Maurice Linguist (born April 1, 1984) 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. He is the head football coach at the

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo, commonly called the University at Buffalo (UB) and sometimes called SUNY Buffalo, is a public research university with campuses in Buffalo and Amherst, New York. The university was founded in 1846 ...

, a position he had held since 2021.

Playing career

A native of

Mesquite, Texas Mesquite is a suburban city located east of the city of Dallas, Texas, in the United States. Most of the city is located in Dallas County, though a small portion extends into Kaufman County. As of 2019 census estimates, the population was 140 ...

, Linguist played at Mesquite High School for the 2001 state champs and college football as a

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

for Baylor. As a senior, he was an honorable mention on the All-

Big 12 The Big 12 Conference is a college athletic conference headquartered in Irving, Texas, USA. It consists of ten full-member universities. It is a member of Division I of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for all sports. Its fo ...

Team. He received a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in communication and a

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in sports management at Baylor.

Coaching career

Assistant coaching jobs

After playing at Baylor, Linguist spent a season as a

graduate assistant A graduate assistant serves in a support role at a university, usually while completing post-graduate education. The assistant typically helps professors with instructional responsibilities as teaching assistants or with academic research respons ...

with the Bears. The following year, he coached defensive backs and

special teams In American football, the specific role that a player takes on the field is referred to as their "position". Under the modern rules of American football, both teams are allowed 11 players on the field at one time and have "unlimited free substitu ...

at Valdosta State. From 2009 until 2011, he coached

safeties Safety is the condition of being protected against harmful conditions or events, or the control of hazards to reduce risk. Safety may also refer to: Places * Safety Island, Antarctica Government * The Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the ...

at James Madison. In 2012, he joined the coaching staff at Buffalo for the first time as a defensive backs coach. In 2013, he was the team's co-

defensive coordinator A defensive coordinator is a coach responsible for a gridiron football (American football) team's defense. Generally, the defensive coordinator, the offensive coordinator and the special teams coordinator represent the second level of a team's c ...

as well as its recruiting coordinator. In 2014, he was hired to coach the secondary at Iowa State. In 2016, he was hired as the safeties coach at Mississippi State. Linguist spent the 2017 season coaching defensive backs at Minnesota. Following the season, he was named an assistant head coach to

P. J. Fleck Philip John Fleck Jr. (born November 29, 1980) is an American football coach and former wide receiver. He has served as the head coach for the Minnesota Golden Gophers football team since 2017. Born in Sugar Grove, Illinois, Fleck played colle ...

. However, less than a month later, in January 2018, he left the Golden Gophers to join the coaching staff at Texas A&M. After serving for two years as the

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such offensive running plays as sweeps and reverses. They create tur ...

s coach at Texas A&M,

Mike McCarthy Michael John McCarthy (born November 10, 1963) is an American football coach who is the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys of the National Football League (NFL). From 2006 to 2018, he was the head coach of the Green Bay Packers. In 2011, he led t ...

hired him as the secondary coach of the

Dallas Cowboys The Dallas Cowboys are a professional American football team based in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. The Cowboys compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East divisi ...

, his first job in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

Buffalo

Following the 2020 NFL season, Linguist was hired as the co-defensive coordinator at the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

. However, on May 7, 2021, he was hired as the head coach at the

. Despite Buffalo's poor performance in 2021, Linguist's recruiting class for 2022 was described by ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'' as the second-best in the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

. In July 2022, he signed a one-year contract extension. In his second season as head coach, Linguist led the Bulls to a 6–6 record in the regular season, earning an invite to the 2022 Camellia Bowl.

Head coaching record

References

External links

Buffalo profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linguist, Maurice 1984 births Living people American football safeties Baylor Bears football coaches Baylor Bears football players Buffalo Bulls football coaches Dallas Cowboys coaches Iowa State Cyclones football coaches James Madison Dukes football coaches Minnesota Golden Gophers football coaches Mississippi State Bulldogs football coaches Texas A&M Aggies football coaches Valdosta State Blazers football coaches Coaches of American football from Texas Players of American football from Dallas African-American coaches of American football African-American players of American football 21st-century African-American sportspeople