CFB DeptHITS: Wednesday, February 5

Getting caught up on the news over the past 48 hours around college football. The coaching carousel is picking up quite a bit and other off-field notes to go over.

Feb 05, 2025

Today, we will get you up to speed with the HITS (the what you need to know) from the news cycle over the past 48 hours. Note: We are moving to an ‘every other day’ cadence for the HITS - just while we are pumping out the State of the Chart updates for all 136 FBS schools this ‘off-season’…

|||||| THE HITS

Syracuse ::: A big pickup for Fran Brown's defense as EDGE David Reese [14.5] willl spend his final season with the Orange. Reese began his career with the Gators in Florida back in 2018 before moving to Cal for the past two seasons. He has been granted two redshirt seasons and is using his COVID waiver to stick around for another season. He is a disrupter in the backfield and racked up 11 sacks the past two seasons for the Bears.

Indiana ::: CB Jamier Johnson is on the move again. After starting and playing a big role (50+ snaps per game) for the Hoosiers in the secondary, he will take his talents elsewhere for his final season. Johnson is a former Texas recruit (4-star in class of 2021) out of Pasadena, CA.

Minnesota ::: Martes Lewis [11.6] wound up getting some snaps towards the end of the season at right tackle for the Gophers. However, he must not see a path to a starting gig in his final season next year. He enters the portal as a graduate transfer and will look for a new home.

South Florida ::: DL Dre Butler [13.2] is heading to his fifth program having chosen to play 2025 at USF. He heads there from Charlotte, where he enjoyed a decent season. He also has played at Auburn (20-21), Liberty and Michigan State before his stop with the 49ers. He is utilizing the 2020 COVID waiver and a traditional redshirt to keep a year of eligibility.

Washington ::: With Brennan Carroll reuniting with his father, Pete, on staff for the Las Vegas Raiders, Jedd Fisch is moving quickly to get their next play caller set. He is elevating Jimmy Dougherty to the role of offensive coordinator. He was the pass game coordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Huskies in 2024. He followed Fisch from Arizona where he served in the same capacity.

Louisville ::: Deion Branch is being elevated to wide receivers coach at Louisville. The former Cardinal and one-time Super Bowl MVP is moving into an on-field coaching role for Jeff Brohm. He had been the acting director of player development.

Rutgers ::: Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano is hiring Robb Smith as co-defensive coordinator and play caller for the 2025 season. Smith has been a defensive coordinator now at the school three different times and held the role at other schools, racking up nine seasons of experience. These stops include, well, Rutgers (2012), Arkansas (‘14-16), Minnesota (‘17-18), Rutgers again (‘20-21) and, now, Rutgers. He had stops as an analyst at Texas A&M and most recently Penn State to hone his skills. This duo is reunited in Piscataway.

LSU ::: Noah Joseph has made his way around some big programs and now will head to Baton Rouge to join Brian Kelly’s staff as a defensive analyst. He was most recently the general manager at East Carolina, and Purdue prior to the Pirates. He has held on-field coaching roles at Indiana, North Texas and Rutgers. For the Scarlet Knights in 2018-19, he held the title of co-defensive coordinator and safeties coach. His connection to LSU runs through defensive coordinator Blake Baker, with whom he worked under as an analyst at Mizzou before taking the GM job with Ryan Walters at Purdue (another former Mizzou defensive coach).

Penn State ::: There was more to Jim Knowles’ departure from Ohio State to return home to take over as defensive coordinator at Penn State than just a historic salary bump. CBS Sports reports that there were growing tensions between Knowles and head coach Ryan Day. That included a philosophical difference at the most basic level - the scheme. Knowles likes to employ a three-man front; but the Buckeyes traditional four-man approach was preferred and following the loss to Michigan, Day became a bit more “hands on” in meetings - something a veteran like Knowles did not take well.

Texas ::: Ohio State GA LaAllan Clark has been hired as Texas’ outside linebackers coach. He spent the past two seasons as the GA focused on the defensive line. He played at Grambling State and Northwestern State before starting his career in coaching which includes stops at Prairie View A&M and Southern. He also owns a training company called “LC Performance” and has tutored some of the NFL’s best defensive linemen, including Ed Oliver, Jeffrey Simmons and Danielle Hunter.

Michigan ::: Former Charlotte head coach Biff Poggi is headed back to Michigan to take on the role of associate head coach to Sherrone Moore with the Wolverines. Poggi held this title under Jim Harbaugh until he was hired at Charlotte as head coach prior to the 2023 season.

|||||| OTHER NEWS & NOTES

We found out shortly after our last HITS article that the price tag on Chip Kelly’s move to the Las Vegas Raiders was…$6 Million. That makes him the highest paid coordinator in the NFL as Kelly joins up with new head coach for the Raiders, Pete Carroll. They are spending in Vegas.
The Arizona Cardinals are hiring Minnesota’s Winston DeLattiboudere III as their defensive line coach. DeLattiboudere was P.J. Fleck’s associate head coach and defensive line coach the past two seasons in Minneapolis. He was the DL coach at Akron prior to that.
File these two away in the ‘pretty cool to see’ category as college football is not always about moving on to the next big thing…
- Oregon running backs coach Rashaad Samples, a rising star in the industry, reportedly turned down the opportunity to become the running backs coach for the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys to stay in Eugene. Surely he leveraged that to get a boost in pay, but still, turning down the NFL is not the usual path for young coaches.
- Marshall/Southern Miss quarterback Braylon Braxton was offered big-time paydays to join an SEC school. As FootballScoop reports, not everybody has a price and his relationship with head coach Charles Huff goes deeper than money.
New Mexico is getting into the poaching game as they get a good general manager in Beau Davidson, who helped build up a really good Memphis roster over the past several seasons.