CLEMSON — Longtime NFL special teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia is expected to become the next special teams coordinator at Clemson.
The 65-year-old left the Green Bay Packers last month after a four-season stint with the franchise. He has been in the NFL since 2002, including stops with the Buccaneers (2002-10), Chargers (2011-12), Cowboys (2013-17), and Raiders (2018-22).
Bisaccia was a running backs and special teams coach for Clemson from 1994-98, which followed a stint coaching specialists at South Carolina from 1989-1993.
The NFL vet’s talks with Clemson were first reported on March 1 by Packers reporter Gery Woelfel. Tiger Illustrated and TigerNet then confirmed on March 2 that Dabo Swinney had chosen Bisaccia, pending a background check and board of trustees approval.
Swinney said last week as spring practice opened that he was “close” to finalizing a decision on a special teams coordinator to replace Will Gilchrist, who, along with several other staffers, followed former Tigers analyst John Grass to Samford when he became the head coach there in December.
“Close to a decision and close to finalizing that here pretty soon,” Swinney said on Feb. 25.
A native of Yonkers, N.Y., Bisaccia started his coaching career at Wayne State in Detroit, Mich., as a defensive backs and special teams coach in 1983.
After stops at South Carolina, Clemson, and Ole Miss (1999-2001), Bisaccia joined Jon Gruden and the Bucs for a Super Bowl title in 2002. He stayed with the organization for the remainder of the decade, even when Raheem Morris became head coach in 2009.
Bisaccia nearly returned to the college ranks in 2013 at Auburn but only lasted weeks, jumping instead to the Cowboys to work for Jason Garrett through the 2017 season. He then linked up with Gruden again with the Raiders in 2018.
Along with his more than two decades as a special teams coordinator, Bisaccia was the interim head coach of the Raiders during the 2021 season following Gruden’s resignation. That year, the Raiders made the playoffs for the first time in five years.
The next year, Bisaccia jumped to the Packers. General manager Brian Gutekunst said during the NFL Scouting Combine that the assistant’s exit was not expected.
“It caught us by surprise, but I think there’s some other opportunities he wanted to look at,” Gutekunst said. “Very appreciative for his run with us. I talked to you guys last time, how important to our culture he was, and I think he’s a fabulous football coach.”