Moglia adds another former Nighthawk to Coastal Carolina staff

Coastal Carolina football coach Joe Moglia has once again used connections from his time with the United Football League’s Omaha Nighthawks to add to his new coaching staff with the Chanticleers.

Moglia has hired Brock Olivo, a former Missouri standout with NFL playing experience, as an assistant coach who will work with the Chants’ running backs and special teams.

Olivo, like new defensive line coach Brandon Noble and new recruiting coordinator Mike Gallagher, coached under Moglia last season with the Nighthawks.

Speaking over the phone Monday night, Olivo said that experience and the opportunity to work with Moglia again is what drew him to Coastal.

“What appealed to me most of all even before I ever did a lot of research on the place and on the school was Joe Moglia,” Olivo said. “I had the pleasure of working with Joe in Omaha, and it was an incredible experience. As you’ll come to know shortly, he’s an incredible individual. I consider myself extremely fortunate to be able to work with him.”

Olivo spent five seasons in the NFL with the Detroit Lions from 1998-2002 after a successful career at Missouri, where he graduated as the program’s career rushing leader (his 3,026 yards now rank third in school history).

Prior to working with the Nighthawks, Olivo served as head coach and offensive coordinator of the Italian national football team, which competes against other national teams throughout Europe. He was also the head coach, offensive coordinator and special teams coordinator of the S.S. Lazio Marines, another Italian team.

He got his opportunity to further his career stateside with the Nighthawks.

“Brock was incredibly respected by the players at Omaha,” Moglia said in a statement released by the CCU athletics department. “The reasons he was so respected is because, one, he is a very good coach and, two, because he treats the players with great dignity. At the end of the day, those players respect what he has been able to do as a football player.

“To show what kind of a player he was, Brock not only was a star on offense, but he volunteered to play on every special team for the [Missouri] Tigers. In addition to his football knowledge, he has a great understanding of conditioning and nutrition and will work with our student-athletes on that aspect as well.”

This will be Olivo’s first college coaching job, and he acknowledged it will be a different kind of challenge.

“It is a different ballgame,” he said. “As a player I can attest to that as well. In college football, obviously recruiting is a huge part of it. If you can’t recruit, you can’t coach on this level. … I look forward to that challenge.”

Following the Nighthawks’ season this fall, Olivo returned to Italy and didn’t make it back to the United States until Friday. But he said he’s encouraged by what he’s seen so far since arriving at Coastal.

“The campus is beautiful, the facilities are first-class. I hope our players realize how fortunate they are to be in a place with these fantastic facilities,” he said. “… It’s been an incredibly open-armed atmosphere. You can’t ask for a better environment to work in as a football coach.”