Here's a Shocker: Gregory is Officially Out at USF

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Posted by DCS

It doesn't happen often, but today, Brett McMurphy who authors the Bulls Report, scooped his journalistic rival Greg Auman of the USF Sports Bulletin. Today, he is the first to announce that former USF offensive coordinator Greg Gregory is officially leaving the program for the same post at the University of South Alabama (an upstart D-1A program this year).

It was a long and strange saga that began with Gregory notifying head coach Jim Leavitt that he was interviewing for the vacant tight ends coach position at the University of Florida, being relieved of his coordinator duties by Leavitt (all while still working on behalf of the Bulls), switching offices with former OC Mike Canales, and now officially leaving the program for the affectionately acronymed USA.

As McMurphy points out at the end of his piece, Leavitt will have to decide between elevating Canales to OC (as many expect he will) and hiring a wide receivers replacement from outside, or vice versa. Hey, I hear Mitch Browning is still maybe...sorta...available?

uRi?

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Posted by DCS

The mighty University of Rhode Island football team will apparently see an influx of transfers from Rutgers this coming season. According to Kyle Town of the Good Five Cent Cigar (URI student newspaper), backup quarterback Chris Paul-Etienne, tight end Tom Lang, wide receiver Robenson Alexis, and defensive back Rob Cervini are all coming to the Football Championship Subdivision program.

URI head coach Darren Rizzi was an associate head coach under Greg Schiano at Rutgers from 2006-07, so this pipeline is not all that much of surprise. Of the transfers, Paul-Etienne and Cervini stick out the most in my mind. Paul-Etienne was the primary backup to Mike Teel at one point this season, but eventually fell out of favor with Schiano when Dom Natale replaced him in the pecking order. That being said, I would think that Paul-Etienne would have had a solid opportunity to compete for the starting job this season along with Natale and incoming freshman phenom Tom Savage, now that Teel is graduating. Cervini, who was a program walk-on, gained some notoriety in this year's Papajohns.com Bowl when he scored Rutgers' first points of the game on a fake field goal play.

It's significant that Darren Rizzi managed to poach four players from his former employer in the first year he was able to do so. It will be interesting to see if this becomes an annual right of passage for disgruntled Scarlet Knight footballers in years to come.

What else is going on?:

• Tom Dienhart never fails to post an informative column on Rivals.com -- There's a mention of former Syracuse offensive coordinator Mitch Browning possibly going to Boston College as an offensive line coach and a later blurb on Steve Kragthorpe potentially calling the offensive plays for Louisville and the fate of Jeff Brohm
• Former Syracuse fullback Tony Fiammetta is a hot NFL prospect and he's keeping a diary of his experiences leading up to the draft on the Daily Orange Football Blog
• Florida three star (rivals) linebacker Shane Weston gave a (soft) verbal to Pitt

Will Mitch Browning Board the Kiffin Gravy Train?

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Posted by DCS

Photo Credit: Frank Ordonez/Syracuse Post-Standard

Apologies for the over-abundance of Syracuse related stories today, but I couldn't help but share this one. As Tom Dienhart of Rivals.com astutely points out, former Syracuse offensive coordinator Mitch Browning is considering an offer to join Lane Kiffin's staff at the University of Tennessee as a....wait for it....wait for it....GRADUATE ASSISTANT!

Browning, considered to be one of the best offensive line mentors in the country, would go to Knoxville to help in that regard. He's still under contract with the Orange for another year, so the lack of salary at Tennessee would not be a factor. The recently unemployed coach is credited with discovering talent at the running back position in Marion Barber and Lawrence Maroney, while he coached under Glenn Mason at the University of Minnesota. It could also be asserted that he played a significant role in senior Syracuse running back Curtis Brinkley finally having a breakout season with over 1,000 yards rushing.

With all of the coaching/recruiting talent that Lane Kiffin has been surrounding himself with at UT, one can already see that he's not screwing around. The hiring of Browning as a grad assistant however, would without a doubt, take the cake. If this move were to come to fruition, it would surprise me for two reasons:

1. Even though Mitch Browning is a quality coach and would be a worthy staff addition, why wouldn't Kiffin want to use a graduate assistant spot for a younger up-and-coming coach that he could mentor; maybe even a minority candidate that could use the role as a stepping stone to future Division 1-a opportunities?


2. Why, when Glenn Mason was fired, was Browning out of work for a year before being hired by Greg Robinson at Syracuse. And why, now that Greg Robinson has been let go, is Browning not being seriously considered for a paying gig at another institution?

Stay tuned for a link to come later if in fact Mitch Browning takes a graduate assistant position at UT, or otherwise.