COMMERCE – Texas A&M University-Commerce football coach David Bailiff has announced five additions to the Lion football coaching staff leading up to the start of spring practices.
 
Curtis Fuller, a 12-year coach in the National Football League and four-year NFL player is appointed as the Safeties coach. Jack Tyler joins the staff as the linebackers coach, he comes to the Lions after a successful playing and coaching career at Virginia Tech. Tyron Carrier comes to east Texas as the wide receivers coach after coaching stints at Houston and West Virginia.
 
Michael Smith is tasked with coaching the defensive line, he brings eight years of coaching experience, and Hayden Meister is the new Director of Football Operations, coming to Commerce from a fellow FCS school, Wagner.
 
"The five coaches add a vast amount of experience to the coaching staff," said Bailiff. "I am excited about the new energy and ideas they are going to bring. We still have huge expectations in this program and we took a step forward hiring the type of men that we did."
 
"We had great staff that moved onto other opportunities, but this staff is even better with the new additions."  
 
TYRON CARRIER • WIDE RECEIVERS
Carrier takes over the wide receivers unit, having coached in five bowl games as a coach and was named the 2018 Football Scoop Receivers Coach of the Year at West Virginia. He was on coach Dana Holgorsen's staff at both Houston and West Virginia. He has also served as a graduate assistant at Baylor.
 
His teams in West Virginia finished in the top 10 in passing offense consistently and he coached in the Camping World Bowl, Heart of Dallas Bowl, and Cactus Bowl with the Mountaineers. He also coached in the New Mexico Bowl with the Cougars.
 
Carrier was a star for the Cougars on the gridiron and holds the NCAA record with seven kickoff returns for touchdowns and set an NCAA record by making two or more receptions in all 53 career games. He ended his career at No. 2 in NCAA history with receptions (320) and 7,490 all-purpose yards were No. 6. He was an All-American and two-time all-Conference USA selection. He also competed on the Houston track and field team and timed 20.54 in the 200 meter dash at the 2008 Olympic Trials.
 
Following his college days, Carrier played two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League. Carrier and his wife, Alysha, have three sons, Tyron Jr., Titan, and Tatum.
 
CURTIS FULLER • SAFETIES
Fuller comes to A&M-Commerce after serving as the head coach of Myers Park High School in North Carolina last season. He has served as an assistant coach for 12 years in the NFL, including stops at the Dallas Cowboys, Oakland Raiders, Green Bay Packers, Tennessee Titans, Carolina Panthers, and the Arizona Cardinals.
 
He was an assistant special teams coach and defensive assistant with the Packers and part of the Super Bowl 45-winning coaching staff. He also coached in Super Bowl 50 on the Panthers staff as the assistant defensive backs coach and assisted in the special teams unit.
 
Fuller's most recent stint in the NFL came as a defensive assistant with the Cardinals in 2018. He is no stranger to east Texas, beginning his college career at Tyler Junior College after playing at Fort Worth Christian School.
 
Fuller was a three-year starter at TCU and served as the president of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. He had stints with the Seattle Seahawks, Packers, and Panthers as a player in the NFL.
 
Players that Fuller has coached include James Bradberry, Charles Woodson, Cortland Finnegan, Jason McCourty, Patrick Peterson, and Captain Munnerlyn.
 
HAYDEN MEISTER • DIRECTOR OF FOOTBALL OPERATIONS
Meister migrated south after serving as the Director of Football Operations at Wagner University in New York last season. With the Seahawks, he was responsible for coordinating team travel, meals, camps, and special team events, while also being the video coordinator. 
 
He is a graduate of the University of Iowa, serving as a student manager while receiving his degree in sport and recreation management and received his graduate degree in sport and recreation management with the Hawkeyes as well.
 
Meister's responsibilities with the Hawkeyes under coach Kirk Ferentz included game day preparation, fundraising, staffing, academics, and team travel as the program's football operations graduate assistant.
 
MICHAEL SMITH • DEFENSIVE LINE
Smith is no stranger to teams that played in the NCAA Division II Super Region IV. He was the defensive line coach and special teams coordinator at Black Hills State for two seasons. He coached two all-Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference selections.
 
Prior to his stint with the Yellow Jackets, he was a defensive assistant at Texas under Tom Herman and graduate assistant at New Mexico under coach Bob Davie, as well as Dordt University in Iowa. Smith began his coaching career at Van Vleck High School in Texas.
 
Smith played for Bailiff at Rice, starting 32 consecutive games, and also played professionally for two years. In his playing days at Rice, he made contributions on the defensive line in all four years and started all 12 games at nose tackle his senior season.
 
He has a daughter, Layla.
 
JACK TYLER • LINEBACKERS
Tyler will oversee the linebackers unit for the Lions. He was the linebackers coach at Virginia Tech last season. Tyler has served as a student assistant, graduate assistant, and defensive quality control coach with the Hokies and had a coaching stop at FCS powerhouse program James Madison also.
 
He was an all-Atlantic Coast Conference linebacker at Virginia Tech, reaching a bowl game in all four seasons. He accumulated 286 tackles in his four-year playing career and was part of the Hokies' 2010 ACC Championship.
 
Tyler was named the 2008 Virginia High School Player of the Year, arriving in Blacksburg as a walk-on, but eventually earned a scholarship. He served as Virginia Tech's defensive play caller in a win over Duke in 2020 and worked under Bud Foster and Justin Fuente at Tech.