LEBANON, Ill. – With the start of preseason practice less than a three weeks away, McKendree University football coach Mike Babcock has announced his program's coaching staff for the upcoming season.
 
"I am excited to get the chance to work with this coaching staff," Babcock said. "We have a new offensive coordinator, a new linebackers coach and have brought in three new assistants for the offensive line, tight ends and running backs since the end of spring practice."
 
Perhaps the biggest change on the coaching staff was promotion of assistant coach Nick Miller to offensive coordinator to replace longtime coordinator Eric Bergman, who stepped down at the end of the school year after being Babcock's offensive coordinator and offensive line coach since 2018.
 
Miller came McKendree as the quarterback coach for the 2020 season and has spent the last two years coaching the Bearcats' quarterbacks, including redshirt junior Turner Pullen (Shelbyville, Ill./Shelbyville), who was an Honorable Mention All-Great Lakes Valley Conference selection last season after throwing for 2,480 yards and accounting for 2,830 yards of total offense, which was third on the school's single season chart and 32 touchdowns.
 
In addition to Miller, the other assistants on the offensive side of the ball include third year assistant Thomas Jenkins, who will coach the receivers and is also the program's recruiting coordinator and newcomers Peter Gonzalez, Jr., who will coach the running backs, Nick Holeton, who will coach the offensive line and DeAndre Hollier, who will coach the tight ends.
 
Gonzalez, Jr., comes to McKendree after serving as the offensive coordinator for the past 13 years at Montebello High School in Montebello, Calif., who worked alongside his father, Peter, who was Monteballo's head coach. He also served as an offensive assistant coach working with the running backs at El Camino College in 2020.
 
Holeton comes to McKendree after spending the 2021 season as the offensive line coach at Berry College, which is an NCAA Division III school in Mount Berry, Ga. Prior to working at Berry, Holeton, who is a Pecatonica, Ill., native, spent two seasons (2019-21) as a graduate assistant coach working with the offensive line at Eastern Michigan University. He also has coached the offensive line at Lawrence Technological University from 2017-19 and spent three seasons working with the running backs, tight ends and hybrids at his alma mater, Loras College, from 2014-16.
 
Hollier comes to McKendree after spending the past four years as the quarterbacks coach at Langston Hughes High School in Fairburn, Ga. Prior to working LHHS, Hollier, who graduated from Georgia Southern in 2017, spent six months in 2018 as a graduate assistant coach at Southern University in Baton Rouge, La., and was a recruiting assistant for 14 months at his alma mater, Georgia Southern University.
 
Meanwhile, on the defensive side of the ball, the assistants are defensive coordinator Jason Rejfek and defensive line coach Opetaia Tuiava and Sean Kelly, who will be the program's new linebackers coach.
 
Rejfek and Tuiava were both assistants on last year's team, while Kelly came to McKendree following the conclusion of the 2021 season after spending the previous 11 seasons (2011-21) as an assistant coach at fellow GLVC member school, Quincy University. At Quincy, Kelly, who played linebacker at McKendree from 2007-10, began as a graduate assistant in 2011, before becoming the school's linebackers coach in 2012 and in 2017, he was promoted to associate head coach and defensive coordinator and served as the Hawks' recruiting coordinator.
 
In addition to the new assistant coaches, Babcock's 10th McKendree team will have two new support staff members as Tyler Aulbur will be the team's athletic performance coach and Allie Epping will serve as the team's athletic trainer.