January 23, 2024 – Middle Tennessee head football coach Derek Mason announced today the hiring of AJ Reisig as the program’s linebackers coach.
Reisig makes his way to Murfreesboro after spending the 2023 season as the linebackers coach for the XFL’s Houston Roughnecks. The Roughnecks went 7-3, led the league in total defense and Reisig’s linebackers were second and third on the team in total tackles.
“Brian Stewart and AJ have been together the past four years and have put together winning defenses with Wade Phillips,” said Mason. “Anytime you bring in a coordinator, you want him to have someone with him who understands how he does it. I call that speed of trust. How do we get to it faster, how can we develop schemes and concepts while communicating at a stage that allows us to play at a high level.”
For the 2021 and 2022 seasons, Reisig was a senior defensive analyst at Maryland where he assisted the defense in all aspects of game planning.
In 2020, Reisig was the defensive line coach and run game coordinator at U.S. Merchant Marine Academy after serving as a senior analyst and assistant safeties coach at Towson in 2019.
Prior to Towson, Reisig spent three seasons as the assistant defensive backs coach, recruiting coordinator and video coordinator at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa. While at Lehigh, the Mountain Hawks won back-to-back Patriot League Championships and appeared in the NCAA FCS National Championship Playoffs in 2016 and 2017. Under his tutelage, the Lehigh defense improved from 109th to 8th in the nation in Total Interceptions with 17, while also improving drastically in Defensive Pass Efficiency from 108th to 29th in the FCS with a rating of 117.66 in 2016.
In between his stints at Kings Point and Lehigh, he earned two master’s degrees while serving as a graduate assistant coach at both Shippensburg University for the 2011 and 2012 seasons, and the University of Maryland for the 2013, 2014 and 2015 seasons. At Shippensburg, he coached the Raiders’ defensive backs, before serving as a defensive back’s assistant and then the outside linebackers coach for the Terrapins at Maryland.
At Shippensburg, Reisig helped improve a defense that ranked 113th in pass efficiency before he arrived, into one that ranked 13th in Division II in 2011 and 42nd in 2012. He placed an emphasis on his defensive backs creating turnovers with Shippensburg ranking in the top ten nationally in takeaways in both of his seasons. Shippensburg won the PSAC Eastern Division with a 10-0 record in 2012 and advanced to the second round of the Division II playoffs.
Reisig joined the staff at Maryland in 2013 as a graduate assistant under head coach Randy Edsall, working with defensive backs and special teams. He assisted a defense that ranked in the top third of the FBS in both total defense and pass defense in 2013 and pass efficiency defense in 2014. Maryland made bowl appearances in each of Reisig’s first two seasons in College Park, participating in the Military Bowl in 2013 and the Foster Farms Bowl in 2014.
Midway through the 2015 season, Reisig took over the Terrapins outside linebackers, and guided that unit through Maryland’s final six games. Maryland’s defense ranked 23rd in tackles-for-loss and 14th in sacks among FBS teams in 2015. Reisig also worked with Maryland’s kickoff coverage units and a punt return unit that led the Big Ten and ranked fifth nationally.
Reisig was a two-year starter at cornerback at Division III Dickinson College, recording five interceptions, 101 tackles, two forced fumbles and a blocked kick in four seasons from 2005-2008. He also served as an undergraduate assistant to the head coach, assisting with game film and recruiting while working with the defensive backs in the spring segment.
A native of Reading, Pa., Reisig earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from Dickinson in 2009. He added a master’s degree in organizational development and leadership from Shippensburg in December 2012 and added his second master’s in information management from Maryland in 2016.
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