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NFL: Lions Retain Five Assistants: Priefer Remains Special Teams Coordinator; Snow Named Linebackers Coach

Priefer Remains Special Teams Coordinator; Snow Named Linebackers Coach

/noticias.info/ ALLEN PARK, Mich. -- Detroit Lions Head Coach Rod Marinelli announced today that Chuck Priefer, who has been the team’s Special Teams Coordinator for the past nine seasons, will return in the same capacity for the 2006 season. Marinelli also named Phil Snow the team’s new linebackers coach. Snow last season served as a defensive assistant for the Lions. Marinelli also announced that Defensive Assistant Don Clemons, Assistant Special Teams coach Stan Kwan and Coaching Assistant Adam Gase all will be retained.

Priefer is entering his 10th year as the Lions special teams coach. Originally hired in 1997, Priefer has directed some of the most consistent special teams units in the league and has guided standout seasons by both kickers and kick returners.

Since the arrival of Priefer in 1997, the Lions have seen a noticeable upturn in production from K Jason Hanson, who, in 2005, became the 17th player in NFL history to score 1,400 points. Hanson has enjoyed nine outstanding seasons under Priefer's direction, being named to the Pro Bowl following both the ‘97 and ‘99 campaigns. He has been over the 100-point barrier in six of the past nine seasons and became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer in 2002.

Punter Nick Harris had the best season of his young career in 2005 while proving to be a valuable asset in terms of the battle for field position. Harris’ career-high 34 punts downed inside-the-20 in 2005 led the NFL and was the best single-season mark in franchise history. He also tied for the second-fewest touchbacks in the NFL with two, which gave him the best net differential between punts downed inside the 20 yard-line and touchbacks in the league (32). He was named to the USA Today’s All-Joe NFC team that honors overlooked, “effort” guys.

Over the past two seasons, Harris has downed 66 punts inside-the-20, the most in the NFL.. He is one of only two players (Jaguars P Chris Hanson, 61) in the NFL to have over 60 punts inside-the-20. Since the beginning of the 2004 season, Harris has recorded a net differential between punts inside-the-20 and touchbacks of 57, which is the highest net in the NFL over the past two seasons. He is the only player with a net differential higher than 50.

Over the past four years, the Lions special teams return units have been the best in the NFL when it comes to scoring touchdowns. From 2002-05, the Lions recorded more special teams return touchdowns (kickoff return, punt return, blocked punt return and blocked field goal return) than any other team in the NFL. Over that three-year span, the Lions scored 11 touchdowns via special teams returns.

Return specialist Eddie Drummond has emerged as one of the elite kick returners in the NFL under Priefer’s guidance. He finished the 2004 season as the NFL’s leader in punt returns with a 13.2 avg (24 PR for 316 yds) and combined kick returns for touchdowns with four (2 PR, 2 KR), and ranked second in kickoff returns with a 26.6 avg (41 KR for 1,092 yds). Drummond also tied for a league-high in punt returns for touchdowns with two and tied for second in the NFL in kickoff returns for touchdowns with two. Drummond is only the second player in NFL history to return two punts and two kickoffs for touchdowns in a single season.

During Priefer’s nine-year tenure in Detroit, he has had five different players return kicks for touchdowns (Terry Fair, Desmond Howard, Az-Zahir Hakim, Drummond and Reggie Swinton). Howard and Drummond both earned trips to the 2001 and 2005 Pro Bowls respectively.

Clemons will be in his 22nd season with the Lions coaching staff. After being hired in 1985, he has served on the staffs of seven previous coaches, including Dick Jauron (final five games of 2005), Steve Mariucci (2003-05), Marty Mornhinweg (2001-02), Gary Moeller (final seven games of 2000), Bobby Ross (1997-00), Wayne Fontes (1989-96) and Darryl Rogers (1985-88). Clemons has been responsible for a myriad of roles during his tenure that includes defensive assistant, tutoring linebackers, coaching both nickel and dime cornerbacks and strength and conditioning.

Kwan continues his second tenure with the Lions after rejoining the organization in 2004. He joined Mariucci’s coaching staff in ’04 and will be in his seventh overall season with the Detroit Lions. Previously, Kwan spent three seasons (2001-03) with the Arizona Cardinals as special teams assistant/defensive quality control. Kwan previously worked with Priefer in Detroit (1997-00) and with the San Diego Chargers (1992-96).

He served as assistant special teams/offensive assistant with the Lions under Ross and Moeller from 1997-00. Throughout his pro coaching career, Kwan has served in a variety of support roles including designing computer diagrams of plays, compiling both offensive and defensive playbooks, breaking down of special teams film and providing statistical analysis on the league and college combine testing. Kwan’s career in the NFL originally began in 1991 with the Chargers organization.

Gase was hired by the Lions in 2003 as a college scouting intern. The following year he was hired full time as a scouting assistant. Following the 2005 NFL Draft he began assisting the team's coaching staff in addition to his scouting duties, and he was quality control for the Lions' offensive coaching staff for the last five games of the season.

Snow was hired by the Lions in 2005 as defensive assistant, and will move to coaching the team’s linebackers. Prior to his current stint in Detroit, Snow spent two seasons with the University of Washington Huskies, the last as their defensive coordinator. During his coaching career, he spent 17 seasons in the Pac-10 Conference.

Before joining the Huskies for the 2003 season, Snow was the defensive coordinator at UCLA for two seasons where his defense was the conference’s best unit in total defense during the 2001 season. That defense featured LB Robert Thomas, who was drafted by St. Louis in the first round of the 2002 NFL Draft. Thomas has started at middle linebacker for the Rams the past three seasons (2002-04).

Snow spent nine seasons at Arizona State (1992-2000) as the defensive coordinator. Snow served on the same coaching staff at ASU as Marinelli, who was the Sun Devils defensive line and assistant head coach from 1992-94. During his tenure he coached current NFL starters S Adam Archuleta and LB Terrell Suggs. The Sun Devils defensive units ranked among the top three in scoring defense in the Pac-10 in three of his last five seasons. In 2000, Arizona State’s defense ranked first in the nation in fumbles recovered and third in forced turnovers.

For five seasons at California (1987-91), Snow coached the secondary and helped the Golden Bears win their first back-to-back bowl games (Copper, 1990; Citrus, 1991). He spent five seasons (1982-86) coaching at Boise State, the last four as the team’s defensive coordinator/secondary. In 1986, the Broncos ranked sixth in the nation in total defense.

Snow began his coaching career at Berkely (Calif.) High School in 1976, and he also coached two seasons (1977-78) at Winters (Calif.) High School. He entered the college ranks in 1979 when he joined the coaching staff at Laney (Calif.) College. notas_de_prensa_archivo