordinator Paul Guenther was fired last month and O'Neil lost his gig when new coordinator Gus Bradley was hired to replace him.

While some of O'Neil's defensive statistics might seem concerning, they have to be put in proper context. All three of the defenses he coordinated were on rebuilding teams; he wasn't given a stacked group of playmakers that had their sights set on the Super Bowl. It is also worthwhile to look at what highly successful college coaches like Nick Saban did in the NFL and realize that the pros are just a different world.

From a scheme standpoint, O'Neil isn't married to a strict 4-3 or 3-4 system. He uses a lot of hybrid defensive fronts, mixing one- and two-gap responsibilities. (To put it simply: a defensive lineman with one-gap responsibility only has to worry about filling his gap, regardless of where the play goes; a linemen in a two-gap system is assigned two gaps and chooses which gap to fill based on where the play goes.)

It will be interesting to see what type of system O'Neil will use at Northwestern. A two-gap defense can be complicated at the college level. Part of the Browns' struggles against the run under O'Neil were due to a complex scheme, according to an anonymous player quoted in this Sports Illustrated article:

"Rather than being assigned specific gaps, Cleveland’s defensive linemen play different techniques based on how their offensive counterparts are blocking them. The linebackers, then, are expected to guess what technique their teammates are using, scrape through the resulting mess and make the play.

"Opposing offenses have identified this flaw on film and are repeatedly, week-after-week, gashing the edge of Cleveland’s defense. It’s a completely chaotic approach to stopping the run, and players have said—off the record—they’re spending way too much time thinking, and not nearly enough time reacting. It’s an entire guessing game. Imagine trying to define mud.'"

O'Neil hasn't been calling defenses in five years. The Wildcats' personnel and opponents will also influence his system. He will also have the help of experienced position coaches to work with on formulating strong defensive game plans.

Defensive line coach Marty Long and MacPherson have each been at Northwestern for 13 years. McGarigle has only been coaching at NU for three years, but he is very highly regarded by Fitzgerald and was seen as a candidate for the coordinator job.

O'Neil will certainly have some big shoes to fill. Hankwitz spent 51 years in college coaching before stepping down at the end of the season with the No. 5 scoring defense in the country. He was a master at mixing and disguising defenses.

However, one area where O'Neil figures to be an upgrade is in recruiting. While he's been out of the college game for 12 years, O'Neil doubled as the recruiting coordinator during his tenure at Eastern Michigan. He is also 31 years younger than Hankwitz, a fact that usually helps when trying to woo teenagers.

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