Daily briefing: On Mike Bohn, a Big East ‘rematch’ and Navy’s flip-flop
Ivan Maisel’s “Daily Briefing” for On3:
A jump-start on the coaching search
One point that occurred to me after I filed my column on USC’s firing of Clay Helton is that Trojans athletic director Mike Bohn is first in line in chasing after the hottest coaching candidates. That’s been a thing since then-Florida AD Jeremy Foley fired Ron Zook after seven games in 2004. Foley got the jump on Notre Dame in hiring Urban Meyer away from Utah. He got Meyer, and Notre Dame got Charlie Weis. Bohn won’t need to take out an ad on craigslist. I’m guessing he will test how much of a Midwestern guy Cincinnati coach Luke Fickell is — Bohn hired him to coach the Bearcats. And word always has been that Penn State coach James Franklin would like the job, too.
Big East memories
Nebraska and Oklahoma aren’t the only old conference rivals to rekindle this week. Virginia Tech returns to West Virginia, its old Big East pal, and we’ll get a much better read on Mountaineers junior quarterback Jarret Doege. Last season, Doege threw four interceptions in 374 attempts. He threw two in 40 attempts at Maryland in the season-opener, and the Mountaineers’ four giveaways cost them 10 points in a 30-24 loss. Doege looked better last week against FCS Long Island, but the Hokies will be a litmus test for the season. The Hokies picked off Sam Howell three times in their season-opening upset of North Carolina, and got another pick last week against Middle Tennessee State.
Fired, then rehired
Sounds like there was a lot of ready-fire-aim in Navy athletic director Chet Gladchuk’s decision to fire offensive coordinator Ivin Jasper after Saturday’s 23-3 loss to Air Force. You don’t see an AD fire an assistant coach very often, and it’s rarer still for that AD to bring the assistant back the next day. After a night’s sleep, Navy coach Ken Niumatalolo pointed out to Gladchuk that there’s no better option quarterback coach than Jasper. Seems like Gladchuk would know that. He’s been at Annapolis since 2001, and Jasper joined the Navy coaching staff the following year. These guys know each other.