East Carolina/Charlotte
It appears that both programs are interested in the same guy, and after Charlotte reported that they had indeed hired Mike Houston of James Madison, it was Houston himself that issued the "not so fast" statement, saying that he had indeed spoken with Charlotte, and had expressed interest, and even that an offer was made, he stated that he had not gone all in on accepting the offer just yet. James Madison is till in the FCS playoffs, but that may not be the issue here.
East Carolina officially fired Scottie Montgomery today, as expected. It appears that Houston may have stiff armed Charlotte because he knew that the ECU job was opening, and that was the job he was really coveting. We now have a stalemate, and still no AD in charge at ECU after a closed door meeting to discuss Montgomery and the AD job yesterday with the board of regents. This is going to get nuts in the coming days, so stay tuned on these two jobs.
Louisville/Purdue
Jeff Brohm did what I and others had been saying he would do all along...he jilted a strong pursuit by Louisville to remain at Purdue for a nice increase for him and his staff. Purdue fans should be lit up after this occurrence, as this is a commitment to the future of that program that we have not seen since the Joe Tiller era.
Louisville has now been downgraded as a long term job in the ACC. This was always likely to happen, but here we are at a stark reality for that program. It is a total rebuild in a conference where, because of massive instability in the last year, the job may not be the best available in its own league.
Vince Tyra has now refocused the search, and started doing so last night. The top candidates are now Scott Satterfield and Neal Brown, which are solid candidates, but either candidate has a massive mountain to move as far as rebuilding the program, one that under achieved even at its height.
Texas Tech
It appears that there is a front runner in sight for Kirby Hocutt, and that would be Utah State's Matt Wells. Tech is not exactly a top tier gig in the Big 12, and Wells has won in a similar situation at Utah State, and that is an attractive feature for Hocutt at Tech.
It was said that Seth Littrell of North Texas would be interviewing today, but that report proved false, as all eyes are on Wells. If Wells is the guy, expect it to happen in short order, as in the next 24 to 48 hours of this report.
North Carolina
If it were not already bizarre enough with the hiring of Mack Brown, the staffing situation took another laughable turn when Brown hired Greg Robinson today. It is a report that such has happened, and you can expect an official release on this shortly. Dre Bly will also apparently coach the corners.
Robinson has not been a successful coordinator or coach in well over a decade, so the wisdom of this hire is reflected only by the lack of wisdom in hitting the retread barrel to hire a 67 year old Mack Brown.
UNLV
Nobody really needed this announcement, but Desiree Francois-Reed, the AD at UNLV, as announced, officially, that Tony Sanchez will be back. I am sure it was a painful admission for her, as she has never been a fan.
The expectation is that it is bowl or bust in 2019 for Sanchez here. Again, this is not exactly new news for anyone who knows what is going on at UNLV, one of the most dysfunctional places going.
Georgia Tech
There are two schools of thought at Georgia Tech in replacing Paul Johnson, who will retire after the bowl game. One school is to stick with the triple option, and the other is to scrap it and get more modern in terms of offensive philosophy.
There are two very different lists of candidates for those options. The option list is limited to option coaches, who include Jeff Monken of Army, Ken Niumatalolo of Navy, Chad Lunsford of Georgia Tech, and Brian Bohannon of Kennesaw State.
Option two is a wider range, including Neal Brown of Troy, former NFL head coach Ken Whisenhunt, Clemson Co-OC Tony Elliott, and App State's Scott Satterfield.
Expect this job to heat up in the coming days, but make no mistake about the national reports of this being a "great job". This is not one of the better openings in major college football, and Tech is always a mid-tier job in the ACC.
Tennessee
The search to replace Tyson Helton as OC has moved along quickly here, as two candidates appear on top of every report in Chip Lindsey at Auburn and Eli Drinkwitz of NC State. Expect a hire to be made early next week.
Kansas State
AD Gene Taylor has told the paper in Manhattan that he has not spoken with anyone specifically as a candidate to replace Bill Snyder. We probably all know that is not a truth.
Stay tuned...
Stephen F. Austin
Former NFL Safety Van Malone has interviewed to replace Clint Conque at SFA. Other interviews are still pending.
Jackson State
John Henderick, who served as interim when Tony Hughes was fired in season, has had the tag removed, and he will be the permanent head coach for 2019.
Here are your updated Coaching Trackers for today...
| School | Old Coach | New Coach |
| Bowling Green | Mike Jinks | Scott Loeffler |
| Central Michigan | John Bonamego | |
| Charlotte | Brad Lambert | Mike Houston (???) |
| Colorado | Mike MacIntyre | |
| East Carolina | Scottie Montgomery | |
| Georgia Tech | Paul Johnson | |
| Kansas | David Beaty | Les Miles |
| Louisville | Bobby Petrino | |
| Maryland | DJ Durkin | |
| North Carolina | Larry Fedora | Mack Brown |
| Texas State | Everett Withers | Jake Spavital |
| Texas Tech | Kliff Kingsbury | |
| U Mass | Mark Whipple | |
| Western Kentucky | Mike Sanford, Jr. | Tyson Helton |
| School | Old Coach | New Coach |
| Brown | Phil Estes | |
| Eastern Illinois | Kim Dameron | |
| Howard | Mike London | |
| Jackson State | Tony Hughes | John Hendrick |
| McNeese State | Lance Guidry | |
| Morgan State | Ernest Jones | |
| North Carolina Central | Granville Eastman | |
| Northern Arizona | Jerome Souers | |
| Sacramento State | Jody Sears | |
| Stephen F. Austin | Clint Conque | |
| Texas Southern | Mike Haywood | |
| William & Mary | Jimmye Laycock | Mike London |
