What Is Coach's First Name?

Coach, real name Ernie Tagliaboo, is a supporting character on FOX comedy New Girl. He is portrayed by Damon Wayans Jr.

Why do they call him Coach New Girl?

The reason that Coach's character wasn't recast is that the series planned to bring him back in later seasons, and his leave after the first episode wasn't planned. When Damon was initially cast for New Girl, he was already under contract with the show Happy Endings.

Why was Coach only in the pilot?

If showrunners wanted to replace Wayans Jr. with another character, they would have been stuck with reshooting most of the pilot episode, so they decided to simply keep Wayans Jr.'s character of Coach, and just introduce another character named Winston in the second episode, who picked up much of the slack.