It didn’t take long for former Green Bay Packers special-teams coordinator Rich Bisaccia to take another football job; Clemson University announced March 4 that it had hired Bisaccia to fill the same role on its football staff.
Bisaccia, 65, coached running backs and special teams at Clemson from 1994 to 1998, then went on to coach 24 years in the NFL. That included his run with the Packers over the past four seasons. He’s been an assistant head coach since 2023.
“I am really excited to have the opportunity to work with the young men in the Clemson football program and be part of a tremendous staff,” Bisaccia said in a Clemson release. “After I made the decision to move in a new direction, coach [Dabo] Swinney approached me with the opportunity to come back to a place that holds special meaning for me and my family. I’m thrilled to be able to return to the Clemson community and serve this program in any way I can.”
The program, located in South Carolina, hasn’t missed a bowl game since 2004 and has two national titles in that stretch, plus two more appearances in the national title game. Last year, however, marked a disappointing 7-6 season after the Tigers came into the year ranked No. 4 in the nation.
Packers general manager Brian Gutekunst said the organization was caught off-guard by Bisaccia’s decision to step down in mid-February, one that left the Packers with a coaching vacancy at a time after many searching teams had already hired new special-teams coordinators. The Packers hired Cam Achord to take Bisaccia’s place.
“I’ve gotten to know him over the years, and we’ve actually talked a couple of different times about the possibility of him joining our staff,” Swinney said in the release. “It just never really could work out from a timing standpoint or because the way the rules were set up in college. But with the changing of the rules to allow everybody to coach on the field and where he was in his career, he really wanted to finish here at Clemson. I’m super excited it worked out for us too, because this is as good a special teams coach as there has been in the NFL for a long, long time.”
With signing bonus, Bisaccia will make $1 million next season at Clemson. He was set to make an estimated $2 million next year with the Packers. Coach Matt LaFleur had extended Bisaccia’s deal a year after the 2024 season and might have done so again if Bisaccia agreed to return.
Tom Silverstein contributed to this story.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What Rich Bisaccia said about new job as Clemson special-teams coach
Reporting by JR Radcliffe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
