Jon Tenuta begins his first season as the Tar Heels’ defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach. Tenuta, who spent the past six seasons at Ohio State, comes to Carolina with 21 years of experience as a defensive coach and has served as a defensive coordinator at four other schools, including Marshall (1987), Kansas State (1988), SMU (1990-94) and Ohio State (2000).

Regarded as one of the nation’s best secondary coaches, Tenuta has developed several defensive backs into NFL players. In fact, every player to start for Tenuta at Ohio State has been selected in the NFL Draft, including first-round picks Shawn Springs, Antoine Winfield and Ahmed Plummer. Springs, who now plays for the Seattle Seahawks, was the 1996 Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and a first-team All-America. Winfield, the 1998 Jim Thorpe Award winner, now plays for the Buffalo Bills.

Ohio State’s pass defense was consistently ranked among the nation’s best during Tenuta’s tenure. The Buckeyes were ranked in the top three in pass efficiency defense in three of his six seasons.

A native of Madison, Wis., Tenuta graduated from Virginia in 1981. He started three years at defensive back for the Cavaliers and was the team MVP during his senior season.

Tenuta, 43, began his coaching career at Virginia (1981-82), but has also been an assistant at Maryland (1983), Vanderbilt (1984-85), Marshall (1986-87), Kansas State (1988), SMU (1989-94) and Oklahoma (1995). At SMU, Tenuta was the defensive backs coach in 1989 before being promoted to defensive coordinator in 1990. In 1992, the Mustangs led the Southwest Conference in pass defense.