New O5 head football coaches and an AD in 2021

 The path to head coaching job often includes working for the big boys. Charles Huff was the running backs coach at Bama  before taking  the Marshall job, and Butch Jones built his resume back up as analyst  for Saban before taking the Arkansas St Job.

Then  Terry Bowden who's been in an out of football took a grad assistant gig at Clemson and was hired at ULM.. He brought three Clemson staffers with him.

Will Hall, the former OC at Tulane , is the new Southern Miss HC

Tennessee raided  the O5 and hired UCF athletic director Danny White to be its new AD.

Jan 26, 2021

Terry Bowden hired Rich Rodriguez to be the ULM  OC. He was an OC under Terry's brother, Tommy Bowden, when Tommy was the coach at Tulane and Clemson. Rhett Rodriguez, Rich's son, joins as a quarterback QB grad transfer from Zona.

Jan 27, 2021

AAC loses a good one Heupel leaves UCF for the Vols.

Jan 31, 2021

I missed this one in early December. South Alabama(Sunbelt) hired Indiana defensive coordinator Kane Womack. He was South Alabama's DC  from 2016-17.

Feb 3, 2021

I wonder what's going on at WKU (CUSA) who tops UTenn , 21-19 in the number of players in the transfer portal, Hilltoppers coach Tyson Helton is 14-11 in two seasons.

Feb 9, 2021

O5 raids itself.: Arkansas State (Sunbelt) AD Terry Mohajir agreed to take the athletic director's job at UCF(AAC). Hey, but I doubt if he's bringing Butch Jones who he hired last month to be the Ark ST HC.

feb 15, 2021

UCF focusing on Gus Malzahn. Aside from how this affects his buyout from AU, there's the 2018 UCF bowl win over AU and Gus that led to undefeated UCF claiming they were # 1

March 9 2021

Will Kansas(B12) raid the AAC after firing Les Miles? Willie Fritz, the Tulane HC, has roots in the region and his Tulane tenure includes three straight bowl games.

April 21, 2021

Harsin, the former Boise HC, has a tough schedule in his first season at Auburn which includes an OOC game at Penn St. Also, they'll face O5 teams Georgia St and Akron.

April 22, 2021

#hinesWard , who spent the last two years as an offensive assistant on Adam Gase’s staff with the Jets, agreed to take a job on FAU(CUSA) head coach Willie Taggart’s staff and will work with wide receivers coach Joey Thomas.

Nov 4, 2021

Looking back at the off-season O5 coaching moves. #herd are pleased with HC Huff ,and Taggart's addition of Hines Ward as FAU receivers coach is paying dividends . LaJohntay Wester FAU WR stat improvements.

Bowl picks O5 rapid fire

Quick , before there 's a covid cancellation. Dec 23 rd games Ga Southern  27. La Tech 23 because Werts will gets 75 yards rushing from the QB slot for GA So. Memphis 39 FAU 26 because White will throw for over 400 yards for Memphis.  I'll get to more picks later this week..

Dec 24: 2-0 yesterday: Both winning QBs  were stellar.  Werts(GASO) ran for 3 tds and passed for one , and White(Memphis) tossed three TD passes.

Picks for Xmas Eve  and Xmas day Houston 30 Hawaii  26, Cougars slow down Hawaii QB Cordeiro (1947 YDS, 11 TD) enough to get the win.  Marshall has limped into December and won't slow down Jared Patterson. Buffalo 26 Marshall 20

Dec 26: I was wrong on Houston: their QB Tune threw three costly picks,  their D didn't slow down Cordeiro who threw 3 TD passes, and their special teams allowed the Rainbows  to run a kick back for a TD . HAW 28 Hou 14. I was correct on Buffalo , but it was Marks not Paterson who ran all over the Herd in a 17-10 win. Paterson had not recovered from being injured during the Ball St game.

Note on coaching changes Harsin leave Boise St for Auburn after under-performing against SJST in the MWC final, and amid rumors of a  conference move to the AAC. It's a bit messy in Blueturf-land.

ULM  hires Terry Bowden. After a brief moment in the sun with Auburn in the mid 1990, he was mediocre with Akron (MAC) from 2012-2018. I guess they're buying the family name.

Now, to today's games.

 ULL will  keep the Roadrunners in check. ULL 31 UTSA 14. WKU won't have an answer for CORNELIOUS BROWN IV, who has 7 rushing TDs and has thrown for 2046 yards and 14 TDs. GA St 30 WKU 19

Dec 27: ULL struggled to contain Frank Harris, the  UTSA QB, in the second half, but behind the strong running of  Elijah  Mitchell(19 CAR, 127 YDS, 1 TD) they held on for a 31-24 win over UTSA.

Cornelious Brown IV GAST (16-30, 232 YDS, 3 TD) was great in a 39-21win over WKU.

5-1 in this slate of games.

Dec 30:Big time props to Coastal Carolina's Jamey Chadwell , the 2020 AP Coach of the Year. Nice award for the Sunbelt.

Cheers for !A Independents in Covid 2020

In August, 2020 Liberty(9-1) and Coastal Carolina(9-0) of the SunBelt agreed to a game on Dec, 5, 2020. In a battle of productive QBs, Willis will get the better of McCall   and give CCU it's first loss. The pollsters will quickly boot CCU from the top 20 while giving respect to the B10, and Pac 12 despite those two conferences late starting the season late not playing a lot of games. They couldn't wait to give Liberty the boot from the top 25 in some  polls after a narrow 15-14 loss to NC St (ACC).

BYU has hustled to find opponents all season and while they haven't had the toughest schedule, they're undefeated but out of the Final Four frame. Cougar managed to get a final game against San Diego St (MWC)

I've been keeping track of some exciting 1a players here Rare 1A PIGSKIN MATCHUPS

dec 3

Props to BYU football for filling the slot created when Liberty U bailed out of its game with CCU due to Covid problems. ESPN Gameday matters, and they get a battle of the undefeateds. I like BYU in a squeaker.

dec 5

Chant for the Chanticleers. It wasn't the QBs yesterday but CJ Marable, CCU RB, who rushed for 132 and 2 TDs . Coastal Carolina(10-0) 22   BYU(9-1) 17. Props for both teams for making this game happen. 

dec 9

Is Boise St planning to go Independent in football before moving to a P5 conference? Head coach Bryan Harsin began pushing school officials in September to explore an exit from the MWC. 

Dec 10

BYU recovers from the tough loss at CCU and beats San Diego St 31-20. Army has a big rushing game in a 29 -22 "home" win over Navy.

dec 13

dec 13

Army blanked Navy 15-0. San Diego St  was up 14-7 after one quarter of play but never scored again in a  28-14 loss to BYU, who got 3 TD passes from Zach Wilson

dec 16

Army hosts another military academy this week and will rush by AFA 27-19.  #TyhierTyler , the Army QB, will rush for over 100 yards.

dec 20

Army beat Air Force 10-7 on a fourth and goal TD in the 4th Q  and won Commander-in-Chief's Trophy.