This Week in Coaching: On Biff Poggi at Charlotte, spotlighting Oregon OC Kenny Dillingham and Billy Napier teases future big man touchdowns
What is a Biff Poggi?
Who is Biff Poggi?
Well, Mint City has their new man. Meet Charlotte’s next head coach.
The first 2022 coaching carousel opening has been filled, as the 49ers moved quickly to pluck the Michigan football associate head coach and former hedge fund manager to become the fresh face of their program.
Poggi replaces Will Healy and has zero on-field coaching experience at the college level. He was a very successful high school head coach at Gillman School and St. Francis Academy for more than 15 years, though. He’s a 62-year-old former stockbroker who has been billed as Jim Harbaugh’s consigliere with Wolverines for the last two years.
Poggi won 13 state titles in 19 years at his alma mater Gillman before helping personally fund Baltimore private school powerhouse St. Francis Acadamy, where he coached now Wolverines Heisman Trophy tailback Blake Corum.
Charlotte is clearly running the 2012 Coastal Carolina playbook when it comes to the hire (see: Joe Moglia 2.0), tabbing a rich guy fundraiser who doesn’t need the money for the job, but can raise it, and just loves coaching ball.
Biff certainly has the backing from some notables amongst the coaching industry — quotes include Harbaugh, Nick Saban and Mike McDonald — and now he’s tasked with fundraising and moving a program — that is 1-7 in the C-USA this season — to make the jump to the AAC.
“The great momentum created by the leadership of this University and its athletics program gives us every opportunity to build a successful pathway for so many young men in our region,” he said in a statement.
“For me, this is a full circle moment, a chance to pay forward the wonderful opportunities that were given to me as a young man. We can build a championship program at Charlotte, and I can’t wait to get started.”
Go get it, Biff.
DID YOU KNOW?
That Chris Klieman is about to get that Mark Stoops bump?
Famously, Stoops once received an extra year on his Kentucky contract every time he won at least seven games with his Wildcats, and Klieman is in line for the same deal — albeit needing one more victory.
The Kansas State Wildcats are 7-3 and legitimate Big 12 title contenders this year, and if KSU beats either West Virginia or Kansas to end the regular-season — two teams it will be favored over — Klieman receives an added annual salary of $4.3 million to his contract.
Not too shabby for a guy who’s spent the majority of his career at Northern Iowa and North Dakota State.
COORDINATOR OF THE WEEK TO WATCH
For multiple reasons, this is a great week to spotlight Oregon offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham.
The 32-year-old assistant is on the fast track to becoming a future head coach after his first season as a primary play-caller. Dillingham is the brain trust of one of the more fun offenses in college football in 2022, turning Bo Nix from a so-so SEC quarterback into a Heisman Trophy candidate.
Dillingham has the Ducks rolling offensively, ranking No. 4 in the nation is yards per play and scoring. Oregon has topped 40 points eight times this season.
He’s a Broyles Award nominee as the nation’s top assistant, and a potential candidate at Arizona State — his alma mater and place he kickstarted his coaching career.
For those unfamiliar with Dillingham’s backstory, he was a local Arizona assistant high school coach at the age of 21 and volunteered in his free time with the ASU football team. He impressed then-Sun Devils OC Mike Norvell, now the head coach at Florida State, who hired him as an offensive assistant and convinced him to move to Memphis as a grad assistant in 2016.
A year later, Dillingham was promoted to coach both quarterbacks and tight ends for the Tigers. The next season he was poached by Auburn’s Gus Malzahn to be the Tigers’ OC/QBs coach, where he led Nix to his best season before his 2022 showing.
Flash-forward to today and Dillingham is a legitimate candidate for his alma mater — or other potential openings this coaching carousel — while tasked with devising a gameplan this weekend to keep Oregon in contention for a Pac-12 title.
The Ducks host Utah, which delivered Oregon a pair of bloodbaths in 2021, late night Saturday, and there’s uncertainty as to whether or not Nix is even healthy enough to play.
Dillingham has leaned on his senior transfer this season, but if Nix isn’t available, can he devise a winning gameplan against the Pac-12’s best defense with Tyler Thompson?
Oregon has the second-best rushing offense in the Pac-12, and Utah — while leading the conference in scoring defense — ranks No. 122nd in rushing success rate, so something has to give, right?
Well, if Nix can’t go, then Dillingham will really have to flex his skills as a play-caller, game-planning around a green QB with fewer than 25 attempts this season and a couple of sophomore tailbacks in Bucky Irving and Noah Whittingham.
If he does, he’ll only strengthen an-already burgeoning resume.
QUOTABLE
“We have a running deal with the defensive players. If we’re Top 10 in the country in scoring defense and total defense, we’ll put defensive players on the goal line package. Hopeful that day’s coming.”
— Florida head coach Billy Napier
Last weekend delivered one of the highlights of the 2022 season, as mammoth Florida defensive lineman Desmond Watson — all 440 POUNDS of’em — forced a fumble against South Carolina and then recovered the football and started rumbling toward the end zone.
Everyone loves BIG MAN TOUCHDOWNS, and while Watson felt short, for reasons he explained postgame because he was about to fumble the football, Gators head coach Billy Napier has established a set of goals that could present Watson another opportunity to reach the end zone in 2023.
Florida’s defense is bad this season, but Napier said that if the Gators rank in the Top 10 in both scoring and total defense (which is a bad stat unless we’re looking at yards per play, but alas) at any time in 2023, then he’ll use defensive linemen, including Watson, in goal line packages.
Why wait?
The Gators rank last in the SEC in red zone scoring. Let the big man block or tote the rock at least one time against either Vandy or Florida State.