Kevin Higgins is moving into a role at Wake Forest. The program announced Monday that the long-time wide receivers coach will assume a new off-field leadership role on Dave Clawson’s staff.

The Demon Deacons’ announcement states that Higgins will oversee recruiting, personnel and the transfer portal, utilizing his experience as a head coach and NFL assistant.

Clawson said he tried to convince Higgins to remain an on-field coach, but says the long-time coach is stepping into a critical role with the football staff.

“Kevin Higgins is one of my earliest mentors and dearest friends in the coaching profession and he has done an incredible job developing our student-athletes on and off the field over the past nine years at Wake Forest,” Clawson said via a program release. “Throughout the last nine years, Kevin has been my right-hand man on so many program-altering decisions that allowed us to build a competitive program in the ACC. Despite my best efforts to try to convince and recruit Coach Higgins to continue one more season as our receivers coach, he has decided to remain in our program with a critical role of leading our recruiting efforts and continuing to be an incredible mentor to our entire football team.”

Higgins, who has 46 years of coaching experience across high school, college and the NFL, sees his new position as an opportunity to continue to help Wake Forest football.

“I am so grateful for my long-standing relationship with Dave Clawson, Warren Ruggiero and our entire staff at Wake Forest,” Higgins said via Wake Forest. “This new leadership position will allow me to continue contributing to the success of our football program and align our efforts across many areas. With that, I am excited for another great football season ahead and our continued efforts to help our players win a championship. Go Deacs!”

Higgins has been Wake Forest’s associate head coach and wide receivers coach for the past 9 seasons. Demon Deacons WR A.T. Perry earned First Team All-ACC honors in 2021 and 2022 and now owns the program for touchdown receptions (28).