Less than a week after National Signing Day and Bret Bielema has completed his football staff by digging back into the Badgers past, hiring former running back Eddie Faulkner as the tight ends coach.
Faulkner was a running back at Wisconsin from 1996-2000. Not only does he have ties to the university but also to Matt Canada as he was the running backs coach last season with Northern Illinois in addition to being the special teams coordinator.
“I’m excited to be able to bring Eddie back to Madison,” Bielema said in a statement. “It’s always special to be able to hire a former letterwinner. In addition to coaching our tight ends, Eddie brings great experience coaching special teams and has tremendous talents as a recruiter. He’s obviously worked with Matt and he is highly respected among the coaches on our staff.”
Prior to coaching at Northern Illinois Faulkner was a coach at Ball State from 2003 to 2010 where he went from graduate assistant to running backs coach to offensive coordinator and then interim head coach before moving on. He initially started as a member of Brady Hoke’s staff at Ball State.
“I’m very excited about the chance to come back to Madison and coach,” said Faulkner in a statement. “Being an alum and coming back to the university I graduated from, I think that’s an opportunity most coaches look for. I want to thank Coach Bielema for this chance. I worked for Matt Canada last year at Northern Illinois and his is a great coach and someone I really respect. I can’t begin to say how excited I am about coming back and I’m looking forward to getting to work.”
It appears that the combo of Ben Strickland and Eddie Faulkner will be working with the Badgers special teams and under Faulkner the NIU punt coverage unit ranked 2nd nationally, giving up just one yard per return.
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