Image courtesy of UMass Athletics

The UMass Football program announced three staff promotions yesterday. Matt Layman, Michael Livingston and Ryan Partridge were all promoted to new positions.

https://twitter.com/umassfootball/status/1628488648550236162?s=46&t=Xa1-1i26unurnIYlOSXbWQ

Layman was promoted to tight ends coach. He has been with the program for four years and worked as an offensive analyst prior to his promotion. He has worked with the tight ends, offensive line and quarterbacks during his tenure in Amherst. Layman was instrumental in tight end Josiah Johnson earning second team honors last season.

Livingston joined the Massachusetts staff for the 2022 season as the senior defensive analyst. He worked under Darrell Perkins with the secondary last season. Prior to coming to UMass, Livingston spent six seasons of the past seven seasons at Sacred Heart University, where he served as the defensive pass game coordinator/cornerbacks coach and special teams coordinator. Livingston coached at Howard in 2019. He inherits a secondary that returns a lot of talent most notably cornerbacks Josh Wallace and Jordan Mahoney.

Partridge will continue to serve in his role as wide receivers coach and is now also the recruiting coordinator. He replaces Jeff Moore who left to take the Tabor Academy Head Football job two weeks ago.

Partridge has previous recruiting experience. Prior to coming to UMass. He was Director of High School Scouting and Recruiting at Arizona. The Wildcats put together a top-25 recruiting class. Before Arizona, Partridge served as the linebackers coach at Division II powerhouse Ferris State (2020).  

Replacing good coaches like Perkins and Moore is not easy but Don Brown has built a strong staff and was able to fill those positions from within. We will get our first look at the new coaches in action this spring.