Packers QC coach Micheal Spurlock leaves for WR coach job at Western Kentucky

Spurlock, a former NFL wide receiver and return man, is heading out to coach his old position in a new place.

The Green Bay Packers will have one more coaching vacancy to fill this offseason. On Monday, ESPN college football insider Pete Thamel reported that Micheal Spurlock will be leaving the Packers to take a job as the wide receivers coach at Western Kentucky University.

Spurlock spent just one season with the Packers, serving as the team’s special teams quality control coach in 2022. Spurlock, coordinator Rich Bisaccia, and assistant special teams coach Byron Storer all were new hires last season and together they helped the team turn around a special teams unit that had ranked as one of the worst in the NFL over the previous few years. The Packers posted a significant improvement under the new leadership last fall, ranking around the league average in most aggregate analyses.

A former NFL wide receiver himself, Spurlock had an eight-year career in the league, spending time with eight different teams. His longest tenure came with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who employed him over four different seasons from 2007 to 2011. Spurlock was a regular on kickoff and punt returns over his career, recording five total return scores. That professional career came after he played quarterback for Ole Miss, starting eight games during his senior season in 2005.

The Packers will likely look to hire a new QC coach to help out with the special teams for 2023. The other coaching vacancy that remains at present is left over from Jerry Gray’s departure, which opened up the cornerbacks coach/defensive pass game coordinator position.