EL DORADO, Kan. – Butler football head coach Brice Vignery announced a shakeup to his staff ahead of the 2024 season on Friday.
The Grizzlies added five new faces to the coaching staff after Nate Haremza, Dreamius Smith, Riley Wagner and Justin Stolberg departed following the 2023 season. You can view the current football coaching staff here.
Offensive Shakeup
Rob Messinger has been named offensive coordinator ahead of his second season in El Dorado. He will also coach the wide receivers for a second straight year. Messinger takes over for the Stolberg/Haremza duo who each held the 'co-offensive coordinator' title last season. Messinger has spent time coaching at UTPB, Northeastern State, Ottawa University, Miami (FL) and Washburn. He graduated from the University of Kansas in 2005 where he played as a defensive back.
New Faces
David May was hired as offensive pass game coordinator and will also oversee the tight ends. May spent the 2023 season at Iowa Western where he helped the Reivers win the 2023 NJCAA D1 National Championship and finish 12-1 as the wide receivers coach. May saw five of his receivers named to the ICCAC All-Region team in 2023. Prior to his time in Council Bluffs, May was the wide receivers coach and special teams coordinator at Southwestern Oklahoma State for the 2022 season. He coached two All-GAC wide receivers as the Bulldogs averaged 31 points per game. Prior to his time at SWOSU, May spent two seasons at New Mexico Highlands as the run game coordinator and running backs coach. May's running game ranked third in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference (RMAC) in 2021 with 1,698 yards and nine touchdowns. He also mentored two running backs that both finished in the top-10 in conference rushing. May broke into the coaching field at his alma mater, the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) where he became a coaching student assistant in 2018. A native of League City, Texas, May graduated with a bachelor's degree in Sports Management from Incarnate Word in 2019. He earned a master's of education from SWOSU in 2022.
Rose Hill native and former Butler assistant Brady Foltz is back in El Dorado for his second stint on the Grizzly coaching staff, this time heading up the offensive line. Foltz was a four-year letterman at TCU where he started his junior and senior seasons on the way to being named a two-time All-Big 12 selection as an offensive lineman. He earned his bachelor's degree from TCU in 2016. Following TCU, Foltz coached tight ends and running backs at Butler from 2016-17, helping the Grizzlies win 15 games across the two seasons. Foltz spent time at Texas-Permian Basin (UTPB), where he served as assistant coach and offensive line coach from 2020-22. He spent the 2023 season as offensive line coach at Morehead State, an NCAA D1 program in Morehead, Kentucky.
Edward Parson is the newest running backs coach for Butler. Parson comes to El Dorado by way of Ellsworth where he spent the 2023 season as running backs coach. Prior to his time in Iowa, Parson spent two years at Grambling State as running backs coach, wide receivers coach and football operations manager. Parson also spent time in the high school ranks as the wide receivers and running backs coach at C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, Louisiana. Parson holds a bachelor's degree in Kinesiology and a Master's degree in Sports Administration from Grambling State University.
Austin Roberts has experience from the NJCAA level all the way to the Big 12 where he starred at the University of Oklahoma and now he is the Grizzlies new defensive ends coach. Roberts played at East Mississippi CC in 2014, winning the NJCAA D1 National Championship. He then transferred to NEO A&M in 2015 and starred as a DE, eventually moving on to Oklahoma following the season. For the Sooners, Roberts played two seasons and in 2016 he started in 12 games as a defensive end, helping the Sooners to a Sugar Bowl victory over Auburn and an 11-2 season. Roberts began coaching at KJCCC foe Highland in 2018 where he was the linebackers coach, coaching two of the top three tacklers in the country. In 2019 he transitioned to the defensive line where two of his student-athletes moved on to the NCAA Division 1 level. During the 2021 season Roberts was the defensive line coach at Coffeyville where he helped the Red Ravens to a KJCCC title as well as seeing multiple defensive linemen earn all-conference honors. Roberts hails from Warner Robins, GA., and earned his bachelor's degree in African Cultural Relations from the University of Oklahoma.
The last addition to the staff is quarterbacks coach Carson Morris. Morris comes to Butler from Morehead State where he spent the 2023 season with fellow Butler staffer Brady Foltz, serving as tight ends coach. Morris was touted by Morehead State as 'One of the youngest position coaches in Division I football." Originally from Frisco, Texas, he lettered two years as a quarterback at Frisco Liberty High School. He went on to school at Ole Miss and began working in the football video department. Upon graduation, Morris served as a football video graduate assistant at Ole Miss in 2022. Morris earned a pair of degrees from Ole Miss, his Bachelor's in business administration in 2022 and his Master's in Sports Administration in 2023.
