Jeff Hafley (born April 4, 1979) is an

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team with ...

coach who is the head coach of

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

. Raised in

Montvale, New Jersey Montvale is a borough in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2010 United States census, the borough's population was 7,844,Pascack Hills High School Pascack Hills High School (PHHS) is a four-year comprehensive public high school, one of two secondary schools serving students in ninth through twelfth grades as part of the Pascack Valley Regional High School District in Bergen County, New ...

. Hafley was a four-year letterman (1997–2000) as a wide receiver on the

Siena Saints football : ''For information on all Siena College sports, see Siena Saints'' The Siena Saints football (formerly the Siena Indians) program was the intercollegiate American football team for Siena College located in Loudonville, New York. The team compet ...

team and graduated in 2001 from

Siena College Siena College is an American private Franciscan college in Loudonville, New York. Siena was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937. The college was named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher. St ...

with a bachelor's degree in history. He earned a master's degree from the

University at Albany, SUNY The State University of New York at Albany, commonly referred to as the University at Albany, UAlbany or SUNY Albany, is a public research university with campuses in Albany, Rensselaer, and Guilderland, New York. Founded in 1844, it is one ...

in 2003.

Coaching

Before entering the NFL ranks, Hafley spent 11 years on the collegiate sidelines with coaching stints at Worcester Polytechnic (2001), Albany (2002–05),

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

(2006–10) and

Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was a ...

(2011). While at Rutgers, the Scarlet Knights were the ninth-ranked passing defense in the country and Duron Harmon earned first-team All-Big East honors and

Logan Ryan Logan may refer to: Places * Mount Logan (disambiguation) Australia * Logan (Queensland electoral district), an electoral district in the Queensland Legislative Assembly * Logan, Victoria, small locality near St. Arnaud * Logan City, local gove ...

received second-team accolades. Both Harmon and Ryan were drafted by and played for the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

. In 2012, Hafley made his NFL coaching debut with the

Tampa Bay Buccaneers The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are a professional American football team based in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) NFC South, South divisio ...

. He joined the Bucs as assistant defensive backs coach and spent 2013 as the secondary coach/safeties. In 2013, Hafley oversaw a unit which helped Tampa Bay finish tied for third in the NFL with 21 interceptions. On January 27, 2014, Hafley was hired by the

Cleveland Browns The Cleveland Browns are a professional American football team based in Cleveland. Named after original coach and co-founder Paul Brown, they compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the American Football Conference ( ...

to coach the secondary. Hafley would remain in this role for 2 seasons (2014–15), before being relieved of his duties due to a coaching overhaul. On January 24, 2016, Hafley was hired by

San Francisco 49ers The San Francisco 49ers (also written as the San Francisco Forty-Niners) are a professional American football team based in the San Francisco Bay Area. The 49ers compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the league's National ...

' new head coach

Chip Kelly Charles Edward Kelly (born November 25, 1963) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the UCLA Bruins. He came to prominence as the head coach of the Oregon Ducks from 2009 to 2012, whom he led to four consecutive BCS bowl game a ...

to coach the defensive backs. In 2019, he was hired to be the co-defensive coordinator at

Ohio State The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best public ...

. Hafley quickly established himself as one of the best recruiters in the country, being ranked ninth overall recruiter for the 2020 class by 247Sports.com. On December 13, 2019, he was hired to be the head coach at

after the firing of Steve Addazio.

Head coaching record

Personal life

Hafley is the father of two daughters, Hope (born 2016) and Leah (born 2019).

References

External links

Boston College profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hafley, Jeff 1979 births Living people Albany Great Danes football coaches Boston College Eagles football coaches Cleveland Browns coaches Ohio State Buckeyes football coaches Pittsburgh Panthers football coaches Rutgers Scarlet Knights football coaches San Francisco 49ers coaches Siena Saints football players Tampa Bay Buccaneers coaches WPI Engineers football coaches University at Albany, SUNY alumni Pascack Hills High School alumni People from Montvale, New Jersey Sportspeople from Bergen County, New Jersey