Release from UC, but the Bearcats have their offensive coordinator:
Cincinnati football head coach Scott Satterfield announced on Monday the hire of Tom Manning as offensive coordinator and tight ends coach as well as four recruiting and personnel staff additions.
Manning led some of Iowa State’s most prolific offenses in school history as the offensive coordinator during two separate stints - from 2016 to 2017 and from 2019 to 2022.
A three-time Broyles Award semifinalist, he coached seven NFL Draft Picks for the Cyclones and helped lead ISU to four bowl games, including the team’s first-ever New Year’s Six berth – a victory in the 2020 Fiesta Bowl.
“I’m thrilled to welcome Tom and his family to Cincinnati,” Satterfield said. “Tom is a tremendous coach who I have known for more than a decade when he was a graduate assistant for us during my time at Toledo. He’s had success in the Big 12, developed several NFL draft picks and coached every offensive position during his career. He’s been an NFL tight ends coach, which is the same position he will coach here, and he knows the state of Ohio as well as anybody, which will be huge advantage for us on the recruiting trail.”
Among the many offense successes under Manning, Iowa State broke the school record for total offense (444.3) and had the third-best scoring offense (32.2) in school history in 2019 and followed it up with the second-best scoring offense (32.9) and third-best total offense (436.3) totals in Cyclone history in 2020.
In between his leadership of the Cyclones’ offense, Manning coached tight ends for the Indianapolis Colts in 2018, helping lead the Colts to the playoffs and coaching tight end Eric Ebron to a Pro Bowl selection after he caught 66 passes for 750 yards.
He also served as the offensive line coach at Toledo from 2012 to 2015, earning FootballScoop.com National Offensive Line Coach of the Year honors in 2015 and helping lead the Rockets to three bowls.
Current NFL stars coached by Manning include wide receiver Allen Lazard, running backs David Montgomery and Breece Hall, tight end Charlie Kolar and quarterback Brock Purdy.
Hall and Montgomery were both First Team All-Americans, while Kolar was a two-time Mackey Award finalist – among several accolades. Purdy set nearly every passing record at ISU and was a two-time First Team All-Big 12 selection.
Manning also played, graduated and coached at NCAA Division III powerhouse Mount Union and worked as an offensive graduate assistant at Toledo in 2009, working with Satterfield, who was the passing game coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Rockets that season.
Grant Named UC’s First GM, Leads Personnel Hires
Joining the Cincinnati staff are:
- Zach Grant, General Manager
- Jack Griffith, Director of Player Personnel
- Cass Simmons, Directory of Recruiting Strategy
- Caroline Tart, Director of Recruiting
The four new staff members, join Carter Wilson (Director of Scouting), who was announced last month, and Ashley Hecimovich (Director of On-Campus Recruiting), who joined prior to the 2022 football season.
“Recruiting is the lifeblood for any football team and I’m confident we have assembled one of the nation’s top recruiting staffs in the country,” Satterfield said. “In the changing landscape of college football, player evaluation and retention, and finding the best fits for your program will be more important than ever.
“We’ve grown our recruiting and personnel department to be the biggest it has ever been here at the University of Cincinnati. The track records of success for our new staff members speak for themselves. They’ve all been at winning programs, and we are excited to have them hit the ground running her at UC.”
Zach Grant
Grant is one of the top up-and-coming personnel directors in college football, having collected FootballScoop.com Player Personnel Director of the Year in 2021.
Grant spent the 2022 season as the Director of Player of Personnel at Ohio State as the Buckeyes secured the nation’s seventh-ranked recruiting class in the December Early Signing Period and advanced to the College Football Playoff Semifinals. He spent five seasons at Western Kentucky, beginning as the nation’s youngest Director of Player Personnel at age 23 in 2017. He was elevated to GM in 2021. At WKU, he helped engineer the school's top-ranked recruiting class of all-time and recruited Atlanta Falcons third-round pick defensive end DeAngelo Malone and current New England Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe out of the transfer portal. Zappe set the NCAA record for single-season passing yards and touchdowns. During his time at WKU, he had a hand in recruiting 47 all-conference selections. He graduated from Notre Dame in 2016, serving in several undergraduate roles with the football program.
Caroline Tart
Tart spent the last two seasons at Louisville as the Director of On-Campus Recruiting, helping lead UofL’s recruiting efforts to secure one of the ACC’s top recruiting classes. At Louisville, Tart handled all on-campus recruiting activities, including official visits, unofficial visits, junior days, game day programming and other special events.
Prior to her stint at UofL, she was on the recruiting staff at Oklahoma (2017-21) and North Carolina (2017) as the recruiting operations coordinator and on-campus recruiting assistant, respectively. During her time at Oklahoma, she helped land four Top 10 recruiting classes. She earned her bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a double major in sport administration and history in 2017.
Jack Griffith
Griffith spent this past season in the New York Jets' scouting department following a brief tenure at Ohio State as a program assistant. He also worked for two years at Villanova, while simultaneously in law school. Griffith was a safety at Marist, earning CoSIDA Academic All-District honors.
Cass Simmons
Simmons was an offensive line assistant and later the director of player personnel at Stephen F. Austin for multiple seasons before joining the Ohio State recruiting staff this past year and helping the Buckeyes secure the nation’s seventh-ranked recruiting class, according to 247Sports, in the December Early Signing Period. He got his start in coaching as the running backs coach at Tyler Junior College of East Texas.
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