Dolphins hire Giants assistant line coach Dave DeGuglielmo
Dolphins coach Tony Sparano knew exactly where he wanted to go to find a replacement for offensive line coach Mike Maser, who was fired Wednesday.
Sparano returned to his coaching roots to hire New York Giants assistant offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo. DeGuglielmo is already in South Florida with the team, an NFL source confirmed.
DeGuglielmo played under Sparano at Boston University in the late '80s and coached with him there in 1993, when the Terriers finished 11-0. DeGuglielmo also was the offensive line coach at Connecticut, while Sparano coached the University of New Haven.
The past five seasons, DeGuglielmo has helped build one of the NFL's best lines in New York.
The Giants, who won the Super Bowl last season, averaged an NFL-high 157.4 rushing yards in 2008. Brandon Jacobs and Derrick Ward became just the fourth set of running backs on the same team to each rush for 1,000 yards in a season.
DeGuglielmo , a native of Cambridge, Mass., was a graduate assistant under Giants coach Tom Coughlin at Boston College for two seasons (1991-92). He then joined the BU staff in 1993 as an offensive line coach when Sparano was the offensive coordinator.
Maser, 61, was the first assistant coach hired by Sparano, who also worked with Maser for one season in Jacksonville (2002) when Coughlin was the head coach.
But despite a surprising 11-5 finish, Maser may have lost his job largely because of the struggles of the Dolphins' running game.
Miami finished 11th in the NFL with 118.6 rushing yards a game, but cracked 100 yards in only half the team's regular-season games (eight).
The running back tandem of Ronnie Brown and Ricky Williams was not as productive as it was expected to be.
Brown earned his first Pro Bowl trip and scored a career-high 10 TDs, but he rushed for more than 50 yards only seven times in 16 games. Williams exceeded 50 yards only three times.
