Ironically, Marco Coleman was hired by Michigan State as “DL Coach/Defensive Run Game Coordinator”. SI ran a piece explaining the position as “he understands the run game really well and I can bounce ideas off of him”.
It looks like it’s a title in some places, and in others it’s more meaningful. If it’s meaningful, it’s “he’s specifically developing the strategies and the practice components to help us defend the run”. But, it might not be meaningful.
Here’s Mike Tomlin on what an Offensive Run Game coordinator is:
Q. What's a run game coordinator?
A. It depends on who you're talking to. In some organizations in the National Football League, it's a means of getting a quality assistant some additional money and to be competitive in a market where there's scarcity in terms of quality people. Sometimes it comes with responsibility, a guy who's a central prong, if you will, or a central assistant to the coordinator, and to developing the run aspect of a game plan. And so, there are a lot of guys who carry the title, but depending on where you are in the circumstances is whether or not it means something or not, to be quite honest with you.
Q. Let's just pretend it's somebody who's not just carrying a title. What does he do over the course of the week?
A. He helps coordinate the run game element of the plan. The selection of run plays, the identifying of schematic opportunities and issues relative to the run game in all elements of situational play: first and second downs, short-yardage, goal-line, utilization of personnel in the formulation of that plan, acknowledgement of significant matchups, meaning our Jimmys and Joes vs. their Jimmys and Joes. Coordination is what that word means – all aspects of run game development.