DaytonDailyNews.com

OXFORD — Peter Vaas, 55, has been named as Miami University's new offensive coordinator and Carl "Bull" Reese, 64, is the new defensive coordinator, head football coach Mike Haywood announced Friday, Jan. 2.

Vaas worked with Haywood from 2005-06 on the staff at Notre Dame, where Vaas served as quarterbacks coach and Haywood was the offensive coordinator. His last college coaching assignment was in 2007 as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Duke, and he spent the last year working as a coach, tutor and scout, part of the time with the NFL International program.

Reese has been a defensive coordinator for 23 of his 34 seasons as a college coach, most recently at Texas, 1998-2003, where he worked with Haywood.

Vaas said his new job will be a good fit because, among other things, he feels comfortable working with Haywood.

"He is a first-class human being and a tremendously knowledgeable football coach," Vaas said of Miami's new head coach. "And he thinks big. You've got to think outside the box and have high expectations."

Vaas is a 1974 graduate of Holy Cross, where he was a three-year starting quarterback.

He served two coaching stints at Notre Dame, the first under head coach Lou Holtz coaching running backs (1990) and quarterbacks (1991). Vaas was head coach at Allegheny College, compiling a 29-11-1 record from 1986-89, and Holy Cross, where his record was 14-30 from 1992-95.

Vaas also spent six seasons as a head coach in NFL Europe, where he led the Berlin Thunder to the World Bowl championships in 2001 and '02.

Reese is a 1966 graduate of Missouri, where he was a three-year starter at fullback. He has been retired since the 2004 season.

"It's exciting," he said. "I talked to Mike Haywood and told him that I can only do so much hunting and fishing. I thought, boy, there's got to be more to life than that.

Another reason Reese came out of retirement, he said, is the way offenses have been dominating defenses with the spread attack.

"Why shoot, this is the truth, I sit back, I watch tape, I watch television, and right now the offenses are killing the defenses," he said. "The same thing happened back when they came up with the wishbone. It took defenses about 10 years to catch up. This is a chance for me to get back and see if we can come up with some things on defense to counter the spread offense."

Reese was defensive coordinator at East Carolina (1970-74), Missouri (1977-81 and 1986-88), the Birmingham Stallions of the United States Football League (1982-85), Navy (1989-90), LSU (1995-97) and Texas. Under Reese, Texas led the nation in total defense in 2001.

Reese replaces Jay Hood, who has been a Miami assistant coach for four years, the last two as defensive coordinator. Vaas takes over for Shane Montgomery, who resigned Nov. 29 following four years as head coach. Montgomery also served as Miami's offensive coordinator in his eight seasons in Oxford.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.