April 17, 2008

University of Dayton football coach Rick Chamberlin has announced that Landon Fox has returned to UD as a full-time assistant coach. Fox, who will coach the Dayton secondary, had been a graduate assistant coach for the Flyers in 2002 and 2003.

Fox, 30, comes to UD after three seasons at Wayne State University in Detroit where he was linebacker coach and special teams coordinator under Paul Winters.

Fox spent the 2004 campaign as a graduate assistant coach assisting with the secondary at Ball State University on head coach Brady Hoke's staff.

"I feel very fortunate that we were able to bring Landon back to UD," Chamberlin said. "I was impressed with him as a person and as a coach when he was here in 2002 and 2003. He is an outstanding individual, and I know his experience at Ball State and Wayne State will benefit our program."

Dayton was 20-3 in Fox's two seasons working under then-head coach Mike Kelly and then-defensive coordinator Rick Chamberlin. The Flyers won their first of two NCAA Division I-AA Mid-Major national championships while going 11-1 in 2002, and then turned in a 9-2 campaign in 2003.

Fox's first college coaching experience was as a defensive line graduate assistant coach at Lakeland College in Sheboygan, Wis. He also planned and supervised weight training programs for the football, men's basketball and soccer teams.

A four-year member (1995-98) of the Defiance College football squad, Fox led the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) in fumble recoveries while earning second team all-league accolades in 1998. He was a team captain and Defiance's defensive player of the year as a senior. After his football career was over, he also played one season of basketball for the Yellow Jackets. Defiance won the MIAA that season and played in the 1999 NCAA Division III tournament.

A 2000 graduate of Defiance and a native of Defiance, Ohio, he began his coaching career as an assistant varsity coach at Preble Shawnee High School in Camden, Ohio, during the 2000 campaign.