BREAKING NEWS: Clemson Hires Dabo Swinney as Head Coach

Multiple sources tell Football Rumor Mill Clemson is expected to remove the interim tag from coach Dabo Swinney. Swinney took over as interim coach after Tommy Bowden resigned on Oct. 13. Clemson was 3-3, but finished 7-5 under Swinney. An official announcement could come as early as today.

BREAKING NEWS: UT Officially Hires Kiffin as Head Coach

The University of Tennessee is introducing Lane Kiffin as the 21st head coach in school history during a press conference Monday at 2 p.m. Eastern time in Neyland Stadium’s Wolf-Kaplan Center.

Kiffin joins the Vols as the former head coach of the Oakland Raiders and former offensive coordinator at Southern California under head coach Pete Carroll.

During his previous collegiate coaching stint with the Trojans, Kiffin demonstrated strong offensive prowess as an assistant from 2001-04. He was promoted to passing game coordinator in 2004 and served as offensive coordinator and recruiting coordinator for 2005 and 2006. USC led the nation in offense in 2005 and in both of his years as recruiting coordinator had the best recruiting classes in the nation. Those efforts helped the Trojans to back-to-back national college football championships and produced two Heisman Trophy winners — Matt Leinart in 2004 and Reggie Bush in 2005.

“Over the past few weeks, we have been on the road meeting with prospective coaches and talking to some of football’s most influential and knowledgeable players and coaches about the future of the Tennessee football program,” said UT Athletic Director Mike Hamilton. “We have had unbelievable interest from great coaches. When it was all said and done, we felt like Lane Kiffin was a perfect fit for Tennessee. He’s energetic, charismatic, consumed with recruiting and has had a lifelong love affair with football.”

Kiffin began his coaching career at his alma mater, Fresno State, working with quarterbacks and wide receivers from 1997-98. He was an assistant at Colorado State in 1999, working with the offensive line, and made his first stop in the NFL as defensive secondary quality control coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2000.

Kiffin was a quarterback at Fresno State for three seasons (1994-96) and earned his bachelor’s degree there in 1998.

A native of Bloomington, Minn., Kiffin is married to Layla Reaves Kiffin. They have two daughters: Landry (3) and Pressley (2), and are expecting a third child in January. His father, Monte, is the defensive coordinator of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The elder Kiffin, a longtime NFL and collegiate assistant coach, served as North Carolina State’s head coach in the early 1980s. - UTSports.com

BREAKING NEWS: Snyder Will Return to Marshall

Marshall University Director of Athletics Bob Marcum said Mark Snyder will remain head football coach. In a statement, Marcum said, ““To avoid any speculation concerning our football program, Mark Snyder is and will remain our head football coach.” After Saturday’s 38-35 loss to Tulsa, Snyder told WSAZ Sports Director Keith Morehouse that school officials told him “nothing” about next year. “We’re planning on hitting the road recruiting (Sunday),” Snyder said. In four seasons as Herd head coach, Snyder has a 16-31 record (13-19, C-USA). – WSAZ

BREAKING NEWS: Christensen to Replace Glenn at Wyoming

Dave Christensen, ranked the No.1 offensive coach in college football by Rivals.com, has accepted the head coaching job at the University of Wyoming, the Rocky Mountain News has learned. An announcement is expected within 24 hours. Christensen, the assistant head coach and offensive coordinator at Missouri, was with the Tigers for their game against Kansas at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City on Saturday, and then, along with his wife, flew on the University of Wyoming private plane to Laramie where he spent the night, working out details and meeting school officials. – Rocky Mountain News

Dave Christensen - veteran offensive coordinator at Missouri - will be announced as the new head football coach at Wyoming, probably on Monday. Missouri football players got that news at their annual football banquet today in Columbia. – Kansas City Star

Missouri offensive coordinator Dave Christensen will be named the head coach of Wyoming, sources familiar with the agreement told ESPN.com. Christensen is regarded as one of top offensive minds in the country. In 2007, Missouri’s offense scored a school-record 558 points and ranked in the top 10 in the nation in scoring offense, passing offense and total offense. A press conference is scheduled for Monday. – ESPN.com

Report: Hill Interviews at Washington

“The Name Game” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on active coaching searches around the country. The latest edition centers on the Washington Huskies…

The candidacy of Fresno State’s Pat Hill for the Washington coaching job may have taken a more serious turn Saturday. A Washington football source told The Times that Hill interviewed with UW officials on Saturday. The Fresno Bee reported on its Fresno State football blog that Hill boarded a flight to Seattle early Saturday morning, and his car was parked in the airport parking lot. The Bee cited two unidentified airport employees. Another source told The Times the Huskies are expected to interview Cincinnati coach Brian Kelly this week. Kelly led Cincinnati to a 10-2 record and the Big East championship this season. – Seattle Times

The Firing Line: No Decision On Tuberville

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville…

Rumors have been swirling for weeks that Tuberville, who earned a contract roll-over and a raise last year, may not be back at season’s end. Athletic direc­tor Jay Jacobs said Saturday night that no decision has been made. Tuberville, Jacobs and uni­versity president Jay Gogue are expected to meet in the coming days. Only then will a conclu­sion be revealed. That hasn’t stopped the coach from expressing his opin­ion. “All these jobs are hard in this conference. If I didn’t think I couldn’t do it, I’d be the first one to tell the Auburn people,” Tuberville said. “I’m committed to getting this thing going again. In this conference and in college football, you’re going to have up and down years. I have total con­fidence that I can get this thing turned around.” – Montgomery Advertiser

Tuberville had to answer for Auburn’s woes and his job future after the game, his worst loss as the Tigers’ head coach. He’ll have a formal discussion about it in the next few days with university President Jay Gogue. The players who met with the media after the game said any talk about Tuberville being in trouble is unfair, and said the speculation over Tuberville’s future was unfair to them. – Birmingham News

Brandon Fired at Bowling Green Despite Success

Gregg Brandon became head football coach at Bowling Green at the start of the 2003 season. The Falcons are 44-30 since, including 31-17 in Mid-American Conference play, and none of the league’s other 12 teams has matched or bettered those numbers over that time frame. BG also is the only MAC team since ‘03 to have a winning record in non-league play. Those are the little snippets you find in a school’s weekly game notes prepared for the media. In fact, it was all right there in the BG notes on Friday, although we’ve taken the liberty of updating the records in light of the Falcons’ subsequent 38-10 romp past archrival Toledo. Not such a big deal was made of all that yesterday in a midafternoon press release sent by BG officials to announce Brandon had been fired.

Very interesting. V-e-r-y interesting. Although the 2008 season, which ended 6-6, was definitely frustrating and disappointing for a team expected to win a MAC divisional title, BG could not very well fire Brandon for losing. Could it? Not with his aforementioned record. Not a year after he led the Falcons to a bowl game. Not some 10 months after giving him a contract extension through the 2011 season. Contracts, of course, are disposable. Might as well be written on toilet paper. If somebody wants to get you, they’ll get you. Athletic director Greg Christopher is the “somebody” in this case. He giveth the extension and he taketh it away. It will cost $250,000 to separate Brandon from his contract. Christopher made it clear at a press conference last night that the money will come not from student fees but from athletic department fund-raising and marketing revenues. Translation: Someone whose wardrobe features orange and prefers his tailgate fare served on fine china will write a check. – Toldeo Blade

Gregg Brandon was fired as football coach of Bowling Green State University Saturday morning, just hours after the Falcons defeated rival Toledo 38-10 to end their year with a disappointing 6-6 record. BGSU athletic director Greg Christopher said ‘an accumulation of things’ both on and off the field went into his decision to fire Brandon, who accepted a three-year contract extension in February. “There have been some off-the-field things that I think ultimately have impacted what’s happened on the field,” Christopher said at a news conference Saturday night at Anderson Arena. In six seasons as head coach of the Falcons, Brandon went 44-30 overall and 31-17 in the Mid-American Conference. His winning percentage (64.6) in the MAC is the best of any league coach since 2003. – Toldeo Blade

The Firing Line: Weis Waits on ND Decision

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Notre Dame Coach Charlie Weis…

“It” is the job security of Charlie Weis, the Notre Dame football coach who surely ran out of real estate, rope and rational defenses in a humiliating 38-3 loss to relentless USC. What Syracuse began last week in South Bend, the Trojans finished here. Whatever was left of Weis’ worthless offensive genius façade crumbled on a night when the Fighting Irish were without a first down until the final play of the third quarter. They had four first downs and 91 total yards in an utterly feeble performance that should be Weis’ last as head coach. No amount of pretzel logic should save Weis now, no amount of finger-pointing at the previous regime, no amount of blue-skying about recruiting rankings begetting future greatness. Unless the Fighting Irish brass refuses to spend what ESPN has reported is an outrageous sum to buy Weis out of his massive, millstone contract, he’s done in South Bend. There can be no other justification for keeping him. Not now, as his winning percentage dips to sub-Ty Willingham levels and his offense sinks to new lows. It’s very simple. If Willingham had to go after three seasons, Weis has to go with a worse record after four. Or the explanation for keeping him had better be brilliant. – ESPN

If Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick is in any hurry to determine the employment status of head football coach Charlie Weis moving forward, he certainly didn’t display it on Saturday night at the L.A. Coliseum. Meeting with a group of reporters after Notre Dame’s 38-3 loss to fifth-ranked USC, Swarbrick continually stressed that his next meeting with Weis would be a comprehensive review of the state of the football program, not merely a summit to determie if Weis will remain to coach the Irish for a fifth season. “You’re assuming that’s what’s going on and it’s not,” Swarbrick said when questioned directly about a decision on Weis. “We are engaged in a process of reviewing the program and asking ourslves how do you make it better? What do you do? – South Bend Tribune

Not even close. And because of Notre Dame’s 38-3 loss to fifth-ranked USC Saturday night at the L.A. Coliseum, could Notre Dame be looking at the close of the Charlie Weis Era? “I’m not concerned with that right now,” Weis said after ND amassed 91 total yards, second-lowest in his four seasons. “I’m more concerned with the health of my team and the spirit of my team. I’m the head football coach at Notre Dame.” ND athletic director Jack Swarbrick, who met the media in the stadium tunnel after the game, said he planned to next meet with Weis at their regular Monday meeting time, but admitted it might be Dec. 8 rather than this Monday, since Weis plans to stay out on the West Coast to recruit. “We sit down with the sports administrators and we review each of our sports after the season,” Swarbrick said of the procedure in evaluating all Irish coaches. “That’s what we’ll do. We look at a host of factors.” The Irish lost for the fourth time in their last five games, limping to a 6-6 regular-season finish after a promising 4-1 start. And the loss will only add to the questions about Weis’ future. – South Bend Tribune

The Name Game: Dooley, Bowden, Venables, Strong Lead Miss. St. List

“The Name Game” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on active coaching searches around the country. The latest edition centers on the Mississippi State Bulldogs…

Byrne said State “was prepared” for the coaching vacancy left by Croom’s departure, but declined to say if he had a short list of potential candidates. Two names that immediately surfaced were former Clemson coach Tommy Bowden and Derek Dooley, the coach at Louisiana Tech. Louisiana Tech, ironically, beat State 22-14 on opening night this season in Ruston, La. “We’re going to begin the search immediately,” Byrne said. “We’re going to take however long it takes for Mississippi State to make the right choice. I’ve seen them take a day, I’ve seen them take a month.” – Sun-Herald

Several names are being bandied about as a possible replacement. Among them are East Carolina coach Skip Holtz, TCU coach Gary Patterson, ex-Clemson coach Tommy Bowden, Florida defensive coordinator and assistant head coach Charlie Strong, and Oklahoma defensive coordinator Brent Venables. Byrne said MSU will use a search firm but that no formal agreement has been reached. Byrne said he always has a list of coaches handy, and he knows what he wants in a new hire. – Daily Journal

The Firing Line: Snyder Awaits Marshall Decision

“The Firing Line” at Football Rumor Mill focuses on coaches around the country who are in serious jeopardy. The latest edition centers on Marshall Coach Mark Snyder…

Is Marshall head football coach Mark Snyder returning in 2009 for a fifth season at the helm? Marshall’s president needs to let Herd fans know one way or another. Silence is neither golden nor acceptable in this case. The fact that Snyder has four seasons remaining on his contract extension does not constitute a loophole for Kopp. Contracts can be bought out. So, no waffling, Mr. President. – Herald-Dispatch

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