Dave Fipp. Photo from MiamiDolphins.com
Former Arizona Wildcats safety Dave Fipp has joined the staff of new Philadelphia Eagles coach Chip Kelly to coach special teams.
Fipp has spent the past two seasons as an assistant special teams coach with the Miami Dolphins.
There was no official word from the Eagles, who are waiting until the completion of the staff to announce the hirings, but Dolphins coach Joe Philbin confirmed the transaction to CSNPhilly.com, which also reported that Fipp was scouting the Senior Bowl practices outfitted in Eagles gear.
Fipp, 38, played at Arizona from 1994 to 1997, arriving as a walk-on free safety. After ranking third on the team with 54 tackles as a senior, he began his coaching career as the safeties coach at Holy Cross in 1998. Fipp returned to Arizona in 2000 as a graduate assistant coach.
Among other stops, he was the defensive coordinator for Rich Ellerson at Cal Poly and for Dick Tomey at San Jose State before jumping to the NFL for the 2008 season. Fipp spent three seasons with the San Francisco 49ers as their assistant special teams coach.
Another former Wildcat, Peter Hansen, is headed to the Super Bowl with the 49ers.
Hansen, who also played basketball for Lute Olson at Arizona, was a designated kick blocker for Tomey from 1998 to 2001. The 6-7 Hansen blocked seven kicks for the Cats.
He is in his second season as a defensive assistant/quality control coach for the 49ers, following head coach Jim Harbaugh from Stanford, where Hansen was a defensive assistant for two seasons.
There is an ex-Wildcat assistant on the other side of the Super Bowl matchup: Clarence Brooks coaches the defensive line for the Baltimore Ravens. He coached that spot for Arizona from 1990 to 1992.
In other coaching news with Arizona ties, Garret Chachere is returning to the Pac-12 to coach defensive ends for new Cal coach Sonny Dykes, a former UA offensive coordinator. Chachere was at Arizona from 2009 to 2011, coaching inside receivers for two years and running backs for one season.
He spent last season as the tight ends coach/special teams coordinator for Southern Miss but was looking for work again after the school fired Ellis Johnson, who went 0-12 in his first year with the Golden Eagles.
Chachere and Dykes overlapped at Arizona in 2009.
Also, CoachingSearch.com is reporting that former Arizona quarterbacks coach Frank Scelfo will be hired to coach quarterbacks for new Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Gus Bradley.
(Just think: Bradley had two interviews with the Eagles to become their head coach. If Philadelphia had gone in that direction, Bradley might have reunited Scelfo with his star pupil at Arizona, Nick Foles.)