FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State football head coach Matt Entz announced three additions to the coaching staff on Wednesday, naming Brian Ferentz, Jordan Gigli and Marcus Hall-Oliver as assistant coaches.
Ferentz will serve as the tight ends coach. He comes to the Valley from Maryland, where he spent the 2024 season as a senior offensive assistant. His coaching resume is flooded with experience in the Big Ten and the NFL. He was on staff at Iowa from 2012-23, coaching the offensive line, running backs, and tight ends in his tenure. He spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Overall, he spent seven seasons as the offensive coordinator (2017-23) for the Hawkeyes.
His coaching career began in the NFL, spending four seasons with the New England Patriots. He started as a scouting assistant, then transitioned to a coaching assistant before being hired as the tight ends coach.
Ferentz coached notable tight ends in his career including a then-NFL rookie Rob Gronkowski with the Patriots. In Ferentz' tenure as an assistant coach at Iowa, tight ends C.J. Fiedorowicz, George Kittle, T.J. Hockenson, Noah Fant, and Sam LaPorta were all drafted into the NFL.
Gigli joins the program as the defensive line coach from Northern Illinois where he coached the same position group. Gigli follows defensive coordinator Nick Benedetto from NIU. He spent the 2019-24 seasons at NIU, his longest tenure at any stop in his coaching career. Prior to NIU, he was the defensive line coach at North Dakota from 2014-18 and Sacramento State from 2011-13.
His coaching career began as a graduate assistant at Western Illinois in 2004-05. He coached at Wittenberg (Div. III) in 2006 and was an analyst at Minnesota from 2007-10.
Gigli will focus on the interior defensive line while Hall-Oliver has been hired as the edge coach. He joins the Fresno State program from Stony Brook, where he spent the 2024 season as the safeties coach. Prior to his time there, he was at JMU for four seasons as the defensive tackles (2020-21) and safeties (2022-23) coach. He coached First Team All-American and Buck Buchanan Award finalist Mike Greene on the defensive line along with a pair of All-SBC selections at the safety position. He also served as JMU's defensive coordinator in the Lockheed Martin Armed Forces Bowl, the program's first FBS bowl appearance, coaching the defensive line in that game.
Prior to his time in Harrisonburg, Hall-Oliver coached the defensive line at the University of Sioux Falls, with the Cougars finishing 16-7 across the 2017 and 2018 seasons and reaching the NCAA Division II playoffs in 2017.
All three new coaching additions played collegiately with Ferentz playing offensive line at Iowa (2002-05), Gigli a defensive lineman at Trine University (1999-02) and Hall-Oliver a linebacker at Nebraska-Omaha (2009-10) and Minnesota State (2011-12).