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CU Buffs hire former Minnesota OC Mike Sanford as their new OC

Creebuzz

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I think we’ve all resigned ourselves to the fact that KD will be here, but heading into the 2022 season, there has to be changes on the offensive coaching staff. Let’s start with the OC. Who should be on our hot board?
 
Here are some young names that you see mentioned, as being on a fast track to a Coordinator position:

Corey Dennis, Ohio State, Quarterbacks Coach (28): In need of a replacement for the departing Mike Yurcich, head coach Ryan Day tabbed Dennis as the team’s next QB coach. Dennis had spent the previous five seasons in Columbus as an off-field assistant, largely working as Day’s right-hand man and tutoring quarterbacks. “He’s like my personal QB coach when Coach Day is not around,” Dwayne Haskins said in 2018. Now, Dennis takes over a QB room that includes Justin Fields and 2020 five-star CJ Stroud. Dennis is on a quick coordinator track. Sone in law of Urban Meyer.

Roman Sapolu, Fresno State, O-line Coach/Run Game Coordinator (29): One of the best young offensive line coaches in college football, Sapolu earned a dual promotion this offseason to offensive line coach (he previously assisted new OC Ryan Grubb with the unit) and run game coordinator. The Bulldogs ranked 34th nationally last season in rushing yards per play, while finishing in the top 50 nationally in pass protection. Sapolu, a former Oregon State player, came to Fresno State from Idaho State, where he led an o-line that had two all-conference performers and paced an offense that tailed 5,403 yards.

Nathan Scheelhaase, Iowa State, Wide Receivers (29): Scheelhasse has consistently emerged as an impact recruiter, landing All-American Bowl players like Breece Hall and Daniel Jackson. During his first year as wide receivers coach, Scheelhaase helped mentor All-Big 12 selection Deshaunte Jones. The year prior, he coached All-American running back David Montgomery. A former four-year starting QB at Illinois, don’t be surprised if you start to hear Scheelhaase emerge as a coordinator candidate in the coming years.

Zach Kittley, former Houston Baptist Offensive Coordinator, now Western Kentucky OC (30): You may have missed it, but FCS Houston Baptist nearly upset Texas Tech last week on the road. A big reason why is the 567 yards quarterback Bailey Zappe tossed. One week earlier, he threw for 480 against North Texas. Kittley is calling those plays. Last year, the Huskies ranked 12th nationally in yards per game among the FCS ranks. In Kittley’s debut the year prior, he helped Zappe set nearly every program single-season passing record. A protege of Kliff Kingsbury at Texas Tech – he was a GA and later an assistant QB coach from 2015-17 – Kittley is among the hottest young coordinators in the FCS, which means he's probably on the brink of a big-time jump. Texas offensive coordinator Mike Yurchich came from the FCS initially. Rutgers offensive coordinator Sean Gleeson started in the FCS. Indiana head coach Tom Allen made his name as an FCS defensive coordinator. You could go on and on.
 
Seth Litrell- Current Head Coach at North Texas (fifth season, currently 1-6)
One of the brightest offensive minds in college football, Littrell came to North Texas after serving as the assistant head coach for offense and tight ends at North Carolina. At the time of his hire, the Muskogee, Oklahoma, native was the youngest coach in Conference USA and fifth youngest in the nation.

The dynamic mind of Littrell turned the North Carolina offense in 2015 into one of the nation’s best, as the Tar Heels set school records for most points and touchdowns in a season. The Tar Heels won the ACC Coastal Division Championship and played in their first ACC Championship game.

North Carolina scored over 30 points nine times in 2015, topped the 40-point mark seven times and scored over 50 points in four games, which was a school record. Through 12 games under Littrell’s guidance in 2015, UNC averaged 41.2 points a game, which at the time ranked 11th in the nation.

Under the leadership of Littrell, quarterback Marquise Williams set a new school record for career touchdowns (90) and total offense at North Carolina.

In 2015 with Littrell, the UNC offense averaged 7.46 yards per play, which at the time was second in the nation, and ran the ball for 6.0 yards a carry, which ranked third in the country. UNC was one of just 11 schools in the nation that averaged more than 200 yards rushing (229.7) and 250 yards passing (266.0). In 2015, UNC rushed for over 200 yards eight times and had over 500 yards of total offense in four games, including 704 yards in a 66-31 win over Duke.

In his first season in Chapel Hill in 2014, Littrell helped Carolina establish several school records, including most passing yards, most passing touchdowns and most first downs. Williams was a second-team all-conference pick after leading the Tar Heels to a bowl game in his first year as the starter, and set several individual school records, including most rushing yards and rushing touchdowns by a quarterback. Carolina gained more than 5,000 yards in Littrell’s first season as the play-caller and averaged 429.8 yards per contest.

Littrell came to Chapel Hill from Indiana where he guided one of the most prolific offenses in the country. Indiana finished ninth in the nation in total offense in 2013, averaging 508.5 yards per game. The Hoosiers were 17th in passing offense (306.7 avg.) and 30th in rushing offense (201.8). Indiana was one of only three teams to average more than 300 yards passing and 200 yards rushing

Under Littrell’s guidance in 2013, Indiana set single-season records with 6,102 total yards, (508.5 ypg), 461 points, (38.4 ppg), 36 passing touchdowns, 62 total touchdowns and 300 first downs. Tight end Ted Bolser thrived in his system, setting IU career records for receptions, receiving yards and touchdowns by a tight end.
 
Barry Lunney Jr. (UTSA)
Barry Lunney Jr., who most recently served as the interim head coach at Arkansas, was named associate head coach and offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach at UTSA on Dec. 13, 2019.

In his first season overseeing the offense, Lunney guided the Roadrunners to new heights with a balanced attack, helping the team to a 7-5 record, a runner-up finish in the Conference USA West Division at 6-2 and an appearance in the SERVPRO First Responder Bowl. UTSA broke single-season school records for rushing yards (2,585), rushing yards per game (215.4), yards per rush (5.21) and rushing touchdowns (24) behind All-American running back and 2020 Conference USA Offensive Player of the Year Sincere McCormick. The Earl Campbell Tyler Rose Award finalist and Doak Walker Award semifinalist shattered UTSA's single-season marks for yards (1,467), carries (249) and touchdowns (11) while finishing second in the FBS with a program-record 133.4 rushing yards per game. The Roadrunners also smashed single-game standards for total yards (624) and rushing yards (443) in a game in a regular season-finale rout of North Texas.

Despite having to use four different quarterbacks during the 2020 campaign due to injuries and COVID-19 protocols, Lunney's passing game piled up 2,399 yards and 16 touchdowns on 60-percent passing (222-370). Davey O'Brien QB Class of 2020 honoree and honorable mention all-conference quarterback Frank Harris drew the most starts and completed 63.6 percent of his passes for 1,630 yards and 12 TDs while also rushing for 528 yards and nine scores. Wide receivers Joshua Cephus and Zakhari Franklin emerged as a potent tandem for the air attack, as the two sophomores set UTSA season records for receptions (58) and receiving yards (694), respectively.

In addition to McCormick and Harris, the offensive line trio of Spencer Burford, Makai Hart and Ahofitu Maka were tabbed second-team all-conference, while Cephus, Franklin and tight end Leroy Watson all received honorable mention recognition. Burford also was named to the Dave Campbell's Texas Football All-Texas College First Team, Maka was a Rimington Trophy watch list member and offensive lineman Demetris Allen was picked for the C-USA All-Freshman Team.

Lunney came to San Antonio after spending six seasons as the tight ends coach and special teams coordinator at his alma mater in Fayetteville. He took over as the interim head coach late in the 2019 season and led the Razorbacks in games against No. 1 LSU and Missouri.

Lunney brings a wealth of experience to the Roadrunners, including three seasons at Tulsa (2000-02), two at San Jose State (2003-04), nine as the offensive coordinator at Bentonville (Ark.) High School and eight combined years at Arkansas (1998-99, 2014-19).

Lunney helped develop the Arkansas offensive attack into one that was spurred through its tight ends. During the 2018 season, the Razorbacks made a living off production out of the tight end position, completing 58.8 percent of the group’s targets, which was above the team average. Arkansas finished the year ranked second in the country in tight end touchdowns and tied for fourth in the nation in tight end first downs, as Cheyenne O’Grady led the team in receptions (30) and touchdowns (six). In 2019, O’Grady led the Razorbacks with 33 catches and four TDs in 12 games.

From 2014 to 2016, Lunney developed one of the top tight ends in Arkansas history in Hunter Henry, who won the John Mackey Award and was a consensus first-team All-American as a junior in 2015. He was the first tight end taken in the 2016 NFL Draft with the 35thoverall pick by the Chargers, and he has become one of the top receiving threats in professional football.

Henry led all FBS tight ends with 739 receiving yards on 51 receptions – each career highs – and hauled in three touchdown passes in 2015. In addition, Henry and tight end mate Jeremy Sprinkle combined for a league-best 1,128 receiving yards and eight touchdowns.
 
Academic. Apologies for blatantly ripping off Pat Conroy, but HCKD has the sadim touch. Everything he touches turns to well, crap. You could bring in a hot OC, but I doubt HCKD would get out of the way since the offense is, reportedly, his specialty.
 
This may be a dead end job for some but I think it may actually be an attractive spot for an up and comer. No where to go but up and solid pay
The right guy could look at it as an opportunity to be the interim coach in waiting with a solid chance to eventually assume the job.
 
Guess we have until December to comb candidates …
Season is over in 5 weeks. I would hope that CU will start to zero in on some potential targets in the next several weeks, and strike quickly on the OC, so the OC can snag some of his preferred assistants and go after some players in the portal if need be.
 
Well I am sure the HCKD has a huge bigly coaching network to choose from. That is how we ended up with this craptastic staff? Answer me this, if you have anything going and may have opportunities, why would you come to work for a lame duck coach? That is where we are. Nobody worth a damn will come here after witnessing the disfunction in Boulder. Only when the staff is wiped clean will there be a chance to attract any quality assistants here. We are stuck watching this thing crater until KD and the entire staff are let go
 
I've been thinking a lot about this.

I don't think we can get any successful P5 coordinator. So I think we're looking at G5 or even FCS or DII.

I don't want a re-tread.

My wishlist of qualities:

1. Innovative (non-vanilla) system.
2. Coaches QB & has developed less heralded recruits.
3. System friendly to an athletic QB (our current personnel & easier to find than a Tom Brady type).
4. I prefer an offense that runs the ball & plays physical football.

I'm willing to take a chance, like Oregon did when it hired Chip Kelly from New Hampshire.

One guy who I think would be great here is Shane Montgomery. His JMU offenses were fantastic and he just took over at U Buffalo this year.

If I was going to go even more aggressive with my risk-taking, I'd take a shot at Willy Korn from Coastal Carolina and bring that offense to Boulder.
 
Chev probably going no where. Young Team ! And shrout injury excuse!
Hopefully they at least ship Rod back to Spanish Fort HS
 
Also, you guys probably know that my dream hire would be Jake Spavital, current HC at Texas State (maybe on the hot seat). He's been the next generation of the stuff that Rich Rodriguez & Dana Holgorsen developed.

Edit: After a quick twitter search, it looks like the Texas State fans are done after falling to 2-5.
 
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There’s got to be 200 coaches out there who could do something far better with this pool of talent on offense.
Thought we had to wait until December so there is no $500K payout on the OC’s contract?
 
You could bring in a hot OC, but I doubt HCKD would get out of the way since the offense is, reportedly, his specialty.
A hot OC does not come here unless they're given complete control of the offense.

Will KD give that up?

I don't think he can. He has too much pride wrapped up in "his" offense to scrap it entirely.

And even if he does completely hand over the offense to a new guy, that still leaves the biggest problem unaddressed: the piss-poor recruiting effort. And that won't change until he actually emphasizes it.
 
What if he just promotes Landsdorf?
To finish this season before moving on? I could support that.

But Langsdorf failed badly at Nebraska under Mike Riley. Since then, an analyst year with Oregon followed by 1 year with Fresno State. Fresno State was 2019 -- the 1 recent year they sucked and went 4-8. He's had some success, but how could we support promoting him after the horrible job he has done working with Lewis this year?
 
langsdorf will be the OC. The offense will be much more effective in 2022. It will still suck.
Yeah. Right now we have bad playcalling with a ****ty playbook.

Next year we'll likely have average and maybe even good playcalling, but the same ****ty playbook.

It will be an improvement in that the turd will be a bit more shiny.
 
I don't care what kind of scheme the new OC brings. He can run it 80% of the time or pass it 80% of the time. If it puts points on the board and makes games fun again, I'm all for it.
I hear you. I have my strong preference toward "smash mouth" and I do think it fits better with the program DNA. But I'll be happy as long as we're quickly fun to watch and competitive again.
 
I don't care what kind of scheme the new OC brings. He can run it 80% of the time or pass it 80% of the time. If it puts points on the board and makes games fun again, I'm all for it.

Yeah, I see a lot of people attributing the team's offensive struggles to the WCO like it just is outdated and cannot work...

A lot of NFL teams run some variations of the WCO, the system is fine and can be effective in modern football... but you still need a competent offensive line. You still need to confuse the defense. You still need to call a good game.

I don't care if they run the Wishbone next year, as long as they run it well.
 
A run first offense fits the history/culture of the school, the altitude, the late season weather, and the current talent on the roster. That kind of offense makes even mediocre QBs look good and it helps your defense by chewing up clock.

That kind of offense is a win, win, win for a rebuilding program.

Unless you land a top flight Dual threat QB and want to go RPO, run the damn ball.
 
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