FRANKLIN – Franklin College head football coach Alan Hensell has announced the addition of three new coaches to his staff for the upcoming 2024 season.
 
Kenny Kuzmuk is joining the Grizzlies as the new defensive coordinator with Joseph Sero coming on as the new special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. Max Longman is also joining the staff and will serve as the tight ends coach.
 
"I am excited for the additions of all three members to our coaching staff," Head coach Alan Hensell said. "All three know what it takes to succeed as former players and all bring a great deal of experience from their time as coaches as well. In addition, they'll be great role models for our players. All three have hit the ground running with spring ball and getting us ready to take the field in the fall."
 
Kuzmuk joins the Grizzlies following a three-year stint at Methodist University in Fayetteville, NC, where he coached linebackers and cornerbacks starting in 2021 before taking over as special teams coordinator in 2022. In his last season with Methodist, his special teams unit ranked second nationally in kick return yards and featured the nation's top individual in kick return average in Bryson Ausby and his 24 yards per return.
 
In 2022, he helped guide Kobe Praylow to a Second Team AFCA and AP All-American All-Purpose player and the USA South Conference Special Teams Player of the Year. Additionally, the Monarchs ranked eighth nationally in turnover margin and 10^th nationally in total turnovers gained. The year prior, he assisted with a defense that led the USA South in turnover margin and ranked 17^th nationally in turnover margin and in the spring of 2021, his secondary unit limited opponents to 121 passing yards per game in helping Methodist to a USA South East Division crown.
 
Kuzmuk got his start in coaching at Juniata College, joining the staff in 2018 as defensive backs coach before adding special teams coach and recruiting coordinator to his list of responsibilities in 2019. His playing career lasted from 2014-17 at Western New England University, where he was part of a program that went a program-best 37-7 over a four-year stretch. He helped guide the team to three conference championships, two undefeated regular seasons and the first playoff victory in program history. He graduated in May 2018 with a bachelor's degree in sport management.
 
Sero makes the journey into coaching at the college level with a wealth of coaching experience at the prep level in Indiana. He has spent the last three seasons on staff at Noblesville High School, where he was most recently the varsity special teams coordinator and linebackers coach. Other stops at the prep level include serving as special teams coordinator and co-defensive coordinator at Knightstown High School from 2020-21 and as the defensive coordinator at Clarksville High School from 2018-19. He broke into the coaching field in 2017 as an assistant coach at Penn Hills High School in Pennsylvania.
 
As a player, he suited up for Division III Geneva College from 2013-15 before transferring to Division II Seton Hill for his senior year in 2016. After his college playing days concluded, he secured tryouts as a long snapper for NFL, XFL and USFL teams and was a member of the Indianapolis Enforcers in the American Arena League from 2020-21.
 
Sero graduated from Geneva in 2015 with a bachelor's degree in sport management and obtained his MBA in sport management from Seton Hill in 2017.
 
Longman joins Franklin following the completion of his playing career, where he was a member of two Division I programs as an offensive lineman from 2019-23. Longman began his career at UMass, starting 26 games at three different positions on the line over four seasons and was a two-year offensive captain for the Minutemen. After finishing his bachelor's degree in communications in December 2022, he transferred to Indiana University for the 2023 season and made four appearances with his first start as a Hoosier coming against Louisville on Sept. 16.
 
A native of Portage, Mich., Longman is in the process of completing his master's degree in recreational therapy at Indiana.