Ricky Brumfield

Ricky Brumfield enters his second season at Georgia Tech and his first as the Yellow Jackets’ associate head coach for special teams and cornerbacks coach.

Serving as Tech’s special teams coordinator during his first season on The Flats in 2023, Brumfield’s special teams were highlighted by place kicker Aidan Birr making 17-of-19 field goals, en route to freshman all-America recognition, and the Jackets tying for third nationally with four blocked kicks.

Brumfield, who has directed special teams at the collegiate level for more than two decades – including the last 12 seasons at the NCAA Division I level – came to Tech after serving as associate head coach/special teams coordinator/outside linebackers coach at Florida International in 2022. Prior to his one season at FIU, he spent four seasons as special teams coordinator at Virginia, where he helped lead the Cavaliers to the 2019 ACC Coastal Division championship. UVA never finished below .500 in his four seasons with the program after suffering six-straight losing seasons prior to his arrival.

He has also served as special teams coordinator at Texas-San Antonio (2016-17), Western Kentucky (2013-15), Nicholls State (2011-12), Fairmont State (2004-10) and Union (Ky.) College (2001-03).

Brumfield owns extensive coaching experience in the National Football League, participating in the NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship program with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2006), Atlanta Falcons (2007), Green Bay Packers (2008), Buffalo Bills (2010) and Tennessee Titans (2021). He also served as a volunteer assistant coach for the Steelers from 2007-09.

He played collegiately at Utah State, where he was a four-year letterwinner and two-year starter at wide receiver. He helped lead the Aggies to a pair of Big West Conference championships and a berth in the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl. He also played for one season professionally as a member of the Indoor Football League’s Bismarck Blaze in 2000.

He and his wife, Erin, have four children – Kyan, McKel, Tacy and Asher.

FULL BIOGRAPHY

Ricky Brumfield enters his second season at Georgia Tech and his first as the Yellow Jackets’ associate head coach for special teams and cornerbacks coach.

Serving as Tech’s special teams coordinator during his first season on The Flats in 2023, Brumfield’s coached redshirt place kicker Aidan Birr, who made 17-of-19 field goals, good for the second-highest single-season field goal percentage in Georgia Tech history and a tie for the fourth-most made field goals in program history. Birr, who did not take over the place kicking duties full-time until the third game of the season after recovering from a knee injury sustained prior to his arrival at Tech in 2022, was named a freshman all-American by College Football News.

In addition to Birr’s great individual success, the Jackets also established themselves as one of college football’s most-feared units in terms of blocking kicks in 2023, finishing tied for third nationally with four blocked kicks.

Brumfield came to The Flats after spending the 2022 season as special teams coordinator and associate head coach at Florida International. In his lone season at FIU, the Panthers ranked No. 23 nationally in special teams efficiency, an improvement of nearly 50 spots from its 2021 rank of No. 72. FIU also blocked three kicks, which was tied for 19^th nationally, and surrendered zero special teams scores. In addition to his duties as special teams coordinator and associate head coach, Brumfield also coached FIU’s outside linebackers.

His one season at FIU followed four seasons in the Atlantic Coast Conference as special teams coordinator at Virginia (2018-21). At UVA, Brumfield oversaw the nation’s No. 2-ranked kickoff return unit in 2019. As a team, the Cavaliers set school records for kickoff return average (28.7 ypr) and total kickoff return yards (1,204). The unit was highlighted by Joe Reed, who won the 2019 Jet Award as the nation’s top kick returner. Under Brumfield’s tutelage, Reed led the nation in 2019 with two kickoff returns for touchdowns and finished his collegiate career as the top kickoff returner in UVA history with 3,042 yards, which also made him one of only 10 players in Division I FBS history with 3,000 kick return yards in a career.

In Brumfield’s first season at Virginia (2018), the Cavaliers finished atop the ACC and No. 7 nationally in punt return defense (3.21 ypr), just one season after UVA ranked 117^th nationally. In his final season with the Cavaliers, UVA ranked seventh nationally in special teams efficiency.

In his four seasons at Virginia, UVA never finished below .500 (after suffering six-straight losing seasons prior to his arrival). The Cavaliers won the ACC Coastal Division championship and earned an Orange Bowl berth in 2019.

Before his four-year tenure at UVA, Brumfield was special teams coordinator for two seasons at Texas-San Antonio (2016-17), he coached semifinalists for both the Lou Groza Award (nation’s top place kicker – Jared Sackett) and Ray Guy Award (nation’s top punter – Yannis Routsas) in 2017. UTSA was one of only three teams to boast Groza and Guy semifinalists in 2017 and Sackett earned freshman all-America honors after setting school records with 19 field goals and 80 points.

In 2016, Brumfield’s special teams units set UTSA records for touchbacks (27) and punting average (42.0) to help lead the Roadrunners to the New Mexico Bowl, the first bowl game in program history.

Brumfield’s first position at the FBS level came as special teams coordinator at Western Kentucky from 2013-15, where he helped lead the Hilltoppers to the Conference USA championship in 2015. In his first season at WKU in 2013, the Hilltoppers led the Sun Belt in both kickoff and punt return defense. In his third and final season with the Hilltoppers in 2015, WKU went 12-2, beat South Florida in the Miami Beach Bowl and finished ranked No. 24 nationally.

Brumfield broke into the Division I coaching ranks as special teams coordinator at Nicholls State in 2011-12. His impact was felt immediately, as Nicholls State blocked six kicks, finished 14^th in Division I FCS in kickoff return average and saw punter Cory Kemps rank sixth nationally with a 42.8-yard average in 2011. He also coached kickoff returner Chika Madu, who wound up setting Nicholls’ school record and ranking second in Southland Conference history with 2,076 career kickoff return yards.

His 22 seasons of experience as a special teams coordinator began with stints at Union (Ky.) College (2001-03) and Fairmont State (2004-10).

Brumfield has also made his mark as a position coach, as he has mentored wide receivers (2001-03 at Union, 2004-10 at Fairmont State), safeties (2011-12 at Nicholls State), cornerbacks (2013-15 at Western Kentucky, 2021 at Virginia), tight ends (2016-17 at UTSA, 2020 at Virginia) and outside linebackers (2022 at FIU) during the course of his career. Highlights include coaching five all-conference performers in three seasons at Western Kentucky, including cornerbacks Wonderful Terry and Cam Thomas (the latter of which went on to play for the NFL’s Buffalo Bills), and WKU leading the Sun Belt in total defense, interceptions, pass defense and pass efficiency defense in 2013.

Brumfield played collegiately at Utah State, where he was a four-year letterwinner and two-year starter at wide receiver. He helped lead the Aggies to a pair of Big West Conference championships and a berth in the 1997 Humanitarian Bowl.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology in 1999 and a master’s degree in secondary education from Union in 2003. He and his wife, Erin, have four children – Kyan (a graduate assistant on Georgia Tech’s football staff), McKel, Tacy and Asher.