Thursday, June 30, 2016

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - The Oakland Raiders organization has announced that Central Washington University assistant coach Benny Boyd has been selected to join the Raiders for their training camp as part of the Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship Program.

Boyd, who participated in the program in 2010 with the Pittsburgh Steelers, will be with the Raiders from the beginning of their training camp, located at the team's Napa Valley Training complex, until CWU's own fall camp gets under way. Boyd will be working with the special teams units and coordinator Brad Seely. The Raiders report to training camp on Thurs., July 28 with the first practice scheduled for Fri., July 29.

Boyd recently finished his first full season with Wildcats in 2015 after spening three season as the defensive and special teams coordinator at his alma mater, Aurora University in Illinois, where he was a finalist for the American Football Coaches Association's Division III Assistant Coach of the Year award.

Boyd also spent three seasons at North Dakota (2011-13) and nine seasons with Luther College in Decorah, Iowa.  Boyd has coached six All-American players and 23 players who have received all-conference recognition.

The Bill Walsh NFL Minority Coaching Fellowship, designed to expose talented minority college coaches to the methods and philosophies of summer NFL training camps, was introduced to the league by Walsh in 1987 when he brought in a group of such coaches into his San Francisco 49ers training camp. The program has grown to the point that now every NFL team participates in it at every training camp.

Last summer, a record 126 minority coaches were invited to NFL camps for planning and participating in practice sessions, working with players, and learning from coaches working at the highest level. In total, 26 of the 32 NFL teams currently have an active coach who participated in the internship at some point, with two being head coaches (Mike Tomlin & Marvin Lewis).