Kyle Krantz named new Washington State special teams coordinator

Veteran college football coach Kyle Krantz has been named the Washington State Cougars' new special teams coordinator, the school announced Friday.

“Coach Krantz was extremely impressive throughout the interview process and his references spoke of him as a grinder on the recruiting trail and also a guy who loves coaching college football,” Cougars head coach Nick Rolovich said in a press release. “He has spent many years around some of the best college football coaches in the country and bringing those experiences here will benefit our program. He will be a great fit with our philosophy here at Washington State and I’m excited for he and his family to join the Pullman community.”

Krantz comes to Pullman with 12 years of coaching experience, including 10 in the SEC. He replaces Michael Ghobrial, who left WSU after one season as special teams coordinator to join Robert Saleh’s staff with the NFL’s New York Jets.

Krantz was most recently with the University of South Carolina under head coach Will Muschamp the last five years, serving as their special teams coordinator and assisting defensive backs in 2020. He started his tenure at South Carolina as a defensive analyst (2016-17) before coaching nickelbacks/strongside linebackers and working as a special teams assistant (2018-19).

Krantz was a defensive analyst for Auburn in 2015 under Gus Malzahn. In addition to South Carolina and Auburn, Krantz also has coaching experience from Northwestern, Kentucky, Florida and Northern Colorado, his alma mater.

"I appreciate coach Rolovich giving me this opportunity to be a part of Washington State football," Krantz said in a statement. "I look forward to working with him and the tremendous staff he has in place to develop the young men in this program, both on and off the field."

The Cougars on Friday also announced three additions to their recruiting staff: Josh Omura (Director of Transfer Recruiting), Marco Regalado (recruiting assistant) and Samie Parker (recruiting assistant).

John Richardson, a recruiting coordinator and cornerbacks coach for Washington State, has added assistant head coach to his duties. Associate head coach has been added to the title of Brian Smith, who’s been the Cougars’ offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

And Scott Salwasser joins the program as an assistant strength and conditioning coach. He worked for the University of South Carolina in that same capacity in 2020.