This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Utah football's coaching staff has been completed with another piece plucked from Eastern Washington.

Kiel McDonald, 33, is the new running backs coach for the Utes, joining new Utah offensive coordinator Troy Taylor from the Eagles' staff last season. McDonald coached backs at Eastern Washington for the last five seasons.

McDonald has ties to the man he replaces, Dennis Erickson. He played for him in 2006, the year Erickson coached Idaho. He also served as a graduate assistant at Arizona State in 2011.

But McDonald's largest chunk of coaching experience came at Eastern Washington, where he served under coach Beau Baldwin, who was hired this weekend to be the offensive coordinator at Cal. McDonald helped improve EWU's rushing attack from 79.0 yards per game before he was hired to 183.7 yards per game by his second year.

He also has coaching experience at San Jose City College and internship experience with the San Francisco 49ers.

Twitter: @kylegoon