Watch: New ST/ILB Coach Jeff Koonz Focused on Building Sustained Success

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – The first new hire WVU head coach Neal Brown made for this season, Jeff Koonz will be the Mountaineers’ inside linebackers coach and special teams coordinator in 2020.

Brown said Koonz is someone he has been interested in hiring for a while.

“He’s a guy that I’ve had on my list for a number of years,” Brown said. “I think he’s a teacher. I’m excited about him leading our special teams. He’s been a defensive coordinator, he’s lead special teams units.”

Koonz coached the linebackers at Ole Miss last season but has made stops in the Big 12 coaching at Texas and Iowa State.

Koonz said the main thing that attracted him to West Virginia was the people already on the staff and the mentality they have.

“It’s about the people in the building,” Koonz said. “It’s about our players, it’s about our coaches and our mentality in here and that’s what excites me the most.”

Koonz said the coaching staff’s biggest goal this year is to build a foundation that is able to produce sustained success.

“The standard last year wasn’t met, just like coach Brown has said, but we are building it with the right foundation,” Koonz explained. “If you don’t build it with the right foundation, you’re not going to have success long term. Everything that we’re doing is for long-term success and to have a basis for being able to do it every single year.”