Wisconsin football hiring Jayden Everett as running backs coach: Report
Wisconsin football is expected to hire Jayden Everett as its new running backs coach after losing Devon Spalding to Michigan State.
The University of Wisconsin football program has filled its open running backs coach position, bringing in a new voice to lead the room.
According to a report from Matt Zenitz and Ryan Burns, Wisconsin is set to hire Minnesota’s Jayden Everett as its next running backs coach.
Everett replaces Devon Spalding, who left the program after three seasons to join Michigan State under new head coach Pat Fitzgerald. The change marks another step in the Badgers’ offseason overhaul following a 4–8 season as they continue to assess both the coaching staff and personnel.
For head coach Luke Fickell, the hire reflects a measured response to staff turnover rather than a wholesale reset. Everett becomes the second significant addition to Wisconsin’s offensive staff this offseason, following the arrival of new offensive line coach Eric Mateos, as the Badgers work to stabilize an offense that struggled to find consistency a year ago.
The last three seasons fell well short of expectations.
Wisconsin’s rushing production declined every season, both in total output and efficiency. Rushing yards dropped from 2,095 in 2023 to 1,844 in 2024 before bottoming out at 1,400 this past season, while yards per carry slid from 4.6 to 4.4 and then down to 3.3 in 2025. Now, the Badgers are betting that Everett’s experience across a variety of offensive systems can help reverse that trend as the program works to rebuild its run game.
Everett, 39, joins Fickell’s staff with a résumé assembled across multiple levels of college football. A former linebacker at Indiana State, he transitioned into coaching in 2011 at Hutchinson Community College, serving as the program’s running backs coach and recruiting coordinator.
His career continued at Indiana State from 2013 to 2016, where he coached Shakir Bell to more than 4,200 career rushing yards and played a role in the program’s first FCS playoff appearance in 30 years. From there, Everett made coaching stops at Central Michigan, Akron, Tulsa, Vanderbilt, Michigan, South Alabama, and, most recently, Minnesota.
At Central Michigan, he developed Jonathan Ward into a 1,000-yard rusher who went on to play in the NFL. At Akron, he helped Teon Dollard earn first-team All-MAC honors in a shortened 2020 season. Tulsa’s run game flourished under his watch in 2021 and 2022, finishing among the top rushing attacks in the AAC. Further, Everett was part of Michigan’s staff in 2024, contributing to a backfield that featured Kalel Mullings and Donovan Edwards before spending the 2025 season at Minnesota.
That profile fits Wisconsin’s reality. The Badgers currently return young tailbacks such as Darrion Dupree and Gideon Ituka, and signed Quantavious Wiggins in the 2026 recruiting class. That said, they lost Dilin Jones and Cade Yacamelli to the transfer portal. As a result, Everett steps into a room that will require both development and reinforcements, with portal additions presumably needed as Wisconsin works to reestablish a run game that has been trending downward the past several seasons.
Wisconsin needs a quick fix here. This is about getting everyone pulling in the same direction and aligning the staff around development, cohesion, and a clearer offensive identity under Jeff Grimes. The changes at running backs coach and along the offensive line reflect that reset. Everett is widely viewed as a strong recruiter, and that matters, but the bigger priority is what happens once those players are in the running back room.
The question now is whether that group can be developed, prepared, and trusted to produce immediately. Over the next calendar year, that distinction will matter. Because for Wisconsin, this isn’t about stocking the room. It’s about getting more out of it and turning those adjustments into the kind of consistent ground production that once defined the program.
Whether that gamble pays off will depend less on who Wisconsin adds next and more on how quickly Everett can turn a rebuilt room into tangible progress, something Wisconsin football hasn’t consistently seen in years.
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