Chris Hurd is in his fourth season at Illinois in 2026 and third as senior special teams assistant. He served as a special teams analyst in 2023 before being elevated to senior special teams assistant in 2024. Hurd brought 19 years of collegiate coaching experience to Champaign, including eight years as a special teams coordinator, when he came to Champaign in 2023. 

Hurd helped the Fighting Illini special teams units rank #16 and #30 in the nation by ESPN's special teams efficiency metric in 2024 and 2025, respectively. In his three seasons coaching Illini special teams units, Illinois has earned nine All-Big Ten honors among specialists. 

Hurd helped coach punt returner Hank Beatty into one of the best in the nation in 2024 and 2025. Beatty led the Big Ten and ranked fourth nationally in punt return average (14.1 yards/return) and was named to the All-Big Ten Third Team and earned Phil Steele All-America Honorable Mention status in 2024. In 2025, Beatty ranked 16th in the nation and fourth in the Big Ten in punt return yards (213), while averaging 16.4 yards per punt return during the regular season.

Beatty, kicker David Olano, and long snapper Lane Hansen each earned back-to-back All-Big Ten honors in 2024 and 2025. Along with kicker Caleb Griffin and returner Isaiah Williams, who were All-Big Ten honorees in 2023, Illinois has three straight seasons of All-Big Ten kickers and All-Big Ten returners with Hurd on staff. 

In Hurd's first season in Champaign in 2023, PFF ranked Illinois’ overall special teams unit as the seventh-best in the nation. Illinois led the nation in blocked kicks/punts (7) and had three more blocked kicks/punts than any other team in the nation during the regular season. 

Hurd came to Illinois from Arkansas, where he spent the 2022 season as a special teams analyst. He spent the previous eight seasons as a special teams coordinator with stints at Akron (2019-21), Chattanooga (2017-18), and Florida Atlantic (2014-16). 

Hurd worked under head coach Tom Arth at both Akron and Chattanooga, following him to Akron after two seasons as the Chattanooga special teams coordinator and running backs coach. At Chattanooga, Hurd helped freshman Brandon Dowdell lead the SoCon and finish No. 6 in the FCS with 12.6 yards per punt return, while junior RB Tyrell Price earned 2018 All-Southern Conference second-team honors.

Hurd’s first coordinator job came at Florida Atlantic, where he also coached tight ends for three seasons. He had an immediate impact in both areas, as the tight ends caught six touchdowns in his first season, while Lucky Whitehead finished in the top-10 in the nation in kick return yards and Dalton Schomp averaged 45.4 yards per punt.

The 2015 special teams unit at FAU excelled in its second season under Hurd’s direction. Most notably, Schomp led the nation with 48.0 yards per punt. Nearly half of Schomp’s punts (22-of-45, 49%) were for 50 yards or more, and he pinned 18 inside the 20. FAU tight ends also emerged as a solid unit in 2015, with Nate Terry leading Florida Atlantic with four touchdown receptions.

In 2016, Kerrith Whyte’s 1,002 kick return yards ranked third in the nation, as the all-conference performer averaged 25.7 yards per return. Schomp averaged 42.6 yards per punt and earned honorable mention all-conference recognition. Tight end Harrison Bryant emerged as a significant contributor with six catches for 63 yards and a spot on the Conference USA All-Freshman Team.

Prior to FAU, Hurd was on staff as special teams quality control with Arkansas in 2013 as part of Bret Bielema’s first staff with the Razorbacks. He joined Bielema after two years at Tennessee, where he served in special teams quality control roles with the Volunteers. Hurd was the defensive coordinator at Cisco College from 2007-10 and was a graduate assistant at North Texas from 2004-06.

Hurd earned a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in criminal justice from the University of North Texas in 2004. He was a walk-on on the football team, lettering four seasons from 2000-03, earning a scholarship, and becoming a two-year starter for the three-time Sun Belt Champions (2001-03). The 2002 and 2003 recipient of the team’s Byron Gross Award as the team’s best linebacker, Hurd was 2003 Sun Belt Defensive Player of the Year.

A native of Killeen, Texas, Hurd and his wife, Emily, have a son, Ryker, and three daughters, Landrie, Brynn, and Bennett.