Bill Schmitz was an American football coach, Born in Cincinnati, Ohio. He has more than 20 years experience in the coaching profession at the professional, collegiate and high school levels, joined the UAB football coaching staff prior to the 2005 season.
The two-time college head coach handled UAB's tight ends and H-backs last season but will switch to coaching the Blazer wide receivers in 2006.
Schmitz is a former head coach at both the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Austin Peay. He spent six seasons at Austin Peay and in 2002, his final campaign there, he guided the Governors to their first winning season in 18 years.
The Cincinnati native came to UAB after spending two seasons as the head coach at Jesuit High School in Tampa, Fla. He led Jesuit to a 14-7 record over two years, including a 9-3 mark and a berth in the Florida Class 3-A Regional Finals in 2004.
Prior to being named head coach at Austin Peay, Schmitz spent four years as the head coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, his alma mater, from 1993-96. In 1996, he directed Coast Guard to a berth in the NCAA Division III playoffs for the first time in history and was named the Freedom Football Conference Coach of the Year.
At the Academy, he coached running back James Jones, runner-up for the 1996 Gagliardi Trophy that goes to the Division III Player-of-the-Year. At Austin Peay, running back Jay Bailey led all NCAA I-AA schools in rushing. In all, he has coached eight quarterbacks who have played professionally; 13 All-Americans; and four players who have played in the Super Bowl.
Schmitz's coaching career began in 1976 at the Naval Academy Prep School where he worked with quarterbacks and receivers. From 1979-81, while fulfilling his service commitment to the U.S. Coast Guard, Schmitz was an assistant football and baseball coach at Columbia University.
Schmitz entered the collegiate football coaching ranks in 1981 when he joined Mike Gottfried's staff at Cincinnati while pursuing his master's degree. When Gottfried left UC after the 1982 season, fate intersected Schmitz's career with that of the new UC head coach: Watson Brown.
Keeping Schmitz on as an assistant, Brown opened the door to what became eight straight years of a coaching relationship between the two. Schmitz served as an assistant on Brown's staffs at Cincinnati (1983), Rice (1984-85) and Vanderbilt (1986-90).
In 1991, the tandem parted temporarily when Schmitz was named offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan. He also served as the quarterbacks and wide receivers coach of the London Monarchs in the World Football League for the 1992 campaign.
As a student-athlete at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, Schmitz played both football and baseball. As a quarterback for the Bears, he was coached by NFL Hall of Famer Otto Graham. In 2001, he was inducted into the U.S. Coast Guard Academy Athletic Hall of Fame.
Schmitz and his wife of 28 years, Lynn, have two children: Matt, 25, who was a four-year football letterwinner at Austin Peay and assistant in football operations at UAB; and Allison, 21, who is a student at the University of Tennessee.
Bill Schmitz has died aged 59 in Tampa Bay, Florida

Source: Wikipedia.org