In recent years, most of head coach Dave Doeren’s hires have either been people he is familiar with, like offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Tim Beck, or assistants who have backgrounds working with the coordinator. Defensive coordinator Tony Gibson, for instance, hired corners coach Brian Mitchell and safeties coach Joe DeForest, two assistants he had previously worked with at West Virginia.

So that’s a good place to start when examining potential options for a new receivers coach to replace George McDonald. After six seasons in Raleigh, McDonald was hired at his alma mater Illinois on Wednesday.

But The Wolfpacker also takes a look at some alums, in-house possibilities and other assistant coaches to also potentially watch.

Drew Mehringer, FAU co-offensive coordinator/tight ends coach

Two different sources indicated to The Wolfpacker that a name to watch from Beck’s past could be Mehringer.

Mehringer is a former quarterback at Rice who worked his way up the coaching ladder, starting with graduate assistant jobs at Iowa State and Ohio State. He reached being an offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Rutgers in 2016 at 28 years old, the youngest playcaller in the Power Five at the time, before in 2017 joining Beck in Texas as the passing game coordinator and receivers coach.

Mehringer was among the staff changes that Texas made in December of 2019, and he landed as a co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach at Florida Atlantic. He recently was changed to coach tight ends in 2021 while maintaining his co-OC title.

Mehringer also has experience coaching receivers at Houston, where he was also the recruiting coordinator.