Calgary Stampeders general manager John Hufnagel hires son as U.S. scout

CALGARY – Calgary Stampeders general manager John Hufnagel has hired his son to be the team’s director of U.S. scouting.

Cole Hufnagel spent the past nine seasons in various roles with the NFL’s New York Jets. He most recently held the position of college area scout for western United States.

Calgary reorganized its football operations staff following the departure of director of player personnel John Murphy for the Saskatchewan Roughriders last month.

Brendan Mahoney from Cochrane, Alta., was named Canadian scout Monday and Edmonton’s Kyle Carson will be a scout as well as a football operations co-ordinator.

Mike Petrie returns for his fifth season as assistant general manager.

Hufnagel coached the Stampeders for the last eight seasons. He has stepped aside for Dave Dickenson and will continue in his role as GM of the team in 2016.

“Cole brings a wealth of scouting experience and over the years has developed many contacts south of the border while Brendan and Kyle have both shown that they are deserving of additional responsibilities in football operations,” Hufnagel said Monday in a statement.

“With head coaching duties having been turned over to Dave Dickenson, I will be able to focus more of my time and efforts on the personnel duties of the general manager’s role.”