North Carolina looks to Arizona State for defensive assistant

With a position to fill on his defensive staff, Larry Fedora has turned to the Pac-12 to take care of that opening.

North Carolina announced that veteran college assistant Ron West has been added to Fedora’s coaching staff. West will hold the titles of co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach.

West had previously coached with Fedora at Baylor and defensive coaches Vic Koenning and Dan Disch at Illinois.

“Ron is familiar with our staff and he brings a great deal of success and experience from his previous coaching stops,” said Fedora in a statement. “He’s an excellent teacher of defensive fundamentals who gets the most out of his players. His knowledge of the ACC and ability to recruit in this area of the country will help our program.”

West spent the 2012 season as Arizona State’s co-defensive coordinator. The 30-year coaching veteran is probably most known for a 10-year stretch at his alma mater Clemson from 1999-2008.

The addition of West was part of some additional tweaking of the duties of Fedora’s defensive assistants, as explained in the release:

Koenning, who also worked with West at Clemson (2005-08), will continue in his role as UNC’s associate head coach for defense, but will now coach the safeties. Dan Disch continues as the defensive coordinator and will coach cornerbacks. Keith Gilmore was hired last week as the defensive line coach. All four defensive coaches have worked together at some point in their careers.