John Lilly now TE coach

Emotional John Lilly reflects on time spent coaching at Georgia

http://www.macon.com/sports/college/sec/university-of-georgia/bulldogs-beat/article52753015.html

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. John Lilly lowered his head and began fighting back the few tears welling up inside of his eyes.

It’s an emotional time for Lilly, who has spent the last eight years at Georgia as a tight ends coach. He spent Saturday’s TaxSlayer Bowl, a 24-17 victory over Penn State, as the interim offensive coordinator after the coaching changes that took place at the end of the regular season.

Lilly doesn’t know what’s next when it comes to his coaching career. But he was thrilled to help Georgia finish its 2015 regular season with a win.

“You want to know the truth? And people don’t believe you when you say this but every fiber in my being wanted to win this football game, and for the most part that’s all I’ve been focusing on,” Lilly said. “Our kids deserved that. I love every one of those guys in that locker room.”

Lilly isn’t being retained by incoming head coach Kirby Smart and is in wait-and-see mode with his career. Whatever job he gets – whether it’s as a college or NFL assistant – he has a pretty good resume to show prospective employers. He’s 2-0 as a college play-caller, having added this game to last year’s Belk Bowl victory over Louisville.

It’s easy to see why it’s hard for Lilly to leave a place he’s spent eight years at. But given how the coaching profession works, Lilly understands why the business works out the way it does.

“I might lose my man card on this but I’ve been emotional a couple of times this week,” Lilly said. “Like right now. You love the guys you go to battle with as coaches. You love the players. We’ve got some great, great kids. I hope some of my kids grow up to be like these kids when they get to that age. That’s life. People have to go their separate ways at times.”

Lilly joined Georgia’s coaching staff in 2008 and has been a part of two SEC Eastern Division championship teams. The 2012 team Lilly coached on was five yards away from winning the SEC Championship, which perhaps would have changed, or prevented, everything that transpired over the past month.

Lilly knows what the end goal is for a coaching staff, especially when someone such as his former boss Mark Richt is in place at a major program for 15 years. And while the end goal never materialized, Lilly said plenty was accomplished during his time with the Bulldogs.

“We may have failed to win a national championship. But we did not fail, in my mind,” Lilly said. “All of the positive things that came when coach Richt was the head coach, I’ve only been here for eight years of it and those were eight special years. I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I haven’t had any regrets.”

Rams complete coaching staff with John Lilly as new tight ends coach

Nick Wagoner

http://espn.go.com/blog/st-louis-rams/post/_/id/27135/rams-complete-coaching-staff-with-john-lilly-as-new-tight-ends-coach

INDIANAPOLIS — The Los Angeles Rams no longer have any vacancies on Jeff Fisher’s coaching staff.

Fisher confirmed Wednesday that he has filled all of the openings he intends to fill with the final addition of John Lilly as tight ends coach. In addition to Lilly, the Rams previously added Mike Groh as the receivers coach/passing game coordinator and Skip Peete as the running backs coach. Fisher also finally made it official that Rob Boras will be the offensive coordinator full time, a move that had long been clear but hadn’t yet been confirmed.

“The coaching staff is complete,” Fisher said. “I was really pleased with what Rob Boras was able to do down the stretch. I’m excited about Mike Groh, who has come in as our passing-game coordinator, and he’s going to coach receivers. We’re really excited about him. We’re very appreciative of Coach Fox and the Bears organization allowing him to move on and join us. The rest of the guys, Skip Peete, his stuff speaks for itself. He’s an outstanding running backs coach, an experienced coach with a lot of good runners.”

Lilly comes to the Rams from Georgia where he coached tight ends from 2008 to 2015. He was the tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at Florida State from 1998-2007.

“Then Coach Lilly is going to move over and coach tight ends,” Fisher said. “So everything was done on the offensive side of the ball, and I can assure you they’re working very hard right now.”