UConn

UConn Football Coach Mora Announces 4 Members of Coaching Staff

Coach Jim Mora, Jr. seen at the College Football Playoff National Championship game between the Clemson Tigers and the LSU Tigers at Mercedes Benz Superdome on Jan. 13, 2020, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

UConn’s new head football coach, Jim Mora, has added four members to his staff and said members of the 2021 coaching staff will not be retained, according to UConn Athletics. 

Former NFL and UCLA coach Jim Mora has been named the next head football coach of the University of Connecticut. He spoke to the media soon after the announcement.

He announced the additions of John Allen, E.J. Barthel, Siriki Diabate and John Marinelli. 

Allen will join the coaching staff as the wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator, Barthel is the Huskies’ new running backs coach, Diabate is the linebackers coach and Marinelli joins the program as the tight ends coach, UConn athletics announced on Sunday.

Here’s more information on additions to the football coaching staff.

John Allen

Allen spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons coaching the outside receivers for head coach Skip Holtz at Louisiana Tech.

Allen also spent two seasons as the wide receivers coach at Old Dominion.

Allen also spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Delaware State.
 
Prior to joining Delaware State, Allen was the head coach at Lock Haven, PA and spent four years as the player development coordinator at Penn State.

E.J. Barthel

E.J. Barthel spent the previous two seasons as a coaching assistant for the Carolina Panthers joins Jim Mora’s staff as the running backs coach.

Prior to the Panthers, Barthel was the recruiting coordinator/running backs coach for William & Mary during the 2019 season and coached the running backs at Howard in 2018, and at Albany in 2017. 

In 2016, Barthel was on staff at Penn State as the recruiting coordinator. At Temple, he was the director of player personnel during the 2015 season. 

Siriki Diabate

Diabate spent the last five seasons as the linebackers coach at Middle Tennessee. 

Diabate spent the 2017 season as a defensive analyst, focusing on the secondary, and coached the safeties at Colgate from 2015-16. 

John Marinelli

Marinelli is the son of New Canaan High School football coach Lou Marinelli.

He spent the 2021 season as a senior analyst at the University of Illinois, working on special projects including analytics and situational strategy development.

Marinelli served as an analyst at the University of Arizona for two seasons.

Marinelli started his coaching career in the high school ranks. UConn Athletics said he was a two-time state champion player, then assistant coach, under his father at New Canaan before taking over as head coach at Greenwich.

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