Storrs — UConn head football coach Jim Mora announced the addition of four members to his staff on Sunday. 

John Allen, E.J. Barthel, Siriki Diabate, and John Marinelli have joined the UConn football program pending the successful completion of the university employee onboarding process.

Allen will join the coaching staff as the wide receivers coach/passing game coordinator, Barthel is the Huskies' new running backs coach, Diabate has been named as the linebackers coach, and Marinelli joins the program as the tight ends coach.

Mora also announced that members of the 2021 coaching staff will not be retained.

Allen spent the 2020 and 2021 seasons coaching the outside receivers for head coach Skip Holtz at Louisiana Tech.

Prior to his time in Ruston, Allen spent two seasons as the wide receivers coach at Old Dominion. He also spent three seasons as the offensive coordinator at Delaware State and was the head coach at Division II Lock Haven for four seasons. Before that he spent four years as the player development coordinator at nearby Penn State, and was in NFL Europe for four years, three as the offensive coordinator of the Amsterdam Admirals, and one as the head coach of the Berlin Thunder.

Barthel played for Rutgers and UMass and spent the previous two seasons as a coaching assistant for the Carolina Panthers will be the running backs coach.

Barthel served as the recruiting coordinator/running backs coach for William & Mary during the 2019 season and coached the running backs at Howard in 2018, and at Albany in 2017. In 2016, Barthel was on staff at Penn State as the recruiting coordinator and came to State College from Temple, where he was the director of player personnel during the 2015 season.  Barthel comes to the Huskies as a proven recruiter, as he helped PSU sign the nation's fifth-highest rated recruiting class.

Diabate comes to UConn after spending the last five seasons as the linebackers coach at Middle Tennessee. Diabate spent the 2017 season as a defensive analyst, focusing on the secondary, and coached the safeties at Colgate from 2015-16. During the offseason, he participated in the NFL's Minority Internship Program, spending time at training camps for the Buffalo Bill and the Dallas Cowboys.

Marinelli, the son of legendary New Canaan football coach Lou Marinelli, comes to UConn after spending the 2021 season as a senior analyst at the University of Illinois where he worked on special projects including analytics and situational strategy development.

Prior to his time with the Illini, Marinelli served as an analyst at the University of Arizona for two seasons. He was a two-time state champion player, then assistant coach, under his father before taking over as head coach at Greenwich. Marinelli's Greenwich teams went 36-10 in four seasons, including a 13-0 season in 2018 that ended in a 34-0 state title victory over New Canaan for the Class LL championship. Following the season, he was awarded the 2018 USA Today Connecticut Coach of the Year.