CFB DeptHITS: Thursday, February 20

More coaching movement and a few hidden portal gems to get you caught up on as we continue to roll through the 'off-season' State of the Chart™ updates. We are through the SEC...on to the B1G.

Feb 20, 2025

The news cycle has shifted heavy towards a lot of coaching movement as the player portal has slowed to a halt (for now). So, we’ll get you caught up on that movement and any other news you’ll want to know as we work through this early ‘off-season’ and get our early preparations for the 2025 season. You know how fast it goes…

|||||| THE HITS

Akron ::: The Zips are adding S Mehki Flowers away from Penn State. Flowers is a former 4-star recruit in the class of '22 but has not found the field yet for the loaded Nittany Lions. He moves to the Zips and likely gets his chance to play and make an impact.

Virginia Tech ::: Former Tulsa head coach and Auburn offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery has accepted the Virginia Tech offensive coordinator job. He was most recently an OC in the UFL for the Birmingham Stallions. He replaces Tyler Bowen, who left the Hokies to take over as the new Ohio State offensive line coach.

Oklahoma ::: Another former Tulsa head coach has found a home as Kevin Wilson has re-joined the Oklahoma staff with Brent Venables. He'll tutor and work with new, young, up-and-coming offensive coordinator Ben Arbuckle as he likely prepares for his next on-field coaching gig. Another good 'get' for the re-built OU staff.

Georgia State ::: Dell McGee hits up Troy for his new defensive coordinator, hiring cornerbacks coach Travis Pearson as his defensive play caller. Pearson replaces Deron Wilson, whose tenure was very short after accepting a job as Florida's defensive backs coach. This after coaching defensive backs at Arkansas the past two seasons.

Troy ::: Gerad Parker moves quickly to fill the opening that Pearson's exit left. He goes to the FCS level to hire recently promoted Samford linebackers coach Brandon Cooper as defensive backs coach. Cooper was announced as the new defensive coordinator for Samford just a week ago, but that wasn't enough to keep him around. He previously served as co-DC and safeties coach at Charlotte back in 2019-21.

UTEP ::: The Miners have their new defensive coordinator and he comes from the FCS level. Montana State's Bobby Daly now has his shot to run an FBS defense. He led a top-15 FCS defense with the Bobcats, who were particularly stout against the run.

|||||| MORE NEWS AND NOTES

Wisconsin is promoting from within for their new general manager. They are elevating Marcus Sedberry. He was most recently the deputy athletic director and chief operating officer working with the program’s contracts.
Coach Prime continues to hit up former NFL players to fill his staff. This time, it’s former Cincinnati Bengals DT Domata Peko. Peko will join up as the defensive line coach after a season as an assistant with the Dallas Cowboys.
David Cooney has been named the new wide receivers coach at Bowling Green. He has been at Miami (FL) since 2017 in a variety of roles, including recruiting and wide receivers analyst.
Another coordinator leaving the FCS level for a position role in the group of five is Brandon Butcher. He is taking the UTEP linebackers job after serving as the defensive play caller for the past two seasons for UT-Martin.
Tennessee’s Josh Heupel made some moves on his staff, including the promotion of Evan Crabtree to special teams coordinator. He continues to build his support staff by hiring veteran special teams coach John “Bono” Bonamego to an assistant special teams coordinator role. He has spent a lot of time at the NFL level, including running the special teams units for five teams. He was most recently in a Senior advising role for Matt Campbell at Iowa State. The final move was another promotion for Levorn “Chop” Harbin to outside linebackers coach.
James Madison is hiring Dave Plungas as linebackers coach. He comes to JMU from FCS Robert Morris, where he served as defensive coordinator. He was with the Colonials for seven seasons in that role and led the group to allow just 20.2 points per game this past season. Plungas will also serve as defensive run game coordinator.
Josh Bookbinder, who spend the past three seasons on staff working with the inside linebackers at Texas Tech, is moving to TCU. He joins Sonny Dykes’ staff after previous stops at Liberty (2012-18) and his alma mater Baylor as a defensive quality control staffer from 2019-21.
Greg Froelich is heading to Washington to lend a helping hand to the Huskies’ special teams unit that struggled in Jedd Fisch’s first season in Seattle. Frolich has experience in the Big Ten before he headed to Charlotte to lead their special teams unit (and also coached running backs). He was at Illinois and Michigan in analyst roles prior to his move to the 49ers. He will officially be the assistant special teams coordinator, working with newly hired Chris Petrilli. Petrilli came recommended by former Purdue head coach, now Huskies defensive coordinator, Ryan Walters. Walters also worked wiht Froelich at Illinois.
Chad Scott is being hired at Texas as running backs coach. He will replace Tashard Choice, who left the program earlier this month to take the Detroit Lions running backs coach job. Scott was most recently the running backs coach at West Virginia.

|||||| SUGGESTED FURTHER READING

Texas Tech NIL Booster » You may find this one interesting as Texas Tech has made noise in the portal this season, clearly spending with the best of them. Apparently, their NIL collective founder Cody Campbell has sold his company…and het got a nice chunk of change for it. It’s certainly possible that Campbell got wind of GM James Blanchard’s courtship with Notre Dame a couple of weeks ago and told him to hold off. He may have a blank check to build a roster soon. Read more from On3 »

Big Ten / SEC Meetings Primer » John Talty at CBSSports does a fine job getting you the ‘need to knows’ from the Big Ten / SEC meetings to discuss the future of the College Football Playoff. Changes are coming and it is no question who is setting the tone and eventually making the decisions. It’s the big two conferences. However, they have some work to do to get buy-in from the others. Read the full article on CBSSports »

Fantasy Focus » We are big proponents of the College Fantasy Football (CFF) game and we have quite a few great resources to pass along as you jump into the best fantasy football experience (the college level). One of the best is Volume Pigs. In his most recent edition, he focuses in on a much-traveled tight end that is ready to break out and should be on the radar for a big season in Fort Worth. Pig out here »

|||||| STATE OF THE CHART™ UPDATES

Hopefully you are following along with our State of the Chart™ ‘off-season’ updates to get you up to speed on where each program stands currently. This is an in-depth article looking back at 2024 and a glimpse at each position group as it stands. Still plenty of movement to happen with a spring portal window opening, but a lot of player movement has already happened. If you fall behind, it’s okay, here are the links to get you caught up.

All of these updates will lead into our full-on preview when the dust begins to settle and players report for summer camps. We’ll have each projected depth chart, playing time projections, team win total predictions and everything you’ll need in our first State of the Chart™ Magazine — release scheduled for July. Here is more information on that monster being developed as we speak: