Bucknell University Athletics
Tim Landis Turns to Familiar Faces for Bucknell Coordinator Positions
2/19/2003 7:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 19, 2003
LEWISBURG, Pa. - Bucknell University first-year head football coach Tim Landis has turned to familiar faces in naming the first four members of his staff of assistants. Three coaches - defensive coordinator Tripp Merritt, offensive coordinator Ian Shields and defensive backs coach Steve Perry - coached for Landis at St. Mary's (Calif.), while another - linebackers coach and special teams coordinator Jared Backus - has been re-hired from the previous Bucknell staff.
Merritt, who will also serve as associate head coach in addition to overseeing the Bison defense, has been a valuable aide to Landis for the last 10 years and a member of the Division I-AA coaching ranks for the last 12 years. He worked under Landis for the last three seasons at St. Mary's and the previous seven at Davidson College. In his first two seasons at St. Mary's, Merritt coached the Gaels' linebackers, and in 2002 he served as assistant head coach while mentoring the team's offensive line. His linemen helped pave the way for the nation's fourth-leading rushing attack.
At Davidson, Merritt coordinated one of Division I-AA's stingiest defenses. His troops finished the 1998 season ranked fourth nationally in total defense, first in pass efficiency defense, second in scoring defense and 12th in rushing defense. His 1999 unit led the nation with 28 interceptions and ranked 13th in rushing defense. In 1994, Merritt's Wildcat defense ranked fourth in total defense, and that same year he served as interim head coach of the Zaragoza Lions of the Spanish Professional League.
Prior to joining Landis at Davidson, Merritt spent two years as a graduate assistant coach at Western Carolina University. Merritt is a native of Shelby, N.C., and a 1990 graduate of UNC Charlotte.
Bucknell's new spread option offense will be led by Shields, a former starting quarterback at Oregon State University. Shields directed St. Mary's vaunted option attack for the last three seasons, and each season the Gaels finished fourth in all of Division I-AA in rushing, averaging 309.5, 279.7 and 264.0 yards per game.
In 2000, Shields helped St. Mary's shatter school records with 3,404 rushing yards, 50 touchdowns, 233 first downs, 71 points in a game and 535 rushing yards in a game. In his three seasons at the Moraga, Calif., school, St. Mary's averaged 388.2 yards of offense per game.
Prior to joining Landis' staff at St. Mary's, Shields spent three years as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Eastern Oregon University. From 1997-99, he was instrumental in the development of the Mountaineers' all-time leading passer, rusher and receiver. The offense set 35 school records during that time.
Before joining the EOU staff in 1997, Shields was a graduate assistant coach at Oregon State from 1994-96. Shields graduated from OSU in 1994 with a bachelor's degree in speech communications, and he earned his master's in interdisciplinary studies from OSU in 1997.
Like Shields and Merritt, Perry was also a member of the St. Mary's coaching staff for the last three seasons. As he will at Bucknell, Perry coached the Gaels' defensive secondary. Among his outstanding cast were the 2002 Division I-AA Independent Defensive Player of the Year in free safety Weston Borba, and a two-time all-independent selection in cornerback Greg Kavulich. Borba had been a receiver until moving to the defensive side of the ball upon Perry's arrival in 2000, and Borba went on to become one of the top safeties in the Division I-AA ranks.
Before joining the SMC staff in 2000, Perry held the same title under Landis at Davidson in 1999. There he helped develop All-American Ryan Crawford, who recorded eight of the Wildcats' school-record and national-best 28 interceptions that season.
Perry is a 1996 graduate of Gettysburg College, where he was a three-year starter for the Bullets. In the three years following his graduation from Gettysburg, Perry was an assistant coach at his alma mater while obtaining his master's degree in athletic administration from Western Maryland College in 1999.
Backus will return for his second season on the Bison coaching staff. In 2002, he oversaw the Bucknell outside linebacker unit and coordinated the special teams. His special teams units blocked a school-record 10 kicks last season, and he helped senior OLB Joe Massey earn First Team All-Patriot League honors for the second time.
Backus came to Bucknell from the University of Maine, where he served as the Black Bears' defensive line coach and special teams coordinator from 1999-2001. He helped guide Maine to the 2001 Atlantic 10 title and the quarterfinals of the Division I-AA playoffs.
A 1993 graduate of Springfield College, Backus was a two-year football letterman as an inside linebacker. His first coaching experience came as a defensive/strength and conditioning intern at King's College in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., in 1994-95. He then completed graduate assistantships at Springfield and Rutgers University before taking a position as inside linebackers coach at Lebanon Valley College. In 1998 he was the defensive secondary coach at Pace University. His wife, Amanda, is Associate Director of Athletics and Senior Woman Administrator at Bucknell.
The remainder of Bucknell's assistant coaching staff is expected to be announced this spring.
The Bison are coming off a 2-9 campaign, ending a run of seven straight winning seasons. Landis was named the team's head coach in December, after it was announced that Tom Gadd would be unable to return to coaching duties due to his ongoing battle with cancer.
Bucknell opens spring practice on March 18.
