Kehoe Promoted To Assistant Head Football Coach
March 20, 2002
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (www.hurricanesports.com) – University of Miami offensive line coach Art Kehoe has been named assistant head coach, head football coach Larry Coker announced today. Kehoe, the Hurricanes’ offensive line coach since 1985, has been a member of the Miami football family as a player or coach since 1979.
“Art’s contributions to the University of Miami football program as a coach and a recruiter are well-documented,” said Coker. “More importantly, Art is a complete coach who understands the importance of not only being an athlete, but being a true student-athlete. Art has a tremendous passion for the game of football, for his players and for the University of Miami.”
Kehoe’s 23 years in the Miami program ranks among the longest continuous tenures of any UM athletics figure, a span during which he has either played or coached for five head football coaches. In 17 seasons as offensive line coach at UM, Kehoe has produced five players (Bryant McKinnie in 2001, JoaquinGonzalez in 2000, Richard Mercier in 1999, K.C. Jones in 1996 and Leon Searcy in 1991) who have received first team All-America honors, plus a dozen more that went on to play professionally, 12 All-BIG EAST honorees, and one Outland Trophy winner.
“It’s a tremendous honor and I couldn’t be more thankful to Coach Coker for this opportunity,” said Kehoe. “The University of Miami has been wonderful to me. This is a great reward for many years of service and I’ll continue giving my best effort. UM football has been my life for a long time now and I’m very grateful and appreciative of this.”
Kehoe has been on the staff of all five UM football national championship teams and five of Miami’s seven 1,000-yard rushers ran behind the blocking of Kehoe’s offensive linemen. His 2000 and 2001 units are widely considered among the finest offensive lines in recent college football history.
A 1982 graduate of UM with a degree in business administration, Kehoe has been an integral part of the Miami football renaissance since it’s beginning in the late 1970s. He is the only person who has been in the UM program daily from those humble beginnings to the present. He came to Miami in 1979 as a transfer from Laney Junior College in Oakland, Calif., and started at guard for the Hurricanes for two seasons under head coach Howard Schnellenberger.
A native of Conshohocken, Penn., Kehoe was an instrumental player in the rebirth of the Miami program as those 1979 and 1980 teams returned UM to national status with a victory in the 1980 Peach Bowl, UM’s first bowl win since 1966.
The 2002 season will be Kehoe’s 22nd on the Miami coaching staff. After his playing days ended, Kehoe stayed at UM as a student assistant coach in 1981 and a graduate assistant coach from 1982-84. He ascended to full-time status in 1985 and has been in charge of the offensive line since then.
As a coach, Kehoe has been to 17 bowl games with the Hurricanes and has come out a winner in 11 of those games. Over the course of his coaching career, Kehoe has tutored some of the greatest players in Miami history including Leon Searcy, Mike Sullivan, K.C. Jones, Richard Mercier, Bryant McKinnie, Joaquin Gonzalez and Martin Bibla. A contemporary of legendary UM quarterback Jim Kelly, Kehoe has developed offensive lines that have protected many of the Hurricanes’ outstanding quarterbacks including Bernie Kosar, Vinny Testaverde, Steve Walsh, Craig Erickson, Gino Torretta and Ken Dorsey.
In addition to working for five Miami head coaches, Kehoe also has survived the transition between each from Schnellenberger to Jimmy Johnson to Dennis Erickson to Butch Davis to Larry Coker. Kehoe even served as interim head coach for 19 days during the transition from the Erickson to Davis eras in early 1995. In addition to his coaching accomplishments, Kehoe recently was inducted into the University of Miami Athletic Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the Laney JC Athletic Hall of Fame in 2001.
