Ben Hammer enters his fourth season as defensive coordinator of the Oberlin College football team after being hired in March 2023.
In his first season, he led Brandon Hall to All-NCAC third-team honors in 2023. Over the following two seasons, Hammer coached Hunter Green to back-to-back All-NCAC Third-Team accolades in 2024 and 2025, leading Green to finish second in program history in career tackles with 354.
Before coming to Oberlin, Hammer spent the previous four seasons (2019-22) as a graduate assistant defensive line coach at Northwestern University, helping the Wildcats earn the Big Ten West Division Championship in 2020. During that season, the Wildcats led the Big Ten in scoring defense at 15.9 points per game and passing defense at 195.9 yards per game.
Prior to his time in Evanston, Illinois, Hammer was a graduate assistant coach at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he worked with the team's linebackers and special teams for the 2017 season. From 2013-17, he held various coaching positions at Western New Mexico University (NCAA Division II), eventually holding the roles of assistant head coach, special teams coordinator, linebackers coach, and video coordinator at the time of his departure.
Hammer has additional international experience, having coached for numerous clubs in Germany. His last overseas position was as the head coach, defensive coordinator, and special teams coordinator of the Kirchdorf Wildcats from September 2011 through May 2012.
Hammer graduated from Western New Mexico in the spring of 2017 with degrees in marketing and business management. He earned a graduate degree in leadership studies from UTEP in 2019 and earned a second master's degree in sports administration from Northwestern in 2021.
