After a few years away from lacrosse to pursue his NFL dreams, Jared Bernhardt is back at Maryland as the program’s director of player development, the school announced Thursday.

The 2021 Tewaaraton Award winner and 2017 national champion was an NFL preseason hero and even earned some snaps on the Atlanta Falcons during the regular season, but he wasn’t able to carve out a consistent role on the gridiron — although a groin injury didn’t help.

In a press release, Maryland said Bernhardt will assist players by preparing them for personal, academic and athletic development success. 

“We are super excited to welcome Jared Bernhardt back to College Park and to have him on our staff,” head coach John Tillman said. “Jared is a fantastic person with a long history of success at every level in multiple sports. We are looking forward to him being able to share his wealth of experiences and mentor our players to help them grow in all areas of their lives. We are ecstatic to have him join our program and we cannot wait to watch him grow in his new role.”

Bernhardt left Maryland as the program’s leader in points and goals (both of which have since been broken by Logan Wisnauskas), finishing with 76 games played, 290 career points, 202 goals, 88 assists and 105 ground balls. He still holds program records for goals in a single NCAA tournament (18) and points in a single NCAA tournament (24). 

After graduating in 2021, Bernhardt won a national football championship with Division II powerhouse Ferris State as the team’s starting quarterback. In April of 2022, Bernhardt signed with the Falcons as an undrafted free agent at wide receiver. Bernhardt was part of the Falcons organization for the entire 2022-23 season before medically retiring.

Bernhardt joins his two older brothers, Jake and Jesse Bernhardt, who both serve as assistant coaches at Maryland.