Longtime NFL defensive coach Paul Guenther was announced as the Rebels’ associate head coach on March 7, 2025.
Guenther (GUN-ther), who also oversees the UNLV safeties, has coached 21 seasons in the NFL with five different teams, including spending the 2024 season as the defensive run game coordinator with the Dallas Cowboys. A senior defensive assistant with the Minnesota Vikings in 2021, Guenther spent the preceding three seasons as the defensive coordinator for the Raiders, including during the franchise’s first year in Las Vegas in 2020.
Previously, Guenther served 13 years in various roles with the Cincinnati Bengals, helping the team win four AFC North titles (2005, 2009, 2013 and 2015) and reach the postseason seven times, including a franchise-record five straight trips to the playoffs from 2011-15.
As the Bengals' defensive coordinator from 2014-17, Guenther guided a unit that ranked fifth in points allowed per game (20.1) over that time span and ranked in the top-10 in two separate seasons, finishing second in 2015 with a franchise-record 17.4 PPG and eighth in 2016 (19.7). His 2015 squad also set the team’s single-season record for yards allowed with 92.3 per game. Guenther also coached his defensive players to eight Pro Bowl selections as the team's defensive coordinator. The Bengals also limited opposing passers to just an 80.1 quarterback rating in his four years at the helm of the defense, ranking first in the NFL over that span.
He spent two seasons from 2012-13 as the team's linebackers coach, helping guide undrafted free agent LB Vontaze Burfict to a Pro Bowl selection in 2013. Under his direction in 2013, the linebacking corps helped the defense finish third in the NFL in total defense (305.5 YPG) and tied for fifth in scoring defense (19.1 PPG).
From 2005-11, Guenther assisted on special teams each season, while also working with the Bengal linebackers from 2005-10 and the defensive backs in 2011.
Guenther entered the NFL coaching ranks as an offensive assistant with the Washington Redskins from 2002-03. From 1997-2000, he was the head coach at his alma mater, Ursinus College, located in Collegeville, Pennsylvania. At age 25, Guenther was the youngest head coach in college football in 1997 and would lead the program to the Division III playoffs in 1999 and 2000.
Prior to joining Ursinus as an assistant coach in 1996, Guenther coached at Western Maryland for two seasons from 1994-95.
A native of Richboro, Pennsylvania., Guenther played linebacker at Ursinus, setting a school record for career tackles, while earning all-conference honors three times. He graduated with his bachelor’s degree from the school in 1994 and would later earn a master’s in athletic administration from Western Maryland.
GUENTHER’S COACHING FILE
2025-PR UNLV – Associate Head Coach, Safeties
2024 Dallas Cowboys – Defensive Run Game Coordinator
2021 Minnesota Vikings – Senior Defensive Assistant Coach
2020 Las Vegas Raiders – Defensive Coordinator
2018-19 Oakland Raiders – Defensive Coordinator
2014-17 Cincinnati Bengals – Defensive Coordinator
2012-13 Cincinnati Bengals – Linebackers
2011 Cincinnati Bengals – Assistant Defensive Backs & Assistant Special Teams
2006-10 Cincinnati Bengals – Assistant Linebackers & Assistant Special Teams
2004-05 Cincinnati Bengals – Staff Assistant Coach
2002-03 Washington Redskins – Offensive Assistant/Quality Control
1997-2000 Ursinus – Head Coach
1996 Ursinus – Assistant Coach
1994-95 Western Maryland – Assistant Coach
