Akey adds veteran Gordy Shaw to staff
One vacancy filled, two to go. Idaho football coach Robb Akey announced the hiring of run game coordinator/offensive line coach Gordy Shaw, a veteran coach who was UI's defensive coordinator in 1989 and spent the last year three years as Hawaii's offensive line coach.
Akey still has two open spots on his staff. He's expected to hire Mike Levenseller as receivers coach and add a running backs coach.
More details below.
Shaw replaces John McDonell, who took the same position at Tulane in late January. The Vandals' revamped offensive staff now includes Jason Gesser as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, Al Pupunu as tight ends coach and Shaw as O-line coach and run game coordinator.
When Akey announced Gesser's promotion, he said Gesser will lean on his staff as a first-year offensive coordinator. Shaw has the experience to serve an advisorial role. He's worked at nine schools since starting his collegiate career in 1979 at Cal State Northridge. During that time, he's alternated between coaching defense and offense.
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Here's UI's release:
MOSCOW, Idaho – Gordy Shaw is no stranger to Moscow or the Western Athletic Conference.
As the University of Idaho Vandals’ newly installed run game coordinator/offensive line coach, Shaw has a season on the Palouse as well three in the WAC on his resume.
“I’m real excited we could get a coach of his caliber,” said Idaho coach Robb Akey as he announced Shaw’s addition to his 2012 staff. “He knows what it takes to have success here. He’s a great teacher; a great person. He’s going to fit in very, very well.”
Shaw’s time at Idaho was during the 1989 championship campaign. At the time, he was the Vandals’ defensive coordinator and helped guide Idaho to a 9-3 overall record and an 8-0 mark in the Big Sky Conference.
His career has been a mix of offensive and defensive coaching with his most recent position (2009-11) as Hawai`i’s offensive line coach.
Shaw’s longest stay was a 13-year stint at Minnesota where he was the offensive line coach (1993-96), defensive line coach (1997-2000) and offensive line coach (2001-06). He was the 1999 Nike Assistant Coachof the Year.
“We lost an experienced line coach and we replaced him with a great, experienced line coach,” Akey said. “His guys always know what they’re doing.”
Shaw is a graduate of Cal Poly (1978) and earned his master’s degree at Northern Arizona (1984). His first foray into collegiate coaching was as a graduate assistant at Cal Poly (1977-78). From San Luis Obispo, he went to Cal State Northridge (1979), back to Cal Poly (1980-81), Northern Arizona (1982-84), Northern Colorado (1985-88), Idaho (1989) and Wyoming (1990-92) before embarking on his tenure at Minnesota. He was the offensive coordinator at South Dakota in 2008.
In all, Shaw has coached in 10 bowl games.