Daniel Da Prato - Football Coach - University of Minnesota Athletics

Daniel Da Prato

Title:
Special Teams Coordinator

Daniel Da Prato joined the University of Minnesota football staff as Special Teams Coordinator in late December 2025.

Da Prato comes to Minnesota after serving as Associate Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator at New Mexico in 2025. He has more than 20 years of coaching experience and is considered one of the best coaches for special teams. He has coached five All-Americans and three Lou Groza Award semifinalists.

While with the Lobos, Da Prato coached numerous special teams standouts in kick returner Damon Bankston, kicker Luke Drzewiecki, punter Daniel Hughes and punt returner D.J. McKinney.

Bankston was named All-Mountain First Team as he returned 12 kickoffs for 434 yards. He averaged 36.2 yards per return and returned two kickoffs for touchdowns.

Drzewiecki made 18-of-19 field goals last season and Hughes averaged 45.4 yards per punt and recorded only two touchbacks as both were named All-Mountain West Honorable Mention.

McKinney led New Mexico with five punt returns for 73 yards (14.6 average) and one touchdown.

Prior to New Mexico, Da Prato spent the 2023-24 seasons at Texas State as the Associate Head Coach and Special Teams Coordinator.

In 2023, Texas State improved right away as the program led the entire country in total kick return yards (1,017) and was fifth in the nation in yards per kick return (26.08). The Bobcats were also tied with Auburn for the nation’s best field goal percentage (a perfect 100 percent).

The Bobcats improved 105 spots in the national rankings in kick return average from 2022 to 2023, returning two kickoffs for touchdowns, a first for the program since 2013. Texas State had a total of seven kickoffs returned for more than 30 yards during the season. Kicker Mason Shipley was a perfect 15-of-15 in field goals and the first-year starter set the program record for most field goals made in a season and was one of only two kickers in the country to make all his field goals (min. 10 attempts).

Ismail Mahdi was named a first team All-American as an all-purpose player – he led the nation in all-purpose yards in 2023 – while Shipley was a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, which is given to the nation’s top placekicker. Mahdi marked Da Prato’s fifth All-American in his career, including in three straight seasons from 2021-23. Shipley was a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, marking the third different school that Da Prato has coached a Lou Groza Award semifinalist.

In his two years with Texas State, the Bobcats led the nation in field goal percentage (2023) and total kickoff return yards (2023). Additionally, Texas State finished second in kickoff return touchdowns (tied, 2023), third in total punt return yards (2024), fourth in punt return average (2024), blocked kicks (2024), and fifth in touchbacks (2024) and kickoff return average (2023).

Da Prato was at USF from 2020-22 and was the Special Teams Coordinator and he also spent the final months of his tenure there are interim head coach.

In three seasons at USF, Da Prato coached consensus All-American Brian Battie, who helped the Bulls rank No. 1 in the country in kickoff return touchdowns from 2021-22. Battie was named Third Team All-America by Phil Steele in 2022, and he was a consensus All-American in 2021. Battie and Jimmy Horn, Jr. combined for four kickoff return touchdowns over the two seasons to lift USF to the top of the country in that category.

In the 2021 season, ESPN ranked the USF Special Teams unit as the ninth-most efficient group in the country. The Bulls tied an NCAA record with two 100-yard returns in the same game.

Battie set a school record with a 33.9-yard kickoff return average while punt returner Xavier Weaver averaged 12.9 yards per return, which would have ranked sixth in the nation if he qualified with two more punt returns. The Bulls finished the season ranked among the top three in the American Athletic Conference in PAT percentage, field goal percentage, kickoff coverage, kickoff returns, and punt returns.

USF’s kicker was Spencer Shrader, who was named a semifinalist for the Lou Groza Award, giving Da Prato his second career semifinalist.

Additionally, Da Prato was also named co-interim defensive coordinator with Ernie Sims for the final game of USF’s 2021 season against UCF. USF’s defense held the Knights to 17 points, 12 first downs, and 285 yards, well below their season average, in a close game in Orlando.

He spent the 2019 season at Arkansas and was the Special Teams Quality Control before being elevated to Special Teams Coordinator toward the end of the season. The Razorbacks’ special teams excelled that year, ranking 10th in the nation in kickoff coverage (17.29 yards per return allowed) and 20th in punt return defense. At Arkansas, placekicker Connor Limpert was named a Lou Groza Award semifinalist, giving Da Prato his first semifinalist.

Da Prato spent the 2016-18 seasons at Colorado as Director of Quality Control / Offense. He also served as a replacement coach on the recruiting trail in December 2016 and January 2017, and again in January 2018. For the Buffaloes, he assisted the offensive coaching staff in its planning and implementation of the weekly practice and game plans. He was also heavily involved in game planning for the special teams, with a specific area of concentration on punt block and kickoff return. The Buffaloes, under Da Prato, registered their first blocked punt in eight seasons in 2017, and they returned their first punt for a touchdown in 11 years in 2016.

Montana State was home for Da Prato for the 2013-15 seasons, as he was the Special Teams Coordinator and Tight Ends Coach. In those three years, Da Prato coached a pair of All-Americans at tight end in Beau Sandland, who was named Second Team AP FCS All-American in 2015, and Shawn Johnson, who was named Third Team All-American by The Sports Network in 2013. Johnson returned two kickoffs for touchdowns and averaged 31.0 yards on 22 kick returns (fourth in the nation). He also had a punt return for a touchdown and ranked fifth in the country with 13.9 yards per punt return.

Da Prato was at Sacramento State from 2007-12. He coached wide receivers for all six seasons and was the Special Teams Coordinator for the final three seasons. In 2008, he guided wide receiver Tony Washington to third-team All-America honors by The Sports Network. Washington, who only played two seasons at Sacramento State, was one of just 11 players in school history to catch more than 100 career passes. He averaged 73.6 receiving yards per game, ranking third in Hornet history, and set a program season record with 83 receptions in 2008, while his 1,279 receiving yards ranked as the second-most ever by a Hornet.

Da Prato started his coaching career in 2004 at his alma mater, ULM, serving as a graduate assistant for the offense for two seasons before being named Director of Operations and Recruiting Coordinator prior to the 2006 season.

Da Prato played college football at three different schools. He started his career in 2000 at New Mexico Highlands (located in Las Vegas, Nevada) playing quarterback for his father, who was the head coach. He then attended Chabot Junior College in 2001, where he earned honorable mention All-Conference honors before playing the 2002-03 seasons at ULM.