Former Georgia Tech quarterbacks and B-backs coach Craig Candeto has been hired to coach running backs at Austin Peay, an FCS school in Tennessee, according to a Football Scoop report on Friday. It’s a return to the school where he got his start in coaching. Candeto was not retained in the transition from former coach Paul Johnson to Geoff Collins along with Johnson’s other nine assistant coaches.
Candeto coached the past two seasons for the Yellow Jackets after serving one year as assistant director of football operations. Candeto had previously been head coach at Capital University, a Division III school in Ohio (2013-15). Before that, he was an assistant coach at The Citadel and a graduate assistant at Tech and Austin Peay.
Candeto will work under Mark Hudspeth, who was hired at Austin Peay after the previous coach, Will Healy, took the head-coaching job at Charlotte.
In Candeto’s work with Tech’s quarterbacks and B-backs, B-back KirVonte Benson earned All-ACC honors in 2017 in his first season as a starter. Quarterback TaQuon Marshall ran for 1,000 yards in both 2017 and 2018, setting the school single-season record for rushing yards for a quarterback in 2017 and in 2018 becoming the only quarterback in Tech history to record two 1,000-yard rushing seasons.
Candeto became a coach after graduating from the Naval Academy (where he played quarterback for Johnson) and becoming a fighter pilot before being discharged because of a medical condition.
Candeto is the fourth assistant coach on Tech’s 2018 staff known to have landed a job following safeties coach Shiel Wood (Georgia State, inside linebackers coach and special-teams coordinator), defensive coordinator Nate Woody (Michigan, off-field position), A-backs coach Lamar Owens (Georgia Southern, wide receivers coach).
About the Author
