San Francisco 49ers defensive backs coach Jeff Hafley is headed to Ohio State to be the co-defensive coordinator for the school's football program, according to Pete Thamel of Yahoo! Sports.
Source: Jeff Hafley will be the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State. He was the DBs coach in San Francisco.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) January 7, 2019
Hafley was a holdover from former 49ers head coach Chip Kelly's staff in 2016 and spent the past three seasons with the organization.
49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan did not anticipate any significant changes to his staff heading into the 2019 offseason.
"I like our staff a lot. I think we've got some good coaches," Shanahan said on December 31.
He added, "I'm not going to ever say that everyone is just totally safe forever. But, what I can say is I think our staff is a very good staff and I like what our guys are, and where they can be, and it's the staff I want to hold onto."
The 49ers will be searching for a new defensive backs coach to replace Hafley. The defensive backs managed just two interceptions this past season. In fact, those were the only two interceptions from the defense as a whole, which could not manage to secure turnovers in 2018.
The 49ers defense's two interceptions set a new record for fewest by a team in a single season. The defense also set a new NFL record for the fewest takeaways in a single season with seven.
The only other staff change that has taken place thus far is the firing of head strength and conditioning coach Ray Wright.
Hafley spent two seasons (2014-15) as the secondary coach with the Cleveland Browns before joining the 49ers. Before that, he spent two years (2012-13) with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers holding the roles of an assistant defensive backs coach and then the team's secondary/safeties coach.
Ohio State's head coach is now Ryan Day, who served as Kelly's quarterbacks coach in San Francisco. Day replaces Urban Meyer, who retired after the 2019 Rose Bowl.