Beau Baldwin shakes up football staff, names Jeff Schmedding defensive coordinator

In the first significant staff shake-up in Beau Baldwin’s seven years as football coach at Eastern Washington, he has promoted safeties coach Jeff Schmedding to defensive coordinator. In changes announced Friday morning, Schmedding replaces longtime coordinator John Graham, who moves to the offensive side of the ball as tight ends coach. “I just felt like it was the time in which it would be healthy for us moving forward, to make some adjustments,” said Baldwin, whose staff has been intact since the spring of 2012. “And even though it makes it a little uncomfortable within our staff, sometimes that’s the only way to remain on top of the Big Sky Conference, to be willing to push for even more,” Baldwin said. Schmedding , a 2002 Eastern graduate who grew up in Spokane, has been Eastern’s special teams coach since Baldwin took over the program in 2008, and has coached safeties since 2010. “He’s someone who in my experience is one of the most passionate, detailed and best football minds I’ve been around,” Baldwin said. The 37-year-old Schmedding lacks coordinator experience, but Baldwin said the duties are similar to special teams, where the University High grad has overseen coverage and return units on both kickoffs and punt returns. Baldwin acknowledged that some fans don’t equate the two positions, but he said that coordinating the four special teams units requires the same big-picture leadership abilities and attention to detail demanded by the defensive coordinator’s job. The 45-year-old Graham, who moved with Baldwin from Central Washington in 2008 and served the past seven seasons as defensive coordinator, will continue as Baldwin’s associate head coach and probably pick up some additional roles. “He’s been huge for the program,” said Baldwin whose association with Graham goes back to their time as assistants at Central Washington in the 1990s. “I told him this: ‘I can see you and I coaching together until the day we retire,’ ” Baldwin said. Baldwin said he believes that Graham’s experience on the defensive side of the ball will bring a “different and unique aspect” to the offense. Graham will replace Brian Strandley, who had coached exclusively on the defensive side of the ball until the spring of 2012, when Baldwin hired him to coach tight ends. He will return to the defensive line. A former defensive lineman himself at Idaho and a teammate of Baldwin’s at Curtis High in Tacoma, the 43-year-old Strandley previously coached at Eastern Illinois and Idaho State. “That’s where his passion is at and that’s what he loves to do,” Baldwin said. Defensive line coach Ryan Sawyer, 37, who also has been on Baldwin’s staff since 2008, has been promoted to defensive front coordinator. He will work with Strandley while expanding his role in play-calling and rotations in the D-line. Finally, Baldwin said that special teams assignments would be sorted out later, but noted that the entire staff has participated in that area. “It can’t just be one or two guys, your whole team has to buy into the importance of special teams, that and our whole staff,” Baldwin said. Sawyer will continue to coordinate recruiting, which is in full swing with National Letter of Intent Day on Wednesday.