Ricky Brumfield - Football Coach - Syracuse University Athletics

Ricky Brumfield

Title:
Special Teams Coordinator
Email:
kcbrumfi@syr.edu

Ricky Brumfield, a coach with over two decades of experience coordinating special teams units at the collegiate level, including multiple successful stints in the ACC, has been hired as Syracuse’s Special Teams Coordinator, head coach Fran Brown announced.

Brumfield comes to Syracuse after spending two years at Georgia Tech, where he also coached cornerbacks in addition to special teams. A proven winner, Brumfield has won five conference titles in his football career, between his time as a coach and player. Players have also individually thrived at every stop of Brumfield’s career. At least one of his student-athletes has broken an NCAA or school record at every level he has coached.

“I’m very grateful and humbled for the opportunity that Coach Brown has bestowed on me,” Brumfield said. “I’m very excited to be here. This a program with rich tradition and is on the rise under Coach Fran Brown. I know he’s doing great things, he’s a real coach, a truthful and honest man and I’m just grateful to be part of this staff and help the program win.”

In his first season in Atlanta, Brumfield coached placekicker Aidan Birr to Freshman All-American for the Yellow Jackets after connecting on 17-of-19 field goals. His unit also blocked four kicks on the season, which was the third-most nationally in 2023. It was an overhaul from the years prior.

The Yellow Jackets had surrendered eight blocked kicks the year prior to his arrival and ranked last nationally in special teams efficiency. Brumfield immediately reversed that trend and improved the unit over 80 spots in the national rankings during his first season.

“Ricky Brumfield is very competitive. I really like his competitive nature,” Brown said. “He’s been in a situation before with a program that was struggling on special teams, like we were, and flipped it around in one year. He has a track record of being a players’ guy. Players love him and want to play for him.

“He's also a class A guy. I’ve seen who he is as a husband and father, and I just felt as though he’d be the perfect fit for us. He fit in with all the coaches on the interview and he did so by just being himself – he didn’t try to be anyone else. I’m thankful that he decided to come and work with us.”

Prior to his time on The Flats, he was the associate head coach, special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach at Florida International in 2022. In his lone season there, the Panthers ranked No. 23 nationally in special teams efficiency, improving 49 spots from their rank the year before. FIU also blocked three kicks, which ranked in the top 20 nationally and did not surrender any special teams scores.

Brumfield has spent six years in the ACC, with his four seasons prior to Georgia Tech coming at Virginia (2018-21). In his first season with the Cavaliers, the team ended a six-year stretch of losing seasons and continued to rise in his tenure, winning the ACC Coastal Division in 2019 and earning their first trip to the Orange Bowl.

In 2018, his punt unit led the ACC and ranked seventh nationally in punt return defense, surrendering 3.21 yards per return. It was a 110-spot improvement after he inherited a unit that finished 117th nationally the year prior.

His 2019 team set UVA single-season records for kick return yards (1,204) and average (28.7), while Joe Reed was named a First Team All-American as a return man after leading the nation in kick return average. Reed concluded his college career as 1-of-10 players in FBS history with over 3,000 kick return yards and the only player in FBS history to have over a 28-yard average return and more than 2,700 career yards. Brian Delaney also broke the Cavaliers program record for kicking points in 2019 with Brumfield coaching the PAT/Field goal unit.

Brumfield added coaching tight ends to his duties in 2020. Under Brumfield, Tony Poljan finished seventh nationally among tight ends with 38 receptions and six touchdowns, despite appearing in only 10 games. His final season at UVA saw him coach cornerbacks in addition to coordinating the special teams. Virginia never finished below .500 in Brumfield’s tenure, with all-four of the program’s winning seasons since 2011 coinciding with his time coaching the program.

Prior to Virginia, Brumfield spent the 2016 and 2017 seasons at UTSA, where he was the Roadrunners’ special teams coordinator and tight ends coach. In his first season in San Antonio, Brumfield helped guide the program to its first-ever bowl appearance, the New Mexico Bowl. His special teams units set several school records, including punting average (42.0), touchbacks (27), points (79) and extra points (43).

A year later, he coached freshman placekicker Jared Sackett to USA Today Freshman All-American honors after he set a school record with 19 field goals on 22 attempts and a program record 80 kicking points. He was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, presented to the nation’s top kicker. UTSA Punter Yannis Routsas was a semifinalist for the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s top punter, making the Roadrunners one-of-three schools nationally to have their kicker and punter up for both of the nation’s top specialist awards. His punt unit finished sixth nationally in punt return defense in 2017, allowing just 23 total yards on punt returns.

Brumfield came to UTSA from Western Kentucky, where he spent three seasons as the special teams coordinator and cornerbacks coach, helping the Hilltoppers to a pair of bowl wins and the 2015 Conference USA Championship. The 2015 WKU squad finished 24th in the final rankings and his units regularly led their conference in statistical categories including interceptions, pass efficiency defense, and kick and punt return defense. Kicker Garrett Schwettman led the nation in field goal percentage (93.8-percent) in his final season at WKU.

He was the special teams coordinator at Nicholls State from 2011-12, immediately coaching one of the top special teams units nationally. His squad blocked six kicks in 2011 and ranked 14th in the FCS in kick return average. Punter Cory Kemps was sixth in the nation in punting average.

While at Nicholls State, Brumfield oversaw Chika Madu become the program’s all-time leader in kick return yards (2,076) and finish second in Southland Conference history in the category. He is also second in kick return touchdowns and fourth in kick return average in league history.

Brumfield coached wide receivers, in addition to coordinating the special teams units at Fairmont State from 2004-10. A staple among the nation’s best special teams units in his time there, his team blocked five kicks, forced two turnovers and had a pair of touchdowns in his final season there. Kick returner Zack Page set NCAA Division II career records for kick return yardage, combined kick return yards and total kick returns under Brumfield’s tutelage.

The New Orleans native got his coaching start in 2001 at Union (Ky.) College, where he was the special teams coordinator in addition to coaching wideouts. Brumfield also has NFL experience, spending 11 years at various NFL Franchises throughout his coaching tenure as part of the NFL’s Minority Coaching Fellowship program.

Brumfield played collegiately at Utah State, where he was a two-year starter at wide receiver and helped lead the Aggies to a pair of Big West titles. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from Utah State in 1999 and obtained a Master’s degree in secondary education from Union in 2003. He and his wife, Erin, have four children – Kyan, McKel, Tacy and Asher.