UConn Hires Duquesne Defensive Coordinator Mickey Jacobs as Linebackers Coach

Mickey Jacobs built a top-20 FCS defense at Duquesne without the roster depth or recruiting budget of a Power Four program, and UConn is now betting that foundation scales to the FBS level.

Confirmed by CBS Sports reporter Matt Zenitz, Jacobs joins head coach Jason Candle's staff as linebackers coach after two seasons as Duquesne's defensive coordinator, a run that ended with the Dukes ranked 19th in the nation in FCS total defense in 2025. His December 2025 selection to the AFCA 35 Under 35 Coaches Leadership Institute had already signaled he was one of the most upwardly mobile defensive minds in the subdivision.

The Duquesne defense Jacobs coordinated was pressure-oriented and turnover-hungry. In 2024, edge rusher Dunkley led the NEC with 12.5 tackles for loss and 9.5 sacks, figures that reflected a scheme demanding consistent disruption from the front and disciplined gap pursuit from its linebackers behind it. His units were equally ball-hawking in the secondary: as safeties coach in 2023, his defensive backs produced nine interceptions, finished 30th in the FCS in passing yards allowed per game, and sent two players to All-NEC honors. In 2025, Jacobs consolidated those principles while also coaching the linebackers directly alongside his coordinator duties, yielding a 19th-best total defense in the country at the FCS level.

That dual role is the most important line on his résumé for UConn's purposes. Jacobs knows precisely what he will ask his linebackers to do this fall because he designed the system those linebackers will operate in: aggressive enough at the second level to complement an edge-heavy pass rush, disciplined enough in run fits to erase chunk plays before they develop. De'Wayne Williams, a Toledo transfer who appeared in all 13 games in 2025 and posted 14 tackles and 1.0 TFL, enters camp as the most experienced option in the position group. Williams is a three-time program traveler, originally a three-star recruit rated the No. 40 linebacker nationally out of Ohio, who stopped at West Virginia before Toledo before landing in Storrs. Incoming freshman Tyrique Harris, signed on National Signing Day in February, gives Jacobs an immediate developmental target at the position.

The Pitt pipeline is what makes this hire click structurally. Jacobs spent 2021 and 2022 as a defensive graduate assistant at Pittsburgh, where he worked alongside Ryan Manalac, UConn's new defensive coordinator. The shared scheme vocabulary between Jacobs and Manalac eliminates the translation layer that typically slows first-year staff installations. They do not need to build trust around a new system together; they helped develop an earlier version of one at the same program.

The hire also gives Candle's staff a recruiting footprint it needed in the region. Jacobs spent time at Duquesne and Buffalo, both Northeast programs embedded in NEC and FCS recruiting corridors where the pipeline from high school to professional football runs deeper than FBS programs typically acknowledge. With UConn already pulling 57 transfers in its most recent cycle and 21 coming from Power Four programs, Jacobs' established relationships with coaches and prospects in that regional network could sharpen UConn's access to some of the most undervalued defensive players in the subdivision before another program discovers them first.