Wake Forest Athletics
Wake Forest Adds Steve Russ to Football Staff
2/9/2008 12:00:00 AM | Football
Feb. 9, 2008
Wake Forest University head football coach Jim Grobe today announced that Steve Russ, the defensive coordinator at Syracuse and a former NFL linebacker with the Denver Broncos, will join the Demon Deacon coaching staff.
"We are excited to have Steve Russ join our program here at Wake Forest," said Grobe. "Steve played for me at the Air Force Academy. He was a great player and he has become an equally fine coach. He is an outstanding person with a wonderful family and we are blessed to have him joining our staff."
Russ has spent the last three seasons as the linebackers coach at Syracuse and assumed the defensive coordinator position in 2007. Under his tutelage, Syracuse led the Big East in net punting in 2005 and 2006. The Orange ranked ninth in the nation in turnover margin in 2006.
Prior to joining the Syracuse staff, Russ spent four seasons at Ohio University from 2001-2004, coaching linebackers and serving as the special teams coordinator. The Bobcats led the Mid-American Conference in net punting, kickoff coverage and pass defense in 2004 while ranking 22nd in the nation in total defense.
As a player, Russ was a linebacker with the Broncos from 1995 through 2000 and played on Denver's Super Bowl Champion squads in both 1997 and 1998. An All-Western Athletic Conference linebacker at Air Force, he was selected to play in the 1994 Blue-Gray All-Star Game and the 1995 East-West Shrine Game. Russ was selected in the seventh round of the 1995 NFL draft by the Broncos.
Russ was one of the original assistant coaches that Greg Robinson hired at Syracuse upon his appointment in 2005. Robinson had been the defensive coordinator at Denver when Russ played with the Broncos.
A native of Stetsonville, Wisc., Russ is a 1995 graduate of the Air Force Academy. He and his wife, Betsy, are the parents of a daughter, Mackenzie, and a son, Tyler.
Russ' coaching position at Wake Forest is yet to be determined.
