A day after tabbing a familiar face as offensive coordinator, Northwestern mined a familiar place for its next offensive line coach.

The Wildcats on Thursday named Miami (Ohio) tight ends and tackles coach Bret Ingalls to the position vacated by James Patton, who left to coach Oklahoma’s offensive line on Feb. 6.

NU coach Randy Walker, who played and coached at Miami, said he hired Ingalls on the recommendation of New Orleans Saints head coach Sean Payton, who coached under Walker at Miami.

“It sure helps to have an old hat that’s been around the block and seen some things,” Walker said of Ingalls, a college football coach since 1982.

Ingalls coached with newly appointed offensive coordinator Garrick McGee at Northern Iowa under former NU offensive coordinator Mike Dunbar. He spent a year at Miami, following stops at Indiana State and his alma mater, Idaho.

The hiring came amid much shuffling on NU’s staff. NU announced Wednesday that McGee, the Cats’ wide receivers coach the last two seasons, would take over for Dunbar, who left for the same job at California. Also on Thursday the Cats moved running backs coach Kevin Johns to McGee’s old position and named former NU graduate assistant Matt MacPherson as their running backs coach.

-Patrick Dorsey