The fluidity of the Miami Hurricanes coaching staff continues with two more additions on Tuesday.

The linebacker role vacated by Charlie Strong last week was filled with recently hired Cincinnati linebackers coach and former Louisville inside linebackers coach Derek Nicholson. He is the second hire in the past couple of weeks to be snagged by Mario Cristobal despite recently accepting another position.

Nicholson is a rising star in the coaching ranks that has earned his keep as a recruiter. He made multiple stops down in South Florida last year and helped Louisville land four-star Miami Central linebacker Stanquan Clark over Miami.

He has also been the co-defensive coordinator at Southern Miss and has Florida ties from coaching high school football at Tallahassee Maclay and playing linebacker at Florida State before getting a shot with the Atlanta Falcons.

Miami also saw running backs coach Kevin Smith leave to go back to Ole Miss, his previous stop before returning home to South Florida.

Smith is the latest of the initial staff under Cristobal to last just one season. The honeymoon stage did not last long for him as he dealt with injuries to the majority of the room that led to Miami resorting to adding walk-on grad transfer Lucious Stanley from UAB.

To his credit, the recruitment of running backs during his lone season was top tier, adding three blue-chip running backs in TreVonte' Citizen, Christopher Johnson, and Mark Fletcher plus he brought 2022 leading rusher Henry Parrish with him from Ole Miss.

That success on the recruiting trail did not extend to the football field though. Miami's streak of failing to produce a 1000-yard rusher continued and the room had the seventh most fumbles in the nation.

Tumultuous relationships with South Florida natives and former four-stars Jaylan Knighton and Thad Franklin forced the transfer of the once-hyped duo. Neither player rushed for more than 423 yards or five touchdowns this season.

Miami now has two openings at running back and wide receivers coach with several other coaching positions still up in the air. There will likely be finality on the staff before the end of the February dead period as Cristobal prepares for a busy March that includes the Miami Junior Day on the fourth.

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