Joe Tumpkin Enters First Season as CMU Defensive Coordinator
Saturday, January 30, 2010



Joe Tumpkin Enters First Season as CMU Defensive Coordinator
By Albert Elias - Elias Sports Management 2 days ago

* Football
* Albert Elias
* Central Michigan University
* Elias Sports Management
* Joe Tumpkin

Elias Sports Management congratulates their client, Joe Tumpkin, for being named Central Michigan University's new defensive coordinator!

Read the press release below to learn why Joe has earned this new position...

Source: CMUChippiwas.com

"Joe Tumpkin is entering his first season as CMU's defensive coordinator.

Tumpkin has spent the past two seasons coaching linebackers at Pittsburgh. He worked directly with a pair of All-BIg East first team selections in Adam Gunn (2009) and Scott McKillop (2008). McKillop also was named Big East Defensive Player of the Year and a first team All-American, and he was selected by the San Francisco 49ers in the 2009 NFL Draft.

Tumpkin was part of a coaching staff that led the Panthers to the 2008 Sun Bowl and a 19-17 win over North Carolina in the 2009 Meineke Car Care Bowl.

Tumpkin coached the linebackers at SMU from 2005-07. In 2006, he worked directly with All-Conference USA second team linebacker Reggie Carrington.

Prior to the 2007 season, he earned a coaching fellowship with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and spent training camp working with the Buccaneers' coaching staff.

Tumpkin spent the 2002-04 seasons at Sam Houston State, coaching the linebackers during his first two seasons before moving to the secondary in 2004. He helped develop linebackers T.J. Dibble, a two-time All-Southland Conference selection, and Paul Donelson, who earned All-America honors. In 2004, the Bearkats captured a share of the Southland Conference championship, advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs and reached as high as No. 3 in the national rankings.

Tumpkin's coaching experience also includes stops at Lakeland (defensive coordinator, 2000-01), Southern Illinois (linebackers coach/recruiting coordinator, 1998-99) and Defiance (linebackers, 1996). At Southern Illinois, he worked directly with eventual NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Bart Scott.

Tumpkin also served as a graduate assistant at Western Michigan (1997), Northern Michigan (1995) and Lakeland (1994).

Tumpkin is a 1994 graduate of Michigan Tech, where he was a four-year letterman and captain of the football team. He and his wife, Maria, have two sons: Christopher and Nikolas."

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