Crowton Retains Defensive Staff

PROVO -- BYU head football coach Gary Crowton today announced he would retain the current defensive coaching staff at BYU, including Ken Schmidt, Barry Lamb, Tom Ramage and Brian Mitchell.

"After meeting with each one of the coaches, I decided it was in the best interest of the program to keep these coaches on board," Crowton said. "Right now, we're going to keep the staff as it is, although we have not decided at this point what their respective coaching assignments will be."

Ramage (Utah State, '57), who has been responsible for coaching the defensive line, will enter his 30th season at BYU and his 44th overall in the coaching ranks. Schmidt (Utah, '64), the Cougars' defensive coordinator since 1992, will begin his 20th season after joining the BYU coaching staff in 1982. Lamb (Oregon, '78), the Cougars' safeties coach, will enter his eighth season at BYU following coaching stops at San Diego State, Idaho, UNLV, Arizona State and Oregon. Mitchell (BYU, '95), a former BYU defensive standout and current cornerbacks coach, will return for his seventh season on the coaching staff.

Though no timeline has been determined, Crowton said he plans to continue his evaluation of the offensive staff and make a determination at a later date.

"Right now I'm going to concentrate on the offensive staff," Crowton said. "I'm still in the process of evaluating each of them and will make those decisions a little later."