Monday, November 28, 2011

Potential Kansas Head Coach Options

Kevin Sumlin, Head Coach Houston
·         Indianapolis native who was a linebacker at Purdue from 1983-1986
·         Has worked in PAC 12 (Washington State), Big 10 (Purdue and Minnesota), and Big 12 (Texas A&M and Oklahoma) before accepting the head coaching position at Houston in 2008
·         Has won 35 games in four years at Houston including a 12-0 season this year.
·         One of the hottest names in college football who will be in contention for the Arizona State, UCLA, and Illinois jobs as well.

Brent Venables, DC/LB Coach Oklahoma
·         Kansas native who has spent his entire coaching career at Kansas State under Bill Snyder and at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops:  quite the pedigree
·         Kansas AD Sheahon Zenger is obviously looking for a big splash hire and Venables has been one of the hottest coordinators in college football for a very long time now
·         Zenger also has connections to coaches who have direct relationships with people who are friends with Venables

Todd Monken, OC/QB Coach Oklahoma State
·         Wheaton, IL native who has worked in the Big 12 for four seasons
·         Worked as WR Coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars for four years after spending the previous five seasons as WR coach under Les Miles at LSU and Oklahoma State.
·         I believe this name is a bit of a stretch with no real connection to Kansas; however, he is a very hot name in college football right now and will most certainly have his name brought up

Larry Fedora, Head Coach Southern Miss
·         Texas native who has spent time in SEC with Florida and Big 12 with Baylor and Oklahoma State
·         Possible favorite to land Ole Miss job
·         Has won 32 games in four seasons at Southern Miss including 10 wins this season
·         Revered offensive mind who is one of the hottest coaching names in college football

Mike Leach, former Head Coach Texas Tech
·         No place does Leach make more sense than at Kansas.  He has a relationship with Zenger from a magazine that Zenger created.  Ever since Zenger interviewed Leach for his magazine they have become close friends
·         Zenger has to have a short list in order to justify his quick decision to fire Turner Gill and expect him to move quickly

Jim Leavitt, LB Coach San Francisco 49ers
·         Florida native who worked with Zenger for a long time at Kansas State and then hired him as recruiting coordinator on his staff at South Florida in the inaugural year of the program
·         Only had two losing seasons in his 13 seasons as head coach at South Florida winning 94 games.  He was fired after the 2009 season after allegations of abuse of his players
·         Again, Zenger has a short list and there is no way that Leavitt is off that list considering their relationship; however, his allegations at South Florida will raise eyebrows with the Kansas faithful

Mike Stoops, former Head Coach Arizona
·         Ohio native who worked with Zenger at Kansas State
·         Fired from Arizona midway through the year this year after winning 41 games over 7 ½ years.
·         Excellent defensive mind that has history with Zenger.  Many question he has the demeanor to be a successful head coach but he recruited Texas well at Arizona and could possibly put together a solid staff at Kansas

Vic Koenning, (Interim) Head Coach Illinois
·         Oklahoma native who played LB at Kansas State
·         Worked as DC at Wyoming while Zenger was there as assistant to head coach
·         Many believe didn’t deserve to be fired at Clemson, was revered at Troy as top defensive mind in football, and has done a fantastic job this season at Illinois (check stats, I know Zook was fired, but it wasn’t because of the defense)
·         Has head coaching experience although he only won five games in three seasons at Wyoming…wouldn’t be “sexy” hire that most believe Zenger is after

Mark Stoops, DC/DB Coach Florida State
·         Youngest of the Stoops brother who worked with Zenger at South Florida and Wyoming
·         Excellent defensive mind who has worked at Miami (FL), Arizona, and now Florida State
·         Most definitely ready for his opportunity and could put together an impressive staff

June Jones, Head Coach SMU
·         Has been head coach for the Atlanta Falcons, Hawaii, and has spent the last three seasons at Southern Methodist
·         He is a proven winner who has won 99 games in 13 years as head coach including three 10 win seasons at Hawaii and has resurrected the SMU program leading them to three straight winning records and most likely third straight bowl game
·         Has recruited Texas very well the last three seasons

Dave Doeren, Head Coach Northern Illinois
·         Kansas native who spent four years as assistant under Mark Mangino at Kansas.
·         Spent five seasons at Wisconsin as defensive coordinator under Bret Bielema
·         Excellent recruiter who has won 9 games in his first year as head coach at Northern Illinois

Sonny Dykes, Head Coach Louisiana Tech
·         Texas native who is revered as top offensive mind in football learning from Mike Leach and Hal Mumme
·         Well respected OC who did a great job at Arizona while there as OC
·         Has won 13 games in two seasons including 8 this year receiving birth to Poinsettia Bowl


Potential Illinois Head Coach Options

Butch Jones, Head Coach Cincinnati
·         Michigan native who has won 39 games in five seasons as Head Coach at Central Michigan and Cincinnati
·         Mike Thomas, Illinois AD, hired him once as Cincinnati head coach
·         Has recruited very well at Central Michigan and Cincinnati, especially the state of Florida

Brent Venables, DC/LB Coach Oklahoma
·         Kansas native who has spent his entire coaching career at Kansas State under Bill Snyder and at Oklahoma under Bob Stoops:  quite the pedigree
·         Has been rumored to be in the running for multiple jobs for about five or six years now and a report surfaced that Venables would get an interview at a BCS school in the next couple weeks…the only school that I have seen mentioned was Illinois

Steve Addazio, Head Coach Temple
·         Connecticut native who spent three years as assistant at Notre Dame (1999-2001) and three years at Indiana as OC (2002-2004)
·         Urban Meyer disciple who was named interim head coach at Florida while Urban took his hiatus before the 2010 season
·         Has done a nice job at Temple this season winning 8 games in his first season as head coach

Kirby Wilson, RB Coach Pittsburgh Steelers
·         Long time NFL assistant working for New England, Washington, Tampa Bay, Arizona, and has spent the last five seasons as RB coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers.  He has two super bowl rings that would look awful appealing to recruits
·         Los Angeles native who was part of Mike White’s excellent Illinois teams in the early 1980s.
·         Rumors are that he was in Champaign a couple weeks ago for a game possibly lobbying boosters to support him for this position.  He was rumored to be very interested when Ron Zook was given the job in 2005

Sal Sunseri, Assistant Head Coach/LB Coach Alabama
·         Up for Broyles Award for top assistant in the country this year
·         Longtime Pittsburgh assistant that brings a resume in that includes working for Nick Saban for four years.
·         Anyone who works for Saban knows how to coach, win games, and recruit

Paul Chryst, OC/QB Coach Wisconsin
·         Another hot assistant who has done a tremendous job at Wisconsin
·         He is a Midwest guy who hails from Madison, WI and went to school at Purdue
·         Runs a smash mouth, run first offense that has pro-style tendencies

Todd Monken, OC/QB Coach Oklahoma State
·         Wheaton, IL native whose father was a very highly respected high school coach in the suberbs
·         Worked as WR Coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars for four years after spending the previous five seasons as WR coach under Les Miles at LSU and Oklahoma State.
·         Has background in pro-style offenses as well as spread.  It will be interesting to see what he sells to Mike Thomas (if given an opportunity) as to what offense he would bring in

Larry Fedora, Head Coach Southern Miss
·         Texas native who has spent time in SEC with Florida and Big 12 with Baylor and Oklahoma State
·         Considered very good offensive mind and once accepted OC job at Illinois before leaving a week later to take the OC job at Oklahoma State
·         Possible favorite to land Ole Miss job
·         Has won 32 games in four seasons at Southern Miss including 10 wins this season

Kevin Sumlin, Head Coach Houston
·         Indianapolis native who was a linebacker at Purdue from 1983-1986
·         Has worked in PAC 12 (Washington State), Big 10 (Purdue and Minnesota), and Big 12 (Texas A&M and Oklahoma) before accepting the head coaching position at Houston in 2008
·         Has won 35 games in four years at Houston including a 12-0 season this year.
·         One of the hottest names in college football who will be in contention for the Arizona State, UCLA, and Kansas jobs as well.

Willie Taggart, Head Coach Western Kentucky
·         Played for Jack Harbaugh at Western Kentucky on their national championship team and worked for Jim Harbaugh for three seasons at Stanford.
·         Florida native who has recruited the sunshine state better than most Big 10 and ACC schools.  (No. 1 recruiting class in Sun Belt in 2009 and 2010)
·         Turned around a Western Kentucky program that had struggled winning only 4 games in the previous three seasons….he lead the program to seven wins this season.

Tim Beckman, Head Coach Toledo
·         Ohio native who has worked at Auburn, Bowling Green, Ohio State, and Oklahoma State.
·         21 wins in three seasons as head coach at Toledo including 8 wins the last two years including wins over Colorado and Purdue.  He almost beat Ohio State this year.
·         Has had the top recruiting class in the MAC conference the previous two seasons

Dave Christensen, Head Coach Wyoming
·         Washington native who spent seven years at Toledo under Gary Pinkel and then 12 more years under Pinkel at Missouri
·         Pioneered Missouri’s spread offensive attack that has been one of the nation’s best the past few years
·         Has won 17 wins at Wyoming including seven wins in his first year going to a bowl game and will most likely receive a bowl berth again this year

Ron English, Head Coach Eastern Michigan
·         California native who was an assistant at Arizona State (5 years), Michigan (5 years including two seasons as DC), and Louisville
·         Has been the head coach at the woeful Eastern Michigan program since 2009 winning 8 games in three seasons
·         The last time an Eastern Michigan football team won 6 games was 1995…he has done an outstanding job turning around this program

Skip Holtz, Head Coach South Florida
·         Son of legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz has been a for 12 seasons including stints at Connecticut, East Carolina, and currently at South Florida
·         He has won 85 games in 12 seasons as head coach  2 Conf. USA Championships and 5 bowl games
·         Currently sitting at 1-5 in the Big East doesn’t make him the most appealing candidate; however, he was a finalist for the Cincinnati job when Illinois AD (AD at Cincinnati at the time) Mike Thomas hired Butch Jones as head coach

Mike Leach, former Head Coach Texas Tech
·         His name is mentioned with every open job in American; however, his name hasn’t had much mention when it comes to this job
·         He wants to coach and is probably willing to take any BCS conference job that he can so you can’t rule him out

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Fired College Football Coaches and Potential other coaches to follow

School                Former Coach          New Coach
New Mexico                        Mike Locksley (George Barlow)      Bob Davie
Ohio State                           Jim Tressell (Luke Fickell)               (Most likely Urban Meyer)
Illinois                                 Ron Zook
Washington State                 Paul Wulff
Tulane                                Bob Toledo (Mark Hutson)
Penn State                           Joe Paterno (Tom Bradley)
Arizona State                       Dennis Erickson
Arizona                               Mike Stoops (Tim Kish)                   Rich Rodriguez
Florida Atlantic                    Howard Schnellenberger
Akron                                 Rob Ianello
Mississippi                          Houston Nutt
North Carolina                    (Everett Withers)

Potential Coaches to be fired in coming days
Rick Neuheisal, UCLA
Turner Gill, Kansas
Tommy Tuberville, Texas Tech
Mike Sherman, Texas A&M
Neil Callaway, UAB
Mike Price, UTEP
David Bailiff, Rice
Steve Fairchild, Colorado State
Derek Dooley, Tennessee
Rick Stockstill, Middle Tennessee
Larry Blakeney, Troy
Robb Akey, Idaho
Pat Hill, Fresno State
Danny Hope, Purdue
Gary Pinkel, Missouri

Washington State Head Football Coach Potential Candidates

Washington State Names

Mike Bellotti, former Oregon AD and Head Football Coach
·         Pretty well established that Bellotti wants back in the game, but most agree that Bellotti has his sights set on UCLA or Arizona State.
·         If things fall through and it doesn’t look like he is going to get either of these jobs then look for him to make a run at the Wazzou job
·         Excellent football coach that built a program at Oregon based on the fundamentals…they played great defense, were solid on special teams, made best hire in football bringing in Chip Kelly as OC back in 2005.
·         Bill Moos, AD at Washington State was the AD at Oregon who hired Bellotti as head coach at Oregon

Mike Leach, former Texas Tech Head Football Coach
·         This is an obvious name that will be involved with every head coaching search
·         Washington State would be thrilled to get their hands on him and would bring definite credibility to a program that has been stagnant for many, many years
·         There are reasons why he is never given an opportunity, he has an  interesting personality and seems to be dismissed from contention from every job once AD’s start to research him and ask other people questions
·         This is the type of job that Leach would excel at considering the location.  He needs a quirky place that his outlandish personality doesn’t stick out

Rich Ellerson, Head Coach Army
·         Ellerson is from Arizona and spent eight years as an assistant at Arizona
·         Former head coach at Cal Poly where he won 3 conference championships in eight years and had only one losing season
·         Runs triple option offense that could scare off potential suitors; however, with Paul Johnson having success at Georgia Tech, look for people to give Ellerson a legitimate look.
·         He has accomplished making Army relevant again after leading them to a bowl game and winning the Armed Forces bowl in 2010.
·         It was rumored that Ellerson interviewed very well for Washington job when it was given to Steve Sarkisian in 2009.

Ken Niumatalolo, Head Coach Navy
·         Hawaii native who took over for Paul Johnson in 2008 as head coach at Navy
·         Runs the double slot option offense that Paul Johnson is having success with at Georgia Tech….for those doubters, these guys really know this offense and it would work at the major level
·         31-21 career record and a 10 win season in 2009
·         One negative is the 4-7 record that Navy had this year, but he is very well respected around the country and should definitely be given an interview

Dave Christensen, Head Coach Wyoming
·         Washington native who played at University of Washington
·         Well revered as top offensive mind in college football that pioneered Missouri’s spread offensive attack that led them to national prowess.
·         Has done a fantastic job turning around stagnant Wyoming program leading them to 7 wins this season leading them to two straight bowl games after the program had only reached a bowl game once in the last 10 seasons

Troy Calhoun, Head Coach Air Force
·         Oregon native
·         Highly respected coach who has turned down more lucrative jobs in the past (Tennessee) to remain at his alma mater which is Air Force
·         Former NFL assistant who does run the option attack at Air Force, but if he were to get hired at a BCS school look for Calhoun to bring in a pro-style offense as he OC for the Houston Texans and worked under Mike Shanahan at Denver for three years
·         Calhoun has never won less than 8 games in a season until this year where they sit at 7 wins on the season awaiting to see if he can lead his team to their 5th straight bowl appearance

Sonny Dykes, Head Coach Louisiana Tech
·         Was well respected around the PAC-12 while OC at Arizona for three seasons
·         Texas native who could open up some recruiting lines from the state
·         Had a great season this year, leading Louisiana Tech to an 8-4 record and birth in the Poinsettia Bowl
·         Considered top offensive mind in football, he has worked extensively for Mike Leach

Jim McElwain, OC/QB Coach Alabama
·         Montana native who spent 15 years in the state of Washington playing quarterback then coaching for Eastern Washington
·         A great pro-style offensive mind who hasn’t exactly lit it up with results at Alabama, but when Nick Saban hires you as his offensive coordinator and hangs onto you for multiple seasons….you are a great coach
·         One note that I will never forget about McElwain is in 2007 while he was at Fresno State they played Georgia Tech in a bowl game.  Georgia Tech’s defense under Jon Tenuta was one of the best in the country and was extremely aggressive and blitzed on every down.  McElwain took an undermanned offense and stayed in a five wide receiver set to limit Tenuta’s ability to blitz him and shelled Tech’s defense for 40 points.  I was not the only person to take notice as Nick Saban hired him as his OC about three weeks later.

Mark Helfrich, OC/QB Coach Oregon
·         Oregon native who has spent five seasons at Arizona State and the last three seasons as OC of the high powered spread option attack at Oregon
·         Well respected around the west coast as an offensive mind who learned mostly under Dirk Koetter
·         Comes from a pro-style offensive background that he ran as OC at Colorado, but appears to be very involved in the Oregon offense even though it is obvious that Chip Kelly still calls most of the plays

Robin Pflugard, Head Coach Montana
·         Five year Washington State assistant who is an Oregon native.
·         Has won 16 games in two seasons after taking over for Bobby Hauck at Montana
·         Worked under Bellotti at Oregon from 2006-2008 while Moos was still the athletic director at Oregon
·         Excellent recruiting ties up and down the west coast

Ron Caragher, Head Coach San Diego
·         California native who spent nine seasons as assistant at UCLA after playing QB for the program
·         Has had three 9 win seasons (including this season following two losing seasons) in five years as head coach at San Diego after taking over for Jim Harbaugh

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Contact Info

Email me scoop, thoughts, suggestions at cfcoachingnews@yahoo.com
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Discuss anything and everything college football at cfcoachingnews.aimoo.com

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Coaching Rumor tidbits heading into Thanksgiving

·         Look for Rich Rodriguez to have three of four staff members in place by the end of next week.  The most likely of these candidates appear to be:
1.      Calvin Magee, Co-OC/RB Coach Pittsburgh
2.      Tony Gibson, DB Coach Pittsburgh
3.      Greg Frey, OL Coach Indiana
4.      The fourth option could be one of the following:
§  Tony Dews, TE Coach Pittsburgh
§  Travis Trickett, TE/Slot WR Coach Samford
§  Bruce Tall, DC UNC-Charlotte
§  Jeff Casteel, DC West Virginia
I believe the first three will definitely be hired and the fourth coach is less likely to be finalized by the end of next week.

·         The Ole Miss coaching search has been quite secretive and I keep getting mixed vibes in the direction they are going.  They seem to not be interested in some of the hot names out there (Mike Leach and Kevin Sumlin) and sources have been limited when regarding prospects.  At the same time, Ole Miss has told their entire coaching staff to clear out their offices by Monday leading some to believe that they will move quickly next week in naming their next head coach.  Having said that, expect Gus Malzahn and Art Briles to be in this search to end and as of right now, I believe Art Briles will be named the next head football coach at Ole Miss.

·         Tulane appears to be heading in the assistant direction route as far as interviews go at this point.  Burton Burns and Frank Wilson appear to be in line for interviews and I think Calvin Magee and Major Applewhite may get looks as well.  All four candidates are Louisiana natives and only Major Applewhite (Baton Rouge) doesn’t hail from New Orleans.  Tim Brewster is still a wild card in this search and I don’t expect a decision to be made until December.

·         Florida Atlantic has been aggressive and they have narrowed down their options to Terry Bowden (North Alabama HC), Jason Phillips (Assoc. HC/Co-OC/WR Coach Houston), Eddie Gran (Assoc. HC/RB Coach/STC Florida State), and Chuck Amato (former NC State HC and longtime Florida State assistant).  There are many reports saying that Jason Phillips is the favorite to land this job.  This is an interesting development due to the fact that Phillips (a Houston native and alum) would definitely be seen as the heir apparent to Kevin Sumlin at Houston if Sumlin were to leave.  Does he wait it out at Houston or does he jump at the opportunity in Boca Raton?

·         All signs at North Carolina point to Skip Holtz with his relationship with their AD.  I look for this to happen after next week at the earliest.  Everette Withers will not go down without a fight and expect him to be in serious contention to the end.  Kevin Sumlin has been linked to this job as well.  This is one of many coaching searches that will really heat up after Thanksgiving.

·         Akron is still in the early stages of their coaching search, but expect them to at least make a run at Luke Fickell if he is not named head coach at Ohio state.  Also expect Carl Pelini (DC at Nebraska) to get an interview as well as Pat Narduzzi (DC at Michigan State).  Top assistant coaches is where the attainable talent is for Akron, however, after hiring a couple failed top flight assistants, they may look to lower levels or out of work experienced head coaches to head their program.  More information will follow in the coming weeks.

·         Penn State is still in the aftershock stage of everything that has happened with their football program and hasn’t had much room to breathe when it comes to their search for their next head coach.  Expect Al Golden to talk with Penn State about the opportunity; however this seems too obvious and too much of a lateral move for it to actually happen.  Only time will tell where Penn State will go with this search and how many coaches will actually turn them down considering all the allegations the university if facing.  As much as they have kept wrapped up the last twenty years, expect their coaching search to be very secretive.

·         Expect Arizona State, Illinois, and Washington State to fire their respective head coaches next week. 

·         I hope all of you have a great Thanksgiving and continue to check back for information and news as it develops over this long weekend.

Urban Meyer's Assistant Coach Wish List

Chuck Heater, DC Temple
·         Assistant under Meyer at Utah and Florida
·         Highly regarded as top DB coach in country
·         Tiffin, OH native who is an excellent recruiter but is Michigan Alum
·         Has done terrific job this year at Temple
·         Has worked at Ohio State in past (1985-87)

Scott Loeffler, OC/QB Coach Temple
·         Barberton, OH native who is Michigan Alum (this is a negative)
·         Former Michigan, Central Michigan, and Florida assistant
·         Also worked with the Detroit Lions

Sean Cronin, DL Coach Temple
·         Attended perennial power Cincinnati Moeller (OH) HS
·         Graduate assistant under Meyer at Florida
·         Has worked under Addazio and Holliday at Temple and Marshall

Justin Frye, OL Coach Temple
·         Former Indiana offensive lineman and is from the state
·         Former GA under Meyer at Florida and played for Addazio at Indiana

Zach Smith, WR Coach/STC Temple
·         Dublin, OH native who played for Urban Meyer at Bowling Green
·         Worked for Meyer as GA at Florida and has worked for Holliday and Addazio ever since.

D.J. Durkin, LB Coach/STC Florida
·         Worked under Meyer as GA at Bowling Green and as LB coach at Florida
·         I believe Durkin is one of the fast rising assistant coaches in the country
·         Did a fantastic job with the special teams at Florida this year

Brian White, RB Coach Florida
·         Worked under Meyer at Florida and spent 12 years in the Big 10 at Wisconsin

Anthony Weaver, LB Coach North Texas
·         Killeen, TX native who played at Notre Dame while Urban was there and worked under Meyer at Florida as GA

Vance Bedford, DC Louisville
·         Former Texas defensive back and NFL assistant
·         Worked with Meyer at Colorado State and under him at Florida
·         Charlie Strong heir apparent who has coordinated a defense that has only given up 30 points once all season (West Virginia)
·         Was Michigan’s DB Coach from 1995-1998

Kenny Carter, RB Coach/STC Louisville
·         Former assistant under Meyer at Florida
·         Worked in the Big 10 at Penn State coaching their WR’s

Mike Sanford, Former OC at Louisville
·         Probably a stretch and most likely headed to New Mexico as OC
·         Worked with Meyer at Notre Dame (97-98) and under Meyer at Utah

Zach Azzani, OC/WR Coach Western Kentucky
·         Former Bowling Green GA under Meyer
·         Michigan native who coached WR’s/PGC for Meyer at Florida in 2010
·         Has done a nice job running pro-style offense (coming from a spread background) for Western Kentucky

 Tony Alford, WR Coach Notre Dame
·         Grew up in Akron, OH before moving to Colorado Springs in high school
·         Played under Meyer at Colorado State

John Peterson, TE Coach/RC Ohio State
·         Current Ohio State coach that will probably be retained
·         Possibly becoming OL Coach?

Stan Drayton, WR Coach Ohio State
·         Former assistant under Meyer at Florida who will most certainly be retained

Paul Haynes, Co-DC/S Coach Ohio State
·         Columbus native who will look to be retained

Luke Fickell, Interim Head Coach Ohio State
·         Columbus native and Ohio State alum who I think would be more than happy to serve as Meyer’s DC if rumors serve to be true
·         He may be looking at getting a Head Coaching gig in the MAC at possibly Akron or another school such as Toledo or Bowling Green if those jobs open up

Taver Johnson, CB Coach Ohio State
·         Cincinnati native who was a GA at Notre Dame in 1999 while Meyer was there as an assistant

Nick Siciliano, QB Coach Ohio State
·         Good pedigree as a GA or QC under Jim Tressell and Bob Stoops at Youngstown State, Ohio State, and Oklahoma

Mike Vrabel, LB Coach Ohio State
·         Akron native who essentially retired from football to coach at Ohio State, he will definitely want retained

Tommy Thigpen, S Coach Auburn
·         Former assistant under Meyer at Bowling Green
·         Big 10 experience spending 2 seasons at Illinois
·         Some Auburn defensive coaches could be on their way out so he may be looking for a new job

Gregg Brandon, OC/QB Coach Wyoming
·         Former OC at Bowling Green under Meyer who then replaced him when he left for Utah in 2003
·         Has done an outstanding job at Wyoming this season and has always been known as a top of the line offensive mind

Mick McCall, OC/QB Coach Northwestern
·         Has put together prolific offense after prolific offense with lesser talent in the Big 10 since taking over in 2008 as the Northwestern OC.
·         Worked under Gregg Brandon at Bowling Green who kept close relationship with Urban Meyer

Rob Ianello, Head Coach Akron
·         Unfortunately things haven’t worked out for Ianello at Akron but he is still regarded as one of the best Midwest recruiters and Urban Meyer has a great deal of respect for Barry Alvarez who is Ianello’s protégé and mentor.

If all holds to be true and Urban Meyer is announced as Ohio State’s head football coach next week, look for many of these names to be at the top of Meyer’s wish list.  Expect Gregg Brandon, Mick McCall, and Scott Loeffler to be his top choices for OC and Chuck Heater, Luke Fickell, Vance Bedford, and D.J. Durkin to be his top choices for defensive coordinator.  I believe that there may be some truth that Luke Fickell may be kept on staff as Associate Head Coach/Linebackers Coach (Head-coach-in-waiting type deal).  That is if he isn’t given a shot at a MAC school or possibly even Illinois if they were to fire Ron Zook.