Here are the press releases from the UConn Huskies football team involving the announcement of Joe Moorhead as the new offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach as well as Andrew Breiner being named graduate assistant football coach.
Joe Moorhead Hired As UConn Football Offensive Coordinator
STORRS, Conn. (January, 20, 2009) — Joe Moorhead, a 1996 graduate of Fordham University, has been named the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at the University of Connecticut after serving in the same role at the University of Akron for the past two seasons.
He was an assistant coach at Akron for a total of five years (2004-2008) and was the wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator in 2004 and ’05 and the quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator in 2006.
Moorhead helped lead Akron to be just one of 17 schools nationally in 2008 to be ranked among the top 50 in rushing offense (45th at 165.7 yards per game), passing offense (46th at 231.50), total offense (40th at 396.97) and scoring offense (36th at 30.0 points per game). Moorhead was responsible for devising, installing and implementing a “multiple-no huddle” offensive scheme for the Zips.
Akron was the most improved school in the nation this past year in terms of total offense and was the sixth-most improved in scoring offense. In the Mid-American Conference, Akron was third in points per game and turnover margin (plus 0.5) and fourth in rushing yards per game.
In 2007, wide receiver Jabari Arthur was ranked 11th in the country in receptions per game with 7.2 and was 12th in receiving yards per game with 96.7. He broke five school receiving records in his career. He was named first team all-conference, played in the Hula Bowl and later signed a free agent contract with the Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL.
In 2006, as quarterbacks coach, he mentored Luke Getsy, who threw for 2,662 yards as a senior. Getsy left Akron with 24 different school records. Getsy was one of four Zips to play in a postseason all-star game that year and he signed a free agent contract with the San Francisco 49ers. Wide receiver David Harvey earned freshman All-American honors for the Zips that year.
The 2005 Zips won the school’s first-ever Mid-American Conference championship and played in the Motor City Bowl. Domenik Hixon set a school single-season record with 1,210 receiving yards under Moorhead’s watch. Hixon was a fourth round NFL Draft pick of the Denver Broncos and is currently a member of the New York Giants.
In 2004, Moorhead also coached the punt return team at Akron, which ranked fifth in the entire country and first in the MAC.
Moorhead was an assistant coach at Georgetown for four seasons from 2000 through 2003, where he had stints as the running backs coach, quarterbacks coach and the offensive coordinator, in his final year. The Hoyas were ranked third in the Patriot League in rushing in ’03.
He gained experience coaching in the BIG EAST Conference as a graduate assistant at Pittsburgh in 1998 and ’99.
As a collegiate performer at Fordham, he was a three-year starter at quarterback and was a team captain as a senior. He was a second team All-Patriot League pick as a senior and finished 13th nationally in total offense.
Following his collegiate career, Moorhead spent time in the training camp of the Milwaukee Mustangs of the Arena Football League after playing the 1996 season for the Munich Cowboys of the E.F.A.F.
Moorhead graduated from Fordham with a degree in English. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children: daughter Kyra (8), son Mason (6) and son Donovan (born February 2007).
Andrew Breiner Named Football Graduate Assistant Coach
STORRS, Conn. (January 20, 2009) — Andrew Breiner, a 2006 graduate of Lock Haven (Pa.) University, has been named the offensive graduate assistant football coach at the University of Connecticut.
For the past two seasons, Breiner has been an assistant coach at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pa. He worked with the quarterbacks this past year and the wide receivers in 2007. He began his coaching career in 2006 at Lock Haven, when he sustained a career-ending injury midway through the year and began working with the wide receivers.
He was a four-year letter winner for Lock Haven as a wide receiver and also played special teams.
He won a National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award from the Central Pennsylvania Chapter of the NFF for his accomplishments athletically, academically and in the community.
A Dean’s List student, he graduated from Lock Haven with a degree in health and physical education.
