CFB DeptHITS: Monday, February 17
The coaching carousel has dominated the news cycle over the past few days. Get caught up on everything happening that impacts depth charts, and beyond.
The news cycle has slowed with the transfer portal shutting down for the time being and as spring practices get underway. We’ll start hearing more from camps as more open up and will report on anything we are hearing from the hundreds of amazing beat writers and other sources we are following help inform our depth charts. Also, this is a great time to get caught up on our State of the Chart™ update series. We are going team-by-team this off-season to get you up to speed on everything you’ll need to know as we work through the ‘off-season.’ Links to each article are posted at the end of this one.
Jacksonville State ::: This is an interesting turn in what is becoming quite the defensive coordinator carousel this off-season. In a rare move from a power four school to a group of five, Brian Williams is moving from Maryland to Jacksonville State. He will keep the title of defensive coordinator. This is usually done only with a promotion in title. This does reunite Williams with new Gamecocks head coach Charles Kelly. The two worked together at Florida State back in 2014. This continues the carousel started by Coastal Carolina's firing of Craig Naivar back on January 11. The Chanticleers hired Jeremiah Johnson away from Louisiana Tech. The Bulldogs responded by hiring Luke Olson, the former Jacksonville State defensive coordinator, who did not follow Rich Rodriguez to West Virginia. Now, Maryland is looking for their next leader on defense.
Maryland ::: Associate head coach, linebackers and co-defensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin is going to step away from his 'on-field' duties as he reasseses his coaching future. That opens up another role on Mike Locksley's staff.
Notre Dame ::: Marcus Freeman found his next general manager. After failing to secure the services of Texas Tech's James Blanchard, he turned his focus to the NFL level. Reports are that he has hired Detroit Lions former Director of Scouting Advancement, Mike Martin, to the role. He replaces Chad Bowden, who left for USC to become the Trojans GM.
Western Michigan ::: The Broncos are losing a top assistant coach to the NFL. Trevor Mendelson, who came to the Broncos from Notre Dame, has been hired by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He held the offensive line and co-offensive coordinator title in Kalamazoo.
Oregon State ::: The Beavers are going to need to find a new offensive line coach after the Chicago Bears hired Kyle DeVan away from Corvalis. This is a return to the NFL for DeVan. He played in the league 2008-12 and held an assistant coaching job with the Saints back in 2015. His college stops include at Charlotte, Colorado and Michigan.
They move quickly to bring back Mike Cavanaugh, a veteran offensive line coach, who was most recently at Oregon as an analyst. He has spent time at other programs and had a ten-year stint in Corvalis back in 2005-14 under Mike Riley.
Rutgers ::: As reported earlier this week Mark Orphey took the Texas open cornerbacks job. Greg Schiano announced he will replace Orphey with the promotion of David Rowe. Rowe was "assistant cornerbacks" coach behind Orphey in 2024 and came from Houston, where he held the cornerbacks and eventually the secondary coaching roles.
Georgia ::: The Bulldogs keep Andrew Thacker around as they promote him to the nickel backs coach. This, after spending 2024 as a defensive analyst for the Dawgs. He was at Georgia Tech, even holding their defensive coordinator role in 2022-23.
Miami (FL) ::: The Hurricanes have stolen Florida's secondary coach to handle the defensive backs role. That's Will Harris, who is making the rounds recently. He was with the NFL's Chargers in 2023 and jumped to the college ranks with the Gators last year. Now, he heads down to South Beach to join Mario Cristobal's staff.
Florida ::: In response to that, the Gators quickly moved to hire Deron Wilson, the former Arkansas secondary coach, who just last month took the Georgia State defensive coordinator job. He quickly bolts to Gainesville. This again shows that position jobs at the biggest schools remain more attractive than play-calling roles at smaller schools.
Georgia State ::: The Panthers are again looking for a defensive coordinator after Wilson's decision to head to Florida. Kevin Sherrer was demoted to linebackers coach after holding the role in 2024. Wilson was hired to take his spot, but now the job is open again. We'll have to see where Dell McGee goes next.
Oregon ::: The Ducks are hiring Syracuse wide receivers coach and pass game coordinator, Ross Douglas to their wide receivers coach opening. This is one of the most sought after assistant coaching roles as most who held this position have moved quickly up the ladder. Most recently. Junior Adams took a job in the NFL with the Cowboys. Ross has NFL experience already and now moves to Eugene to take over this coveted role.
Washington ::: The Huskies are hiring veteran linebackers coach Brian Odom. He is leaving his post as co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at North Texas. Odom has past experience at big schools, including USC, Missouri and Oklahoma. He is the brother of now-Purdue head coach Barry Odom.
Boston College ::: Bill O'Brien is losing this secondary coach as the NFL's San Francisco 49ers are hiring Ray Brown. Brown spent just one season in Boston after holding similar roles at Washington State (2022-23) and Utah State (2021).
Oregon State ::: Former Fresno State offensive coordinator Pat McCann has found his next gig. It's wide receivers coach at Oregon State. He joins the Beavers staff after calling the offense for the Bulldogs from 2023-24. He was not retained by the new Fresno coaching staff, led by Matt Entz.
Penn State ::: The Nittany Lions lost their running backs coach Ja'Juan Seidler to Notre Dame just a few days ago. James Franklin moved quickly to add a veteran coach to fill the role. Stan Drayton, most recently the Temple head coach, has a vast experience that includes stops in the NFL and as a running backs coach at Texas, Ohio State, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi State, Bowling Green, Villanova, Penn and Eastern Michigan. His tenure as head coach in Philly ended after a 9-24 run at a really tough place to win. This is about as good of a hire as you can do at this point of the cycle for Penn State.
|||||| MORE NEWS AND NOTES TO KNOW
RB Kannon Katzer has moved around quite a bit after his initial commitment to Washington State out of Mead, Washington, back in the class of 2020. He wanted to see the field, so he went the JUCO route at Citrus College. He put up a 975-yard, 16 touchdown season there in 2023. He then moved to Division II Ferris State and topped those numbers with 1,128 yards and 11 scores. He re-enters the portal now with more experience and looking for a return to the higher levels. He has one year of eligibility remaining.
Former Notre Dame defensive coordinator Al Golden has taken home the Broyles Award, given to to the top assistant coach in the game. Following the Irish’ run to the CFP National Title game, he took the Cincinnati Bengals defensive coordinator job.
Bobby Dodd, who has been at Utah State the past five seasons, will join Pat Narduzzi’s staff at Pittsburgh. He will serve as a special teams analyst. This is Dodd’s first job at the power five level. He spent time in a special teams role at Arkansas State. He came up from an equipment job as a student at New Mexico and a volunteer at Tulane.
For you college fantasy players out there, you won’t want to miss VolumePigs most recent article about the next Nick Nash at San Jose State:
Other suggested further reading includes the evolving future of the College Football Playoff (CFP) from Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger. This movement is led by the SEC and Big Ten and it’s little surprise to see the plan including four (4) automatic qualifiers from the two most powerful conferences in college football. They would also cash in the most with each receiving 29% of the distribution of revenues. Any changes would not likely take effect until 2026.
That’s our show for today. Don’t forget, we are well underway in our State of the Chart team-by-team updates for the ‘off-season’. These are in-depth looks back at the 2024 season and any impactful player movement as each program prepares for the 2025 season. Get caught up on what we have put out so far (starting with the SEC):
2/1: Alabama Crimson Tide
2/3: Georgia Bulldogs
2/4: LSU Tigers
2/5: Auburn Tigers
2/6: Arkansas Razorbacks
2/7: Florida Gators
2/8: Ole Miss Rebels
2/10: Tennessee Volunteers
2/11: Missouri Tigers
2/12: Texas A&M Aggies
2/13: Oklahoma Sooners
2/14: Texas Longhorns
2/15: South Carolina Gamecocks
2/16: Vanderbilt Commodores
These will bleed all the way into June and we will be bringing it all together in our first edition of the State of the Chart preview digital magazine — scheduled for launch in July…
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