Longo adds Merkens, Hopp to offensive staff
2/14/2025 3:29:00 PM | Football
HUNTSVILLE – Sam Houston head football coach Phil Longo announced the retention of tight ends coach Matt Merkens and the hire of AJ Hopp as offensive line coach on Friday for the upcoming 2025 season.
Merkens has been on the Bearkat coaching staff in various capacities for 11 of the past 12 seasons, including the past four seasons on full-time staff as the Kats' tight ends coach. In his time in that role he transformed the tight ends room into one of the strongest units on the Bearkat roster.
He also served in a play-calling capacity for the final half of the 2022 season, taking over duties completely directing the SHSU offense.
Merkens served as the offensive quality control coach for the Kats from 2018-2020 before being promoted into his current position prior to the 2021 Spring season that saw the Kats claim the program's first FCS national title. He also worked directly with Longo during the 2014 and 2016 seasons, which were sandwiched around a season working as a graduate assistant at Western Colorado.
Hopp, meanwhile, comes to Huntsville after six seasons overseeing the offensive line at Southeastern Louisiana.
While there he helped lead the Lions to the FCS playoffs three times and tutored numerous players to postseason honors. Included in that group was John Allen, who was named the Southland Conference 2022 Offensive Lineman of the Year and earned all-Southland Conference honors three straight times from 2021 to 2023, along with all-America honors by Stats perform and the AFCA.
In the Spring of 2021, Hopp coached a SLU line that paved the way for a Lion offense that protected eventual Walter Payton Award winning quarterback Cole Kelley ranked in the top 10 nationally in total offense for the second of four straight seasons.
Prior to coming to Hammond, Hopp spent five seasons as an offensive graduate assistant for three different programs. He spent the 2013 and 2014 seasons at Florida Atlantic where he worked with Freshman All-American Reggie Bain and then moved on to Mississippi State.
Both of his two seasons in Starkville ended in bowl victories (Belk Bowl, 2015 and St. Petersburg Bowl, 2016) and the 2016 Bulldogs finished with a school-record 5.6 yards per rush and was second in the SEC in sacks allowed.
Hopp worked with All-SEC performers Justin Senior and Martinas Rankin during his time in Starkville.
He then spent the 2017 season at Houston where he helped the Cougars increase their rushing yards per carry by 1.5 ypc and also allowed 1.5 less sacks and 1.72 less tackles for loss per game.
Hopp was an Academic All-American during his time as an offensive tackle at Slippery Rock. He earned All-PSAC West honors as a senior after helping his team to the PSAC Western Division championship.
