St. Louis Rams Head Coach Steve Spagnuolo announced today that Clayton Lopez, Andy Sugarman, and Derius Swinton have joined his coaching staff. Lopez has been added to the Rams defensive staff. Sugarman will serve as quality control/offense and Swinton will serve as quality control/special teams.
"We have added three new coaches to our staff," said Spagnuolo. "All three demonstrated the qualities that we were looking for to mesh with the group we have in place. We hope to have them on board and working within the next few days."
Lopez joins the Rams from the Detroit Lions, for whom he coached defensive backs in 2006-07 and was assistant secondary coach in 2008. He coached defensive backs for two seasons with the Oakland Raiders in 2004-05.
Lopez made his NFL debut as defensive assistant/quality control coach for the Seattle Seahawks in 1999. In 2002, Lopez became assistant secondary coach. In his five seasons with the Seahawks, the defense accounted for 96 pass interceptions, sixth highest in the NFL during that time.
Lopez, a former defensive back at the University of Nevada, began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 1995-96 and was running backs coach and recruiting coordinator in 1997-98.
Sugarman last served as offensive assistant for the Atlanta Falcons in 2007. From 2003-05, Sugarman was with the Detroit Lions as an offensive assistant in 2003 and coaching tight ends from 2004-05.
Sugarman came to Detroit in 2003 after five seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, first as offensive quality control coach (1998-99) and as offensive assistant (2000-02).
Sugarman made his coaching debut at the University of California-Berkeley in 1991, serving as an assistant to the offensive and special teams coaching staffs through the 1997 season.
Swinton joins the Rams from the University of Tennessee, where he spent the last two seasons (2007-08) as a graduate assistant. Swinton was a free safety at Hampton University in Virginia from 2003-06.
