Colts announce hiring of five assistant coaches

The Indianapolis Colts today announced several coaching additions that have been reported in recent days.  The team hired Maurice Drayton as assistant special teams coach, Lee Hull as wide receivers coach, Jemal Singleton as running backs coach, Quadrian Banks as conditioning/performance analyst, and Andrew Hayes-Stoker as assistant to the head coach.  Lastly, Joe Philbin's job title was updated to assistant head coach/offensive line.

All of these moves have previously been reported and have been noted here at Stampede Blue, except for the hiring of Banks as a conditioning/performance analyst.  Now, the moves are just official so we don't have to say "reportedly" any more.

Maurice Drayton takes the place of Brant Boyer, who left to become the Jets special teams coordinator after serving as the assistant special teams coach in Indianapolis.  Drayton was most recently the defensive coordinator and assistant head coach in his second stint Citadel, and in his first stint that he has served in a number of different roles, including tight ends coach, wide receivers coach, outside linebackers coach, cornerbacks coach, defensive backs coach, recruiting coordinator, assistant special teams coordinator, and interim strength and conditioning coach during his seven years coaching at the Citadel after spending four years playing there.  He previously worked as the defensive backs and special teams coach at South Carolina State (2008-2009) and then at Coastal Carolina in various roles, such as assistant head coach, special teams coordinator, wide receivers coach, and secondary coach.  Drayton has also interned with three NFL teams in the past: the Green Bay Packers, Atlanta Falcons, and Indianapolis Colts.

Lee Hull left his position as Morgan State's head coach to take the wide receivers coach position with the Colts.  During two seasons at Morgan State, he went 11-12, including an FCS playoff appearance in 2014 and a Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference Coach of the Year award in that season as well.  He previously served as the wide receivers coach for Maryland for six years (2008-2013) and for Oregon State for three years (2005-2007).  He also has been the running backs coach at Oregon State for two years (2003-2004), coached at his alma mater of Holy Cross, and interned with the San Diego Chargers.  The interesting question at the receivers coach spot is what happens to Jim Hostler, who wasn't listed in the team's coaching moves today but has not yet been fired either. Earlier reports had mentioned that he may be changing roles, and with the tight ends coach position still open, perhaps that is the spot for Hostler.

Jemal Singleton comes to the Colts after spending one year as the running backs coach at Arkansas, a year that saw the running back position and Alex Collins have great success under Singleton's tutelage.  Before that, he was the running backs coach at Oklahoma State for four years (2011-2014) and a long-time Air Force assistant coach, spending eight seasons coaching at his alma mater, first as a varsity assistant (2003-2005), then as running backs coach (2006-2010) and four years as the running game coordinator as well (2007-2010).

Quadrian Banks spent the past three seasons as the assistant strength and conditioning coach with the Philadelphia Eagles (2013-2015), so it will be interesting to see how much of Chip Kelly's noted conditioning program Banks helps bring to Indy as a conditioning/performance analyst.  Before his time in Philly, Banks was the director of athletic performance at Gardner-Webb University from 2011-2012, the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Mississippi from 2008-2010, the assistant strength and conditioning coach at the University of Richmond from 2007-2008, and the assistant director of athletic performance at Hampton University in 2007 (where he worked with current Colts defensive end Kendall Langford).

Andrew Hayes-Stoker was the wide receivers coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2015, helping coach Mike Evans to a successful rookie season and leading a promising group of receivers before being replaced by Dirk Koetter during the head coaching change.  Before that, Hayes-Stoker served as the running backs coach at Florida Atlantic University in 2013.  He also worked for the Chicago Bears for seven seasons (2006-2012) in a number of roles: as a football operations assistant, a offensive quality control coach, and an offensive assistant and wide receivers coach.  He was a quality control graduate assistant at Texas A&M in 2005 and 2006 after a playing career at TCU where he backed up LaDainian Tomlinson at running back for a few years and was a two-time captain (he played there from 1999-2002).

Lastly, Joe Philbin takes on the additional title of assistant head coach in addition to his duties as offensive line coach, something that was reported a while ago and likely helped sway him to take the job in Indy, as the title of assistant head coach looks better on a resume than simply offensive line coach.  It's unclear what exactly Philbin's duties as assistant head coach entail, while it's also unclear what the difference is with his job title (assistant head coach) and Hayes-Stoker's job title (assistant to the head coach).  Is Dwight Schrute right (that it's basically the same thing) or is Jim Halpert right (that it's different)?  That's a question that we don't know the answer to right now.