Ed Foley

With more than three decades of coaching experience, Ed Foley owns a robust and diverse resume in his second season as Nebraska’s special teams coordinator in 2024. Foley has served on Matt Rhule’s staff for 10 of Rhule’s 12 seasons as a head coach.

Foley’s experience includes stints as a collegiate head coach and an NFL assistant. He is an accomplished special teams coach and possesses strong recruiting ties to the Northeast, specifically New Jersey, which has produced some of the greatest players in Nebraska history. In Foley’s tenure at Temple, more than 20 Owls who played high school football in New Jersey went on to NFL careers.

A New Jersey native himself, Foley is in his 12th straight season coaching special teams in 2024, including three seasons in the NFL. His special teams have been ranked in the top 25 nationally in four of his last six seasons at the collegiate level. 

Baylor was rated as the 13th-best special teams in the country by Pro Football Focus in 2019, while the service rated Temple’s special teams as the No. 3 unit nationally in 2018 and No. 5 in 2016. Foley also guided Temple to a No. 23 special teams ranking by Football Outsiders in 2015. In 2023, Nebraska ranked second nationally in blocked kicks, continuing Foley’s impressive track record in that category. Foley’s teams have blocked 34 kicks in his eight seasons as a collegiate special teams coach with six seasons ranked in the top five nationally in blocked kicks. 

NEBRASKA (2023)
Foley helped Nebraska’s special teams show improvement in several areas in his first season in 2023. Most notably, NU ranked second nationally with four blocked kicks, the program’s highest total in nine seasons. The Huskers returned a blocked field goal for a touchdown for the first time since 2014 and blocked two field goals in a game for the first time since 2005.

Nebraska also recorded the program’s highest kickoff return average in six seasons, while posting the second-best kickoff return defense at NU in the last 17 seasons. Individually, Marco Ortiz was one of three national finalists for the Patrick Mannelly Award (nation’s top long snapper), while place-kicker Tristan Alvano had a 55-yard field goal, the second-longest field goal in Nebraska history and the longest ever by a freshman.

BEFORE NEBRASKA
CAROLINA PANTHERS: Foley was an assistant special teams coach with the Carolina Panthers from 2020 to 2022. In his first season in 2020, Carolina ranked seventh in the NFL in kickoff return average (25.3) and kickoff return defense (20.6 yards per return) and eighth in field goals (29). In 2021, the Panthers were eighth in the NFL in field goal percentage (89.7).

BAYLOR: In his lone season at Baylor in 2019, the Bears ranked 13th nationally in special teams. Baylor was second nationally with five blocked kicks and ranked in the top 40 in the country in punt and ickoff return defense.

TEMPLE: In addition to ranking in the top five nationally in blocked kicks four times, Foley’s Temple teams ranked in the top 25 nationally in punt return defense in three of his six seasons, including fifth in 2014. In Foley’s final season at Temple in 2018, the Owls ranked in the top 25 nationally in punt returns and kickoff return defense, in addition to a No. 5 ranking in blocked kicks. The Owls also scored six touchdowns on special teams in 2018 with two punt return touchdowns, two fake kicks for scores, one punt block for a touchdown and one kickoff return for a score.

Individually, Temple specialists thrived under Foley. Isaiah Wright became the first player in school history to return both a punt and kickoff for touchdowns in consecutive seasons en route to first-team All-America honors in 2018, when he was named the American Athletic Conference Special Teams Player of the Year. In 2015, Jahad Thomas tied a Temple record with a 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown, and Austin Jones set the school record for field goals made (23) and points by a kicker (113).

Foley’s Temple resume extended beyond his work as a special teams coach. In a testament to his reputation and coaching ability, Foley worked for five different head coaches during his 11 seasons at Temple. In addition to his work with the special teams, Foley spent time coaching the offensive line and tight ends during his Temple tenure, and Foley was the Owls’ recruiting director from 2008 to 2010 and the director of football operations in 2011 and 2012.  During his time at Temple, the Owls set school records for victories in a season (10) and had the longest single-season winning streak in program history (9 games).

Foley also served two stints as Temple’s interim head coach. He led the Owls in the 2016 Military Bowl and the 2018 Independence Bowl becoming the first head coach (interim or permanent) to coach in multiple bowl games at Temple.

HOFSTRA: Prior to Temple, Foley was the assistant head coach for two seasons at Hofstra in 2006 and 2007. He coached the offensive line in 2006, when the Pride offense increased its yardage total by 119 yards per game and its scoring output by 10 points per game from the previous season. Led by the line, Hofstra also had its best rushing season (145 yards per game) in six seasons. Foley was also the offensive coordinator in 2007.

FORDHAM: Foley went to Hofstra after coaching at Fordham for seven years, including his final two seasons as the Rams’ head coach.  Foley guided Fordham to a 7-16 record in 2004 and 2005, including a 5-6 record in 2004 when four of the Rams’ six defeats came in one-score games.

Before becoming head coach, Foley spent five seasons as Fordham’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach from 1999 to 2003. He helped the Rams to a 10-3 record in 2002, when Fordham won its first-ever Patriot League title and won a game in the FCS playoffs. In his final season as coordinator in 2003, the Rams set school records for season rushing yards (1,657) and pass completions (255). In 2002, Fordham set a school record for most points (418) in a season. A year earlier, Foley’s offense produced Fordham’s first 1,000-yard receiver and the program’s first 1,000-yard rusher at the FCS level.

JACKSONVILLE UNIVERSITY: Foley arrived at Fordham after coaching at Jacksonville University in 1997 and 1998. With Foley as the offensive coordinator in 1998, the first year the school fielded a football team, the Dolphins averaged more than 30 points per game with a perfectly balanced attack of 190 rushing and 190 passing yards per game.

PENN: Foley had two coaching stints at the University of Pennsylvania. He coached the tight ends and offensive tackles from 1991 to 1993, then returned to coach the same positions from 1995 to 1996. In 1993, the Quakers finished 10-0 and were the Ivy League champions.

WILLIAMS COLLEGE: In between his two stints at Penn, Foley coached the offensive line at Williams College in 1994.

ALBANY: Foley began his career as the offensive line coach at Albany for two seasons (1989 and 1990).

PLAYING CAREER (BUCKNELL)
As a player, Foley was a three-year starting offensive lineman at Bucknell. He started at offensive guard for one season and spent two seasons as the starting center. Foley was named Bucknell’s top lineman as a junior before serving as a team captain as a senior.

PERSONAL
Foley earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Bucknell in 1989 and his master’s degree in educational psychology from Albany in 1991. He and his wife Becky have two sons, Charlie and Luke, and one daughter, Sara. Foley’s brother Glenn was a quarterback for six seasons in the NFL, playing with the New York Jets (1994-98) and Seattle Seahawks (1999).

COACHING CAREER
2023-present: Nebraska (Special Teams Coordinator)
2020-22: Carolina Panthers (Assistant Special Teams)
2019: Baylor (Special Teams Analyst)
2018: Temple (Interim Head Coach for Bowl Game)
2018: Temple (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends)
2017: Temple (Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends)
2016: Temple (Interim Head Coach for Bowl Game)
2013-16: Temple (Assistant Head Coach/Special Teams Coordinator/Tight Ends)
2011-12: Temple (Director of Operations)
2008-10: Temple (Tight Ends/Offensive Line)
2007: Hofstra (Assistant Head Coach)
2006: Hofstra (Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line)
2004-05: Fordham (Head Coach)
1999-2003: Fordham (Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line)
1998: Jacksonville University (Offensive Coordinator)
1995-97: Penn (Tight Ends/Offensive Tackles)
1994: Williams College (Offensive Line)
1991-93: Penn (Tight Ends/Offensive Tackles)
1989-90: Albany (Offensive Line)