Oklahoma State Hires Defensive Backs Coach

Oklahoma State football coach Mike Gundy announced on Monday the hiring of Tim Duffie to coach defensive backs.

A native of Jefferson, Texas, and four-year letterwinner at linebacker for Texas Tech, Duffie comes to Stillwater after spending the 2012 season coaching the secondary at Wake Forest. In his lone season at Wake, the Demon Deacons led the Atlantic Coast Conference and ranked 25th nationally in turnover margin.

Prior to his time at Wake Forest, Duffie spent 2008-11 at Colorado State. He was cornerbacks coach from 2008-10 and then coached the entire Rams secondary in 2011. He served as CSU's primary recruiter for the state of Texas.

While in Fort Collins, Duffie was heavily involved in recruiting much of CSU's top talent, including Crockett Gillmore, an all-conference performer in his first season as a tight end in 2011, Weston Richburg, a 2010 freshman All-American, and Austin Gray, a 12-game starter at safety as a freshman in 2011. In his first year at the reins of the Rams full secondary in 2011, Duffie was instrumental in helping CSU finish the regular season ranked 14th in the nation by allowing only 179.6 passing yards per game.

Duffie broke into coaching at UTEP, where he served as a graduate assistant coaching linebackers in 2000 and then safeties in 2001. He was elevated to his first full-time position coaching the Miners safeties from 2002-03 then served as UTEP's linebackers coach from 2004-06 and back to safeties in 2007.

During his time at UTEP, he coached nine all-conference athletes, the 2004 Western Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year in Robert Rodriguez and a second-round NFL draft choice in Thomas Howard. Howard went on to become an everyday starter for the Oakland Raiders and Cincinnati Bengals.

In addition to his role at UTEP, Duffie worked with the Detroit Lions in the summer of 2001 in a coaching fellowship.

As a two-year starter playing for coach Spike Dykes at Texas Tech, Duffie had 202 tackles, six tackles for loss, one sack, three passes broken up and two interceptions. As a senior in 1999, he started all 11 games and racked up a single-game career-high 18 tackles at Missouri. A second-team all-state selection at Jefferson High School, Duffie earned Cypress Valley Player of the Year honors and was an all-district performer on three occasions. In addition to football, he lettered in basketball, baseball and track.

Duffie earned a bachelor's degree in exercise and sports science from Texas Tech in 1999 and a master's in education administration from UTEP in 2002.

He and his wife, Autumn, have two sons together, Memphis and Manhattan. He also has a son, Timias.

Duffie At A Glance

Year Employer Position

2000-01 UTEP Graduate Assistant

2001 Detroit Lions Minority Coaching Fellowship

2002-07 UTEP Safeties from 2002-03, 2007 and Linebackers from 2004-06

2008-11 Colorado State Cornerbacks from 2008-10 and Secondary in 2011

2012 Wake Forest Secondary