Shawn Mennenga (born January 8, 1971) is an American football coach.[1] He was the special teams coordinator for the Green Bay Packers of the National Football League from 2019 to 2020.[2][3][4][5][6] since 2019.[7][8] After beginning his NFL coaching career with the Cleveland Browns[9] in 2011[10] under Pat Shurmur after years of college coaching experience. During 2018 Shawn became the special teams coordinator for Vanderbilt[11][12] before ultimately returning to the NFL.[13]
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born: | January 8, 1971 Melbourne, Iowa, U.S. |
| Career information | |
| High school: | West Marshall (State Center, Iowa) |
| College: | Missouri |
| Career history | |
| As a coach: | |
| |
Playing career
editMennenga lettered one season as a defensive back at the University of Missouri in 1992.
Coaching career
editCollege coaching
editShawn began coaching in the college ranks Mennenga also coached in the collegiate ranks at Southwest Baptist University, first as a graduate assistant in 1994 and then coaching the team's secondary from 1995 to 1996. This was followed by Shawn coaching the 1997 season as the outside linebackers coach for Western Kentucky University. He followed this by spending 3 years as the defensive coordinator at Hutchinson Community College in Kansas. He followed this by becoming the defensive coordinator at Culver-Stockton College for the 2001 season. Following the season he received a promotion to become the head coach of the team a position he would hold until 2004. After his head coaching sting Shawn would spend four years at Fort Hays State University as the team's defensive coordinator. Mennenga spent the 2009–2010 seasons as the linebackers coach at South Dakota State, he helped the defensive improve and lead the team to their first-ever appearance in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs.[2]
Return to college
editIn 2018[11]Shawn returned to college becoming the special teams coordinator at Vanderbilt. He helped punter Parker Thome rank 4th in the Southeastern Conference[12] with an average of 44.9 yards per punt on 51 punts, including 14 punts of 50-plus yards and 19 inside the 20-yard line. Thome's average was tied for the fourth best in a season in school history, and he set a single-game school record by averaging 55.3 yards on three punts in Vanderbilt's win vs. Tennessee.
NFL coaching
editCleveland Browns
editIn 2011,[10] Mennenga made the jump to the NFL and served as the special teams assistant for the Cleveland Browns under Pat Shurmur, a position he would hold for seven seasons (2011–2017). During this time, Mennenga helped the Browns rank No. 7 in the NFL over that span in punt return with an average of 9.9 yards and opponent kickoff return average 21.8 yards. In addition the Browns were the only team in the AFC to earn at least one AFC Special Teams Player of the Week award each season from 2011 to 2016, picking up seven awards over that span of time.[9]
Green Bay Packers
editShawn Mennenga returned to the NFL in 2019 becoming the Green Bay Packers special teams coordinator under first year head coach Matt LaFleur.[13] Mennenga was fired on January 29, 2021.[14]
Head coaching record
edit| Year | Team | Overall | Conference | Standing | Bowl/playoffs | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Culver–Stockton Wildcats (Heart of America Athletic Conference) (2002–2004) | |||||||||
| 2002 | Culver–Stockton | 4–7 | 4–6 | T–6th | |||||
| 2003 | Culver–Stockton | 4–6 | 4–6 | T–7th | |||||
| 2004 | Culver–Stockton | 2–8 | 2–8 | T–10th | |||||
| Culver–Stockton: | 10–21 | 10–20 | |||||||
| Total: | 10–21 | ||||||||
Family
editMennenga and his wife, Christie, have a son, Garrett, and a daughter, Ashley.[2]
References
edit- ^ "Shawn Mennenga – Pro Football Archives". profootballarchives.com. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b c "Packers.com, the official website of the Green Bay Packers". packers.com. Retrieved April 11, 2020.[permanent dead link]
- ^ Burke, Kris (January 22, 2020). "Wednesday Cheese Curds: Packers special teams improved, but are still bad". Acme Packing Company. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ Sparks, Adam. "Reports: Matt LaFleur hires Vanderbilt's Shawn Mennenga for Green Bay Packers staff". The Tennessean. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ "Packers special teams pass first test under new coordinator Shawn Mennenga". MSN. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ "Shawn Mennenga brings the Dave Toub approach to Packers' special teams". ESPN. January 31, 2019. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ Alper, Josh (January 31, 2019). "Report: Packers hire Shawn Mennenga as ST coach". ProFootballTalk. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ "From small-town Iowa to the NFL". timesrepublican.com/. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b Pokorny, Chris (January 30, 2013). "Shawn Mennenga Stays With Browns as ST Assistant". Dawgs By Nature. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b Cabot, Mary Kay; clevel; .com (February 15, 2011). "Cleveland Browns complete their first coaching staff under Pat Shurmur". cleveland. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b Klein, Cutler (August 3, 2018). "Derek Mason seeking revamped special teams look under Shawn Mennenga". The Vanderbilt Hustler. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b Nardone, Joseph (January 28, 2018). "SEC program steals away NFL coach with latest reported hire". FanBuzz – Sports News – NFL | NCAA | NBA | WWE. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ a b "REPORT: Packers Hire Shawn Mennenga as New Special Teams Coach". 12up.com. January 31, 2019. Archived from the original on April 11, 2020. Retrieved April 11, 2020.
- ^ "Shawn Mennenga dismissed, Mike Pettine will not return". packers.com. January 29, 2021. Retrieved January 29, 2021.
External links
edit- Shawn Mennenga Packers coaching bio Archived August 5, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
- Shawn Mennenga Vanderbilt coaching bio