Georgia football hires familiar WRs coach: Former player and assistant Bryan McClendon

Bryan McClendon is returning to Georgia to join Kirby Smart’s coaching staff.

McClendon has agreed to fill the opening for a wide receivers coach, according to Warren McClendon Sr., his uncle.

Georgia officially announced the hire on Monday morning. McClendon will also have the title passing game coordinator.

Willie McClendon, Bryan’s father and a former Georgia running back, shared the news in a text message to family members on Sunday, Warren said.

“My wife just got off the phone with Warren Jr. telling him about the news,” he said, referring to Georgia’s starting offensive right tackle. “We were telling him he’s finally got somewhere to get a home cooked meal. He seemed to be happy about it also.”

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McClendon, 38, was hired in early January as Miami’s wide receivers coach and co-offensive coordinator under Mario Cristobal. He was wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator under Cristobal the last two seasons at Oregon and was interim head coach for the Ducks in the Alamo Bowl.

He coached as an assistant at South Carolina for four seasons before that under Will Muschamp, now co-defensive coordinator at Georgia. McClendon coached wide receivers and for the final two seasons was offensive coordinator.

McClendon is returning to a program where he spent 13 seasons as a wide receiver, graduate assistant, running backs coach, wide receivers coach and interim head coach at the end of the 2015 season for a win over Penn State in the Gator Bowl.

McClendon replaces Cortez Hankton, who left to coach wide receivers at LSU in his home state.

McClendon was on staff for Georgia from 2007-15 under Mark Richt, including as an assistant coach for the final seven years. He coached running backs for six seasons before coaching the wide receivers in 2015.

Mike Bobo, who was just hired as an offensive analyst at Georgia, was offensive coordinator for all but the last year of that stretch.

McClendon recruited and coached running backs Todd Gurley, Nick Chubb and Sony Michel. The graduate of Mays High in Atlanta played wide receiver from 2002-05, making 35 catches for 529 yards and a team-high six touchdowns in the 2005 SEC title season.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Bryan McClendon hired as Georgia football WRs coach by Kirby Smart