DALLAS, TEXAS - SMU football coach Phil Bennett completed his coaching staff today when he announced the hiring of three coaches to his staff. Bob Fello and Jim Gush, both previously at Kansas State, and Clarence James, most recently at Kansas, have joined the Mustang program.

"These three hires complete, what I think, is an outstanding staff," said Bennett. "I have coached with Bob and Jim the last three years and I coached with Clarence at Oklahoma in 1998. They all have great football minds and our familiarity with each other with certainly help the program. They all have recruited the state of Texas previously and that is extremely important."

Fello, who coached defensive ends at Kansas State, will serve as assistant head coach at SMU while also tutoring the interior defensive line. His 25-year college and professional coaching career includes stops as defensive coordinator at James Madison (1998), Kansas (1991-94) and Kent (1978-80). He has also coached at TCU and with the Chicago Blitz of the United States Football League. He was a three-year starter at Kent and graduated from the school in 1974.

Gush coached linebackers at Kansas State the last three years and will serve as defensive coordinator while also coaching linebackers at SMU. He was the head coach at Garden City (Kan.) Community College from 1996-98 and the defensive coordinator there from 1986-95. Prior to that he worked at Iowa State and Albany State. The 1981 graduate of Bucknell was a four-year starter at the school.

James will coach wide receivers at SMU after serving as the wide receivers coach at Kansas last year. He was the wide receivers coach at Oklahoma from 1992-98, at Texas from 1987-92 and served at Texas Tech from 1981-87 as defensive ends then wide receivers coach. He also coached defensive ends at North Texas from 1978-81. He is a 1973 graduate of Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma.