NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State football head coach Brock Spack filled a vacancy on his offensive coaching staff Monday, as he announced the hiring of Ghaali Muhammad-Lankford as the team's new wide receivers coach. Muhammad-Lankford replaces Brian Anderson, who spent one season at Illinois State before taking a position on the staff of former North Dakota State head coach Chris Klieman at Kansas State.
"Ghaali is an up-and-coming coach who I have had my eye on for a while," Spack said. "I've had several people I trust in this business bring him to my attention in the past, including our current defensive line coach Brian Hendricks. They were teammates at Wyoming, and he couldn't recommend him more. Ghaali worked with the receivers when he was at Missouri and knows what a big-time pass-catcher looks like. He also recently coached the running backs at SEMO, so he is very diverse with his experience as a player and coach. He will bring a lot of energy to our receivers group and we look forward to having him as part of our staff."
Muhammad-Lankford comes to Normal after completing his third year as running backs coach and recruiting coordinator at Southeast Missouri. He helped guide the Redhawks to a school record nine wins and the second round of the 2018 FCS playoffs, where they were defeated by No. 2 Weber State.
As the running backs coach, Muhammad-Lankford mentored Marquis Terry who earned multiple All-America honors in 2018. Terry was the Ohio Valley Conference Offensive Player of the Year, after leading the league in rushing yards (1,229), rushing touchdowns (14) and rushing yards per game (94.5). He ran for over 100 yards a league-high six times with an OVC and school record 311 at Southern Illinois (Sept. 15).Â
"I am thrilled to be joining the coaching staff at Illinois State," Muhammad-Lankford stated. "I've heard nothing but great things about Coach Spack and how he runs his football program and treats his staff. He, his wife and the rest of the staff made my wife and I feel immediately at home when we visited campus and that was very important to us. After being with the running backs the past three years at SEMO, I look forward to learning and growing as a coach with our wide receiver group at Illinois State."
Muhammad-Lankford joined Southeast's staff in February of 2016, after previously working as an offensive graduate assistant at Missouri, where he assisted then-wide receivers coach Pat Washington with all daily coaching responsibilities. Muhammad-Lankford helped create game plan ideas for weekly opponents and assisted with recruiting among other duties.
Before Missouri, Muhammad-Lankford helped coach the running backs at Wyoming in the same capacity during the 2013 campaign. He coached the kick returners, coordinated game plans for the running backs, assisted with all special teams, created scouting reports and managed the scout teams during practices. In addition, Muhammad-Lankford was in charge of the running back meetings, drills and signaling to running backs on game day.
A native of St. Joseph, Muhammad-Lankford played four years (2009-2012) at Wyoming. He was the Cowboys leading rusher before suffering a season-ending injury in 2011. A year later, Muhammad-Lankford led Wyoming with 106 tackles, 10 tackles for loss and four fumble recoveries as a linebacker his senior season. He received his undergraduate degree in communications at Wyoming in 2013 and is currently working on his master's in positive coaching. He and his wife, Taryn, have one son, Eliyaas.
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