Zak Kuhr
Zachary Adam Kuhr is an American football coach who is inside linebackers coach for the New England Patriots of the National Football League. Amid the absence of Patriots defensive coordinator Terrell Williams during the 2025 season for medical treatment, he has also been the team's defensive playcaller and de facto defensive coordinator.
Coaching career
Early career
Kuhr began his coaching career as an assistant for Mandarin High School in Jacksonville, Florida. He later became the offensive coordinator for Westside High School. He began his career as a college coach in 2009, joining Edward Waters University as their special teams coordinator for two seasons. He was later an intern at Ohio State under head coach Urban Meyer from 2011-12 and a graduate assistant at Old Dominion in 2013. He joined James Madison University as the running backs coach in the 2014 season, and became co-offensive coordinator in the 2015 season. He was hired by Rutgers as their running backs coach for the 2016 season. He joined Texas State as their running backs coach and a co-offensive coordinator for the 2017 season, and became an associate head coach in the 2018 season. In 2019, Kuhr was hired by Texas as an assistant coach.Tennessee Titans
In 2020, Kuhr was hired by the Tennessee Titans as a defensive quality coach under head coach Mike Vrabel. He had previously overlapped with Vrabel when both were on the staff at Ohio State. In 2021, he became a inside linebackers assistant and stayed in this role for three seasons.Although Kuhr was primarily an offensive coach in his collegiate career, Vrabel hired him as a defensive coach to help defensive players prepare for college-style offensive schemes that were becoming popular in the NFL. During his time in Tennessee, he was mentored by longtime defensive coaches Jim Schwartz and Shane Bowen.