National College Football Insider

Georgia’s Tight Ends Coach David Johnson to West Virginia

Matthew Strickland — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:11:42 +0000

It will be announced this week that Georgia’s David Johnson will leave Athens to be re-united with his West Virginia brethren in Morgantown to take over as their new Offensive Line coach. Johnson is a 1986 alum of West Virginia where he attained his Bachelor and Master’s degree. Johnson also played football at West Virginia where he was the starting center for two bowl teams in the 80′s.

Johnson is most recognized for producing current NFL TE’s Randy McMichael and Ben Watson that have had great success at the next level. This past season when Georgia lost its offensive line coach to UAB, it was widely rumored that Johnson lobbied hard for the position, losing out to Stacey Searels.

Look for there to be no shortage of candidates to be lined up to replace Johnson at Georgia, but we feel like this was a great hire for WVU.

Names that have serviced include current Tight Ends Coach and Recruiting Coordinator John Lilly of Florida State, former Florida State Offensive Coordinator Jeff Bowden, and Florida State Defensive End Coach Jody Allen. What’s the theme here? Mark Richt will be pulling from his roots in Florida State to make his next hire.

Stay tuned, more to come…

Same old Buckeyes

Matthew Strickland — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 16:35:28 +0000

Many of you will remember the travesty that was Maurice Clarrett and his time with the Ohio State Buckeyes. After that black eye was over, we thought that Ohio State was turning over a new leaf, but have they?

On Friday, Ohio State publicly confirmed that they were suspending Eugene Clifford for violating team rules and that he would not be eligible to play in the National Championship game versus LSU on January 7th. Many media outlets reported earlier in the week that Clifford was not the only player suspended, but starting Cornerback Donald Washington would also be suspended for violating team rules. So what happened?

Did Ohio State realize that losing their starting Cornerback, Washington, and one of their backups, Clifford, might jeopardize their chances at the National Title and then retract their position? If you can read between the lines then it makes perfect sense.

All of this comes as ESPN reported this morning that Ohio State’s Head Coach Jim Tressel flew two of his former football players to Atlanta last year to watch the Buckeyes’ basketball team take on Florida for the National Championship which now results in a ‘minor’ violation.

So what do we make of all of this?

Oregon’s Mike Bellotti turns down UCLA and will remain

Matthew Strickland — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 00:58:42 +0000

Mike Bellotti showed a good amount of interest in the UCLA job, probably enough to land himself a raise, but in the end he will stay at Oregon. Bellotti has resurrected the Oregon program over the last 8 years and with Phil Knight’s money, we’re scratching our head as to why he doesn’t make over 2 million a year.

Coaching Changes

December 19 Coaching Rumors

Matthew Strickland — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:15:37 +0000

Oklahoma State will announce that Tennessee’s Trooper Taylor will take over as Offensive Coordinator sometime tomorrow.

West Virginia is on the verge of hiring Florida Assistant John Holliday.

South Carolina hired former Georgia Defensive Coordinator Brian VanGorder

Coaching Rumors

Matthew Strickland — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:09:36 +0000

Washington might be on the verge of hiring Rick Neuheisel.

SMU is talking with Dennis Franchione.

West Virginia has interviewed former offensive line coach Rick Trickett, who is now serving in that same role at FSU.

Rich Rodriguez and Michigan are talking

Matthew Strickland — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 19:58:27 +0000

Ever since November 19th, we’ve been hearing that Les Miles, Kirk Ferentz, Brady Hoke, Jeff Tedford, Sean Payton, and Cam Cameron were potential candidates to replace Lloyd Carr and now it looks like another coach has thrown his name in the hat. Rich Rodriguez of West Virginia is the latest coach to be rumored in negotiations with Michigan. Rodriguez was rumored last season to be interested in taking the Alabama job.

Update – CollegeFootballTalk.com is reporting that Michigan will announce on Monday that Rodriguez will be its new Head Coach with a contract worth 2.4 million a year.

Coaching Changes Updates…

Matthew Strickland — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 19:01:55 +0000

Duke offers Tennessee’s David Cutcliffe their job.

Tony Franklin is now the new Offensive Coordinator of Auburn, replacing Al Borges. Franklin was the OC at Troy previously.

Houston has hired Kevin Sumlin to be their next Head Coach. Sumlin was Co-Offensive Coordinator at Oklahoma.

ACC moves Title game from Jacksonville to Charlotte

Matthew Strickland — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 02:15:19 +0000

We’re not saying we told you so, but we kind of knew that after three lackluster showings in Jacksonville the ACC will now hold its Championship Game in Charlotte in 2010 and 2011 hoping to make it permanent. The game will be played in Tampa Bay in 2008 and 2009.

VT’s Bud Foster a likely replacement for South Carolina’s Tyrone Nix

Matthew Strickland — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 19:44:13 +0000

On Tuesday we announced that Tyrone Nix would be leaving South Carolina to join Houston Nutt in Mississippi. Now comes news that long time Defensive Coordinator for the Virginia Tech Hokies, Bud Foster, could be the likely replacement for Nix. We’ll keep you posted.

Colorado State hires Buffalo Bills Offensive Coordinator Steve Fairchild

Matthew Strickland — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 17:34:35 +0000

Colorado State has reached out to the NFL ranks to hire Buffalo Bills Offensive Coordinator Steve Fairchild to replace Sonny Lubick who stepped down after 15 seasons with the University. Fairchild is a former Quarterback for Colorado State as well as the former Offensive Coordinator until 2001 when we took a job with Buffalo.