With the departure of longtime defensive coordinator Mike Hankwitz, Pat Fitzgerald had a tough decision to make replacing the legend. Fitz knew before the season Hank was retiring, so he was not scrambling to make a hire. He landed on Jim O’Neil, a tenured NFL defensive coach who most recently coached defensive backs for the Las Vegas Raiders. O’Neil was a graduate assistant/defensive backs coach at NU from 2003-04, which is when he met Fitz.
While the reaction to his hiring from many Wildcat fans was mixed at best, citing his recent defenses’ less-than-inspiring performances, there is much more to learn about O’Neil’s time in the pros.