Who Is Giff Smith? Chargers’ New Interim HC Hired to Replace Brandon Staley Over Favorite Kellen Moore

And the Los Angeles Chargers have a new head coach and a new general manager! Within 24 hours of Brandon Staley and Tom Telesco’s firing, the Chargers have announced two names to serve temporarily in the vacant roles. However, the interim head coach is not the one that many Chargers fans had in mind. While most fans were batting for Kellen Moore, another has been chosen.

Dov Kleiman took to X to announce the change. So, who is Giff Smith, who the Chargers hope will turn around their fortunes as they have three games remaining before the regular season ends?

The new interim head coach: Who is Giff Smith

Smith, until a few hours ago, was the Chargers’ outside linebackers’ coach and has been with the team since 2016. That makes him the coach with the longest tenure in the team. Just like Brandon Staley, he has been a defensive coach for his entire career, having coached the Buffalo Bills and the Tennessee Titans before, and has an overall coaching experience of 32 years.

Giff has a degree in management from Georgia Tech and majored in marketing and finance. He did not stop there and went on to earn his Master’s degree in educational psychology from Oklahoma State University. The 55-year-old had started his coaching career at Arkansas as a graduate assistant in 1991. He then moved on to Georgia and then in 2010 made the giant leap to the NFL with the Bills in 2010.

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The Chargers last made it to the playoffs in 2022, and with a record of 5-9, is the fifth-worst placed franchise in the league right now. They have lost five of their last six games, and this is what Smith will hope to change. But fans are wondering, “Why wasn’t Moore chosen for the job?”

Why was Kellen Moore passed over?

Kellen Moore was many fans’ favorite to succeed Brandon Staley, but it seems that he will have to wait longer till he gets that role. After a mediocre 24-25 innings with Staley, many were hoping that the team would finally make a coach with an offensive background, the man at the helm. And Moore was the perfect candidate. He had spent five seasons as OC – one with the Chargers and four previously with the Dallas Cowboys.

According to the Los Angeles Chargers official website, one reason for choosing Smith was that he had played a pivotal role in developing the team’s star linebackers Joey Bosa and Khalil Mack. Although fans are not convinced, the silver lining is that he is only the interim head coach. But he still might linger on till the end of the season. Will the new season bring new hope for the Chargers?

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