As the Coaching Carousel Turns: 12/10/15

As the Coaching Carousel Turns: 12/10/15

Following is the most up to date list of all the new coaches in FBS and FCS Football as of today:

Memphis: Mike Norvell (Former OC, Arizona State)

Bowling Green: Mike Jinks (Former Texas Tech RB Coach)
UCF: Scott Frost (Former OC, Oregon)
Syracuse: Dino Babers (Former Head Coach, Bowling Green)
Miami: Mark Richt (Former Head Coach, Georgia)
Virginia Tech: Justin Fuente (Former Head Coach, Memphis)
Virginia: Bronco Mendenhall (Former Head Coach, BYU)
Iowa State: Matt Campbell (Former Head Coach, Toledo)
Maryland: DJ Durkin (Former DC, Michigan)
Rutgers: Chris Ash (Former Co-DC, Ohio State)
Illinois: Bill Cubit (Interim Coach, named full time HC)
North Texas (Seth Litrell, Former OC, North Carolina)
Toledo: Jason Candle (Promoted, Former Toledo OC)
Hawaii: Nick Rolovich (Former OC, Nevada)
Georgia: Kirby Smart (Former DC, Alabama)
Missouri: Barry Odom (Promoted, Former DC)
USC: Clay Helton( Promoted, Former OC and Interim HC)
South Carolina: Will Muschamp (Former DC, Auburn)

Texas Southern: Mike Haywood (Former HC, Pittsburgh)

Montana State: Jeff Choate (Former ST coach, Washington)
Jacksonville: Ian Shields (Former Head Coach, Lenoir-Rhyne)
South Dakota: Bob Nielson (Former Head Coach, Western Illinois)
Eastern Kentucky: Mark Elder (Former TE/ST Coach, Tennessee)

Jobs Still Available

East Carolina

ECU is getting ever closer to making a hire, and hope to have someone to replace Ruffin McNeil, who was fired last week. Virginia Tech RB Coach Shane Beamer and James Madison Head Coach Everett Withers appear to be finalists as of this moment. Withers is available after JMU lost in the FCS playoffs last weekend.

BYU

Robert Anae appears to be out of the running, as it appears that he is following Bronco Mendenhall to Virginia as of today’s news. Darrell Bevell also appears out after Pete Carroll stated that the timing was all wrong for the Seahawks OC. It appears that the primary target here is Navy coach Ken Niamatololo. That move could be made this weekend, as Navy completes their regular season against Army.

Tulane

According to NOLA.com, Georgia Southern Coach Willie Fritz is the latest coach to interview at Tulane. The new AD, Troy Dennon, is moving quickly to get something done here. TCU Co-OC, despite earlier reports, is not a candidate at Tulane. Houston Nutt and Terry Bowden both have interest here, but don’t seem likely to land the gig.

UL-Monroe

It’s looking more and more that my prediction from weeks ago about McNeese State’s Matt Viator being the right guy for this job is coming closer to fruition. Viator was named as a finalist along with Arkansas State OC Walt Bell, and now Bell has pulled his name from consideration. Five other candidates have interviewed, but I look for this to be locked up within the next 24 to 48 hours from this posting, with Viator being my pick.

Jackson State

A new AD could be named in the coming few days, which will then turn the focus to hiring a new football coach at Jackson State. As of now, there is virtually zero buzz about this job anywhere.

Maine

As of today (12/10), the candidate list has been narrowed to four, and all of them have either played or coached at Maine before. Names are not available at this time.

Southern Illinois

This is another job search that seems to be completely off the grid. SIU is looking for someone who has familiarity with the Missouri Valley Conference and the region, but other than that, there has been zero buzz. We are still monitoring the situation.

Tennessee Tech

A message on an NCAA job board has stated that Tennessee Tech will not begin screening current applicants until next Monday, so there is currently no worthy information floating about in relationship to this job. Once the screenings begin on Monday, we should have some new news.

Austin Peay

As of today, APSU has just begun to call potential candidates to set up interviews. Once that process begins, they are looking to move fairly quickly to make a hire. Reggie Barlow, the former Alabama State coach, has been known to be connected to this job. He would be a very nice hire, but we will monitor this situation as it progresses. They are starting with phone interviews, and will then move onto on campus interviews next week, according to an email sent to the Leaf-Chronicle. They are looking to move to 4-6 candidates for on campus interviews, while phone interviews will be conducted with up to 12 candidates.

More as we here it later this weekend…