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Temple to complete coaching staff by hiring Illinois assistant Thad Ward

Ward was running backs coach at Illinois for three years and coached at Northern Illinois under current Temple coach Rod Carey the previous three seasons before that.

Rod Carey, new head coach of Temple Football, speaks during a press conference at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. Carey was formerly the head coach at Northern Illinois University.
Rod Carey, new head coach of Temple Football, speaks during a press conference at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia on Friday, Jan. 11, 2019. Carey was formerly the head coach at Northern Illinois University.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer

Thad Ward, the running backs coach at Ilinois will be the 10th and final coach added to new coach Rod Carey’s staff at Temple, a source confirmed.

Temple is expected to make the announcement possibly by Thursday.

Footballscoop.com first reported Ward would be the receivers coach at Temple and could have an additional title.

When asked about this, the Temple source would not confirm whether there would be an additional title to Ward’s job.

Not surprisingly, Ward has ties to Northern Illinois, where Carey was the head coach the previous six seasons before being hired at Temple.

Ward was the running backs coach the past three seasons at Illinois. Before that he was an assistant coach for three seasons under Carey at NIU.

Ward played at Coffeyville Junior College and finished his career at Central Florida, where he was a receiver. As a senior in 2001, he caught 43 passes for 446 yards and three touchdown, for the Knights, who are the current two-time defending champion in Temple’s conference, the American Athletic Conference.

Six of the assistant coaches that Carey has hired, coached with him this past season at NIU.

Geoff Collins resigned after two seasons as head coach at Temple to take the Georgia Tech job. He was replaced by Manny Diaz, who lasted just 18 days before becoming the head coach at Miami.

Carey said he would announce the duties of all of the assistant coaches once the entire staff is hired. The positions that have been announced are defensive coordinator Jeff Knowles and co-offensive coordinator Mike Uremovich, who both coached at NIU this past season

Former Temple assistant Fran Brown has returned to the Owls after spending the last two seasons at Baylor. Brown will be the assistant head coach/co-defensive coordinator.

The only holdover assistant coach from this past season’s Temple staff is Ed Foley,, who was the Owls special teams and tight ends coach. Foley’s new title has not been announced but speculation is that he at least guide the special teams, but all should be announced in the near future.