BALTIMORE, MD – Greg Chimera, the James F. Margraff Head Coach of Football at Johns Hopkins, announced the promotion of Alex Horvatits to offensive coordinator and the addition of TJ Weyl and Rio Byrd to the Blue Jay coaching staff today.

Horvatits will be entering his fourth season on Chimera's staff and replaces David Josephson as the offensive coordinator.  Josephson recently accepted a position on the football staff at Yale.

Weyl will serve as the offensive line coach and run game coordinator, while Byrd will coach the Blue Jay defensive line under the direction of defensive coordinator Dan Wodicka.

Horvatits arrived at Johns Hopkins in 2020 and coached the Blue Jay wide receivers in 2021 and 2022 (the 2020 season was canceled due to the COVID pandemic).  Under Horvatits' direction, Johns Hopkins produced three players with more than 75 receptions and 900 receiving yards for the first time in school history in 2021, while his top three receivers in 2022 accounted for more than 160 receptions for over 2,000 yards and 30 touchdown catches.  In just two seasons, Horvatits coached six All-Centennial Conference selections and three D3football.com All-Region honorees.

Working in tandem with Josephson, Horvatits helped direct offenses that averaged 46.5 (2021) and 43.7 (2022) points per game in the last two seasons with 78 combined touchdown passes and an average of more than 490 yards per game.  Since his arrival, Johns Hopkins is 20-3 with a trip to the second round of the NCAA Playoffs and a share of the Centennial Conference title in 2021 and a victory in the Centennial-MAC Bowl series in 2022.

Weyl comes to Johns Hopkins from Rutgers, where he spent three seasons as the Offensive Quality Control Coach.  He worked closely with the offensive coordinator and tight ends coach on all facets of game planning, opponent analysis and recruiting.  In addition, he was responsible for providing weekly breakdowns of the opposition's defensive structure and tendencies to the Scarlet Knights' head coach Greg Schiano. He was a member of the staff at Rutgers that heled the team to the 2021 TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

Weyl had previously served for two seasons as a graduate assistant at Vanderbilt and one season each at Princeton and Monmouth (NJ) as an Offensive Quality Control Coach.  He helped guide Vanderbilt to the 2018 Texas Bowl.  In addition to his work with the offense at Princeton, he also worked closely with Tiger special teams units.

Byrd arrives at Homewood after spending the 2022 season as the defensive line coach at Alvernia.  He had previously spent one year at his alma mater, Christopher Newport University, as the outside linebackers coach.  At Alvernia, he also served as the defensive coordinator of the Golden Wolves' JV team.  At both Alvernia and Christopher Newport, Byrd worked closely with the head coach and defensive coordinators in all practice and game planning, recruiting and the day-to-day operation of the program.

After his playing career at CNU, Byrd got his coaching start there as a student assistant coach in the spring of 2019 and later spent one season as the defensive line coach at Warwick (VA) High School.

Johns Hopkins posted a 10-1 record in 2022 and topped Stevenson in the Centennial-MAC Bowl Series.  The Blue Jays will open the 2023 season on Saturday, September 2 against Ithaca (12 pm).