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Charlotte's defensive line got a nice boost today as Aaron Curry, a former star at Wake Forest and the fourth overall pick in the 2009 NFL Draft, was named the team's defensive line coach.
Curry's profile was high when he graduated in 2009: he ended the 2008 season as the Butkus Award winner (given to the nation's top linebacker) and a first-team ACC and All-American pick. But despite being selected so high in the Draft, he retired in 2013 after a largely disappointing career with stops in Seattle and Oakland. He would later join the Charlotte 49ers' strength and conditioning staff in 2013 before being named a graduate assistant in 2014 working with the linebackers.
Curry and Charlotte head coach Brad Lambert, his defensive coordinator with Wake Forest, have maintained a very strong relationship since Curry's college days, so it's a natural fit for a former product of Lambert's defense. It also marks another chapter in what has been a busy past couple of weeks for the Charlotte coaching staff. Last week, defensive coordinator Bruce Tall left to join Dana Holgorsen at West Virginia as the Mountaineers' defensive line coach; he was replaced by former Texas Tech and Louisiana-Lafayette DC Matt Wallerstedt.
Along with Curry's promotion to full-time D-line coach, the 49ers brought aboard a key member of their inaugural team as a graduate assistant: Mark Hogan, who scored the program's first touchdown against Campbell on an interception back in August 2013.