Mario Cristobal has landed his new running backs coach.

Cristobal announced the addition of Matt Merritt to the Miami coaching staff on Wednesday.

“I am really excited to welcome Coach Merritt, his wife Brittanie and his two sons, Daniel and Thomas, to the Miami Hurricanes Football Family,” Cristobal said in a program release. “Coach Merritt is one of the bright young minds in college football. He made a great impression on our staff with his knowledge, his ability to teach the techniques and fundamentals of the running back position, his presence and his insight from working with multiple productive offensive systems.

“Coach Merritt has enjoyed success at every level of football, and his knowledge and versatility due to that experience brings a lot of value to our organization. He is a family man with a tremendously high care factor for developing student-athletes.”

Merritt arrives in Coral Gables after spending the 2023 season at USF. The Bulls enjoyed a six-win improvement in 2023, the best in program history. USF ran for 182.8 yards per game in the 2023 campaign.

“I’m extremely excited. I’m extremely humbled, as well,” Merritt said in a released statement. “I’m honored to be at a place like Miami. The tradition, the history – at this position in particular – speaks for itself. I’m really excited to be able to continue to uphold that standard and to be here with this incredible staff and this incredible group of players. It’s a blessing, and I can’t wait to get to work.”

Merritt’s coaching background includes work as an analyst at Tennessee and a graduate assistant at Ohio State. Merritt replaces Time Harris, who left to be the offensive coordinator at UCF.