According to two reports, Georgia Tech has made its hire to replace special-teams coordinator Ray Rychleski. Ron West, formerly an assistant at Clemson, Illinois, Arizona State and most recently North Carolina, will help coach the offensive line, according to Jackets Online and Football Scoop.
Reached Sunday, coach Paul Johnson said by text message that he could not confirm nor deny the reports.
West has coached offense and defense over his 35-year coaching career. He was North Carolina’s co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach in 2013-14, but was not retained when Gene Chizik was hired as defensive coordinator prior to the 2015 season. He previously coached with Tech linebackers coach Andy McCollum at Baylor 1994-96.
After Rychleski’s departure, Johnson said that he would fill the sole vacancy on his staff with an offensive line coach rather than continue with a special-teams coach, which he had done for the past four seasons. Johnson said that the offensive line needed more than one coach.
Among West’s tasks will be helping improve pass protection, which Johnson called his No. 1 priority going into spring practice.
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