Washington RB coach joins Bielema in Arkansas

“‘Twas the day before Christmas with new Arkansas coach Bret Bielema manning his post.

“‘A running backs coach,’ Bielema wished aloud. ‘That’s what I want the most.’

“And, so, Bielema picked up the phone and gave it a dial. Joel Thomas answered in Seattle, joking to Bielema that it had been a while. Bielema offered Thomas a job, to which the coach accepted. Thomas packed his bags for Fayetteville, and that’s how he left it.”

Anyway, here’s what Bielema said less-poetically and festively in a release on Monday announcing Thomas as the Hogs’ new running backs coach.

“Joel Thomas has a proven record of developing running backs. He excelled at the position as a player and has demonstrated a remarkable ability to connect with his student-athletes and pass his knowledge on to them. He also brings a strong background of recruiting in Texas and Dallas specifically, which is a valuable area for us to have a presence. I am extremely confident in Joel’s ability based on his time spent working under Jim Chaney, and I believe Joel’s knowledge and familiarity with Coach Chaney will be a benefit to our offense.”

Thomas has coached four 1,000-yard running backs in as many years with the Huskies. In his final game with you-dub, Thomas coached Bishop Sankey, who rushed for 205 yards and was named MVP of the MAACO Bowl Las Vegas.

In a fairly news-y day for the Sooners from Oklahoma, it was revealed Wednesday that new offensive coordinator Lincoln Riley has inked a two-year contract that will pay him $500,000 annually. His contract was approved during an OU Board of Regents meeting.

Thanks to Guerin Emig of the Tulsa World, we know Riley will be the Big 12’s second-highest paid offensive coordinator in the Big 12. Texas’ Shawn Watson made $650,000 in 2014 to lead the league. Departed Baylor offensive coordinator Philip Montgomery made $504,645 this fall.

Riley’s half-a-million dollar salary would have tied him for 66th nationally among all college football assistants last fall according to the USA Today coaching salary database. He ranked 244th at just north of $278,000 at East Carolina in 2014.

Riley will be Oklahoma’s second-highest paid assistant, trailing defensive coordinator Mike Stoops. Previous offensive coordinator Josh Heupel earned $605,000 in 2014.

We’ve known of Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher‘s new eight-year contract for more than a month now, but on Wednesday we learned the details of the head Seminole’s new deal.

Thanks to an open records request by the Tallahassee Democrat, Florida State revealed that Fisher will earn $5 million a year in 2015, and the coach will receive a $100,000 a year bump through the 2022 season. Fisher, who earned $3.6 million in 2014 according to the USA Today coaching salary database, joins Alabama’s Nick Saban, Oklahoma’s Bob Stoops, Texas A&M’s Kevin Sumlin, Texas’ Charlie Strong and Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh in college football’s $5 million club.

Of course, the most important figure in any coaching contract is the buyout. And there is a significant one here. Fisher would owe a cool $5 million should he leave before Dec. 31, 2016, a more manageable $3 million if he left between Jan. 1, 2017 and Dec. 31, 2018, and a minuscule $1 million thereafter.

Fisher is eligible for bonuses ranging from $50,000 for reaching a non-College Football Playoff bowl game to $250,000 for reaching certain team GPA or other off-the-field benchmarks. He’ll make $200,000 if the ‘Noles win a national championship. Fisher will also receive a $1.2 million longevity bonus should he remain in Tallahassee through the life of the contract.

The new deal also provides an extra $750,000 for Fisher’s assistants. The group earned nearly $3.4 million in 2014, good for 12th nationally and third in the ACC. The new pool would rank them just behind Auburn for fifth nationally.

Oklahoma is planning on postponing the major renovation project to Gaylord Family-Memorial Stadium announced last summer. Or, they’re not. One or the other.

A report from SoonerScoop.com released Wednesday stated Oklahoma had informed contractors and architects that it is placing the $370 million project on hold due to “market related” factors. More specifically, the price of oil has dropped precipitously, directly impacting many of the Sooners’ big money donors. The report outlined that OU’s fundraising arm has struggled to secure sales of new suites, which would underwrite a large portion of the renovations.

The Sooners’ limp finish to the 2014 season certainly didn’t help, but SoonerScoop writes that competitive factors aren’t holding up the project. “The football outlook has barely entered into the discussion at all,” a source told the site. “It seems everyone knows upgrades like this are important in keeping us competitive.”

Another reason, the report states, that the project will go on hold has been Oklahoma president David Boren‘s drive to secure funding for OU’s Residential College, a sort of academic utopia mimicking schools back east and across the pond. “The new housing facilities will be designed as living/learning communities that would, by their nature, build strong communities and identities and become the cornerstone of the undergraduate experience,” said a university press release. “They will be patterned on those at Harvard, Yale, Oxford and Cambridge.”

As fate would have it, the report went live as Boren spoke to reporters at an OU Board of Regents meeting.

During interview with Boren, he pulled a printed out copy of the @SoonerScoop report out of his jacket and called it false.

— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) January 28, 2015

Well, then.

David Boren said that “from the way it reads,” @SoonerScoop must have gotten its information from the athletics department. #Sooners

— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) January 28, 2015

David Boren said everything is good to go, but then did admit that oil and gas prices have hurt “all fundraising.” #Sooners

— Jason Kersey (@jasonkersey) January 28, 2015

To its credit, SoonerScoop is standing by its reporting.

President Boren calls our reporting false. I can only tell you our sources have been told stadium expansion is on hold.

— SoonerScoop.com (@SoonerScoop) January 28, 2015

`

Our reporting has uncovered a lot of people at odds throughout this process. We have been researching/working this story since the bowl game

— SoonerScoop.com (@SoonerScoop) January 28, 2015

Boren said that Oklahoma is “shovel ready,” and that he is slated to discuss the project with the Regents at their March meeting.

One thing is certain with stories like this: either the renovations will happen, or they won’t. We’ll find out soon enough.

Central Florida and Florida Atlantic each have short histories as FBS programs. FAU played its first season in 2001, and UCF joined FBS way back in the ancient days of 1996. As such, two programs one would think tussle on a semi-annual basis have only played once, a 33-29 Knights win back in 2003.

That is about to change.

The schools announced a home-and-home series for 2018 and 2019 on Wednesday. Florida Atlantic will visit Orlando on Sept. 22, 2018, and Central Florida will return the favor on Sept. 7, 2019.

UCF and FAU agree to a home-and-home series. Knights host the Owls in 2018 http://t.co/NDevnfRKOw #ChargeOn pic.twitter.com/j6LaL7jkpy

— UCF Football (@UCF_Football) January 28, 2015

A home-and-home with Florida Atlantic means Central Florida will have played a Sunshine State opponent in non-conference play every year from 2005-19, save for a one-year break in 2010.

Each program has played Florida twice. Central Florida has played Florida State once and Miami twice, while Florida Atlantic has faced FAU once and never played Florida State.

Here’s hoping UCF’s sideline cabana is still around in 2018.

It appears that the Joker is back in the coaching game.

Following up on reports that began surfacing a couple of days ago, ESPN.com is reporting that Joker Phillips has agreed to become the wide receivers coach of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.  The organization has not yet announced his hiring, although that’s something that could happen this week and perhaps as early as today.

Phillips had spent the 2013 season as Florida’s receivers coach before abruptly resigning his position in June of last year.  Other than “personal reasons,” no reason was given for the unexpected departure.  It was subsequently reported that Phillips was photographed eating in a restaurant with a football prospect during a recruiting dead period, which would be an NCAA violation.  He sat out the 2014 season, at least as far as coaching goes.

Phillips, whose main mark while at UF was as a recruiter and Twitter genius, has never held a job at the NFL level as his entire 26-year coaching career has come in the college game.

A receivers coach on six different occasions at five schools, Phillips has, in addition to his time at UF, held that role on staffs at Kentucky (199-96), Cincinnati (1997), Minnesota (1999-2000) and South Carolina (2002).  He spent another stint at UK from 2003-09 before becoming the Wildcats’ head coach in 2010-12.

A 13-24 record in the three seasons led to his dismissal in 2012.

It appears Louisville could indeed be forced to search for a new defensive coordinator.

Monday, reports surfaced that the Oakland Raiders had targeted UofL coordinator Todd Grantham for the same position with the NFL club.  Two days later, the courtship between the two sides has reportedly gotten very serious.

It’s not, though, a done deal that Grantham will accept the Raiders offer.

While Grantham has coached at the collegiate level since 2010, he spent the previous 11 years in the NFL.  In February of 2013, Grantham, then the coordinator at Georgia, interviewed for the same job with the New Orleans Saints before deciding to remain with the Bulldogs.  Less than a year later, however, he left UGA for the UofL.

In mid-August of last year, it was reported that significant friction existed between Grantham and head coach Bobby Petrino.  Both coaches subsequently downplayed the speculation.

It’s not often that an FCS player transfers up to the FBS.  It appears, though, that at least one star at the Level Formerly Known as Div. I-A is at least contemplating such a move.

According to Jen Beyrle of The Oregonian via Twitter, Eastern Washington’s Vernon Adams will be visiting Oregon this weekend. While not stated specifically in the tweet, the assumption is that the quarterback is considering a transfer to the Ducks.

247Sports.com is reporting that Adams has already been granted his transfer release, which seems to make a move to the Ducks imminent.

With Heisman winner Marcus Mariota leaving his remaining eligibility on the table and moving on to the NFL, UO will conduct a quarterback competition beginning this spring. The way it stands now, Jeff Lockie will enter spring as the front-runner, with competition being provided by redshirt freshmen Taylor Alie and California product Ty Griffin, true freshman Morgan Mahalak and 2015 early signee and four-star recruit Travis Waller.  There have also been rumors that Braxton Miller has an interest in transferring to the Ducks, although that talk has waned of late.

Adams certainly has the credentials to come in and compete immediately with the group that will be there as he would be a grad transfer.

In a 49-46 win over Oregon State in 2013, Adams accounted for 518 yards of offense and six total touchdowns — 411 and four passing, 107 and two rushing.  A year later, Adams passed for 475 yards in a 59-52 loss to Washington.

Over the past two seasons, Adams has thrown for 90 touchdowns and ran for another 10.  In 2013, he was runner-up for the Walter Payton Award, given to the top player in the FCS.

Don’t you just love the wonderful world of college football recruiting, especially when it comes to the SEC (or the Big Ten)?

Four-star 2015 wide receiver Preston Williams has been a verbal commit to Tennessee for the last four months but has still taken visits to, among other places, Georgia and, most recently, Auburn.  It was on that latter trip this past weekend that the darker side of the recruiting game reared its head yet again.

In the wake of that visit to The Plains, one in which he was reportedly adorned in UT clothing, rumors surfaced that the Georgia high schooler was caught smoking marijuana in a hotel.  During a radio interview Tuesday night, Williams, who claimed he was “forced into the visit” by the AU coaching staff, denied the weed accusations.

“Not at all,” Williams told WNML when asked if what in part began as message board rumors were accurate. “That’s how people get when you don’t want to do something, they try to put bad words out on you, rumors and stuff. I just let them put rumors out on me. People are going to believe what they want to believe because they have their own opinion.”

Williams also copped to wearing Vols gear during his visit to The Plains, which could explain why or how the pot speculation surfaced in the first place. Not only was he (allegedly) wearing an SEC rival’s colors, he was (allegedly) actively recruiting other prospects who were visiting in an attempt to get them to flip to UT.

Suffice to say, and per the player, it didn’t sit well with his hosts.

“A lot of schools, they don’t like it,” Williams, who left his AU visit earlier than originally planned (or was forced to leave early), said. “They told me to take it off, this and that. They were getting mad. When they were getting mad, I was like, ‘Do I believe them or not? Are they playing with me or what?’ So I was just laughing.”

Of course, now there’s a report out that Williams wasn’t wearing UT apparel at all, that his visit was in fact cut short because of a combination of disinterest on the part of the prospect and the “incident in the hotel room.” The radio station that did the interview with Williams, citing a source in Auburn’s program with direct knowledge of the situation, reported Tuesday evening that Williams was sent home early after he was caught smoking marijuana.

As for Williams’ comments that he was forced into the AU visit and that it was a last-minute kind of thing, the player confirmed Dec. 31 that he would be taking a January visit to the Tigers. “I want to check Auburn out,” Williams said at the time. “Coach (Dameyune) Craig is recruiting me. I’ve talked to him a lot and I told him I’d come visit.”

So, who’s embellishing what?  Who knows.  Or, as some would say when it comes to the seedy side of recruiting, who cares just make it stop.

Williams, incidentally, is rated as the No. 19 receiver in the country and the No. 11 player at any position in the state of Georgia by Rivals.com.  Oh, and, call it a hunch as I’m no recruiting guru, but don’t look for him to flip to Auburn.

(Photo credit: Rivals.com)

Jim Harbaugh may or may not pull in one of the Big Ten’s top recruiting classes — it’ll more than likely the latter — when it’s all said and done, but what he and his staff are doing now is setting the football program up for the next year’s class.

Exactly one week away from National Signing Day, UM’s 2015 class ranks 75th nationally and dead last in the Big Ten (Purdue is the closest at 60th).  That’s quite an improvement from two weeks ago when, two weeks into his tenure, Harbaugh’s Wolverines were 97th in the country.  That bump was triggered by a trio of flips, including a four-star quarterback who had been a Texas commit.

UM, along with UCLA, is also in play for the No. 1 tight end in the country, Chris Clark, a target that could push the class ranking closer to midpack. Five-star cornerback Iman Marshall, the No. 3 player in the nation according to Rivals.com, took an official visit to Ann Arbor earlier this month and came away giving UM serious consideration, although USC is still widely considered the favorite (maybe).  A handful of three- and four-star recruits are still in play as well.

The program hopes to add 15 players from this year’s class, and are currently sitting at nine commitments with signing day seven days away.

Given the tight time frame in which Harbaugh’s been forced to operate, and despite attacking this day with Enthusiasm Unknown to Mankind, the 2015 recruiting cycle is essentially serving as a gateway to next year’s class.

“You may not see a huge bump in 2015, in part because of the timing of Jim Harbaugh’s hire,” Brandon Huffman, the national director of recruiting for Scout.com, told the Toledo Blade recently. “But you’ll see that momentum carry into the spring when coaches go on the road to begin evaluating the 2016 class.”

Harbaugh & Company could still make a late push this year, but circle 2016 as the year they begin to challenger Urban Meyer and Ohio State, currently seventh nationally, for Big Ten recruiting supremacy.

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Right or wrong, Miami’s Al Golden will likely head into the 2015 season on arguably the hottest coaching seat in America.

After improving to 7-5 in 2012 and 9-4 in 2013 after a first season of 6-6, Golden’s Hurricanes dipped back to 6-6 in the 2014 regular season before dropping its bowl game and tumbling to 6-7.  UM lost its last four games this past season, the second straight year they’ve stumbled to the finish; in 2013, they lost four of their last six after starting out 7-0.

The fan base, former players — including very outspoken former players — and even boosters are restless for The U to return to its glory days, with most not shy of making their displeasure known for a man who helped guide the program through the choppy waters of NCAA sanctions.  Most, not all, though, as Golden has his supporters, most notably former Miami great Michael Irvin.

As transcribed by the Miami Herald, Irvin very vociferously defended the current head coach during a radio interview while also defending athletic director Blake James decision to bring Golden back.

“I thought it was the right move, and guys, I’ve said this over and over again and I’ll say it here again: Al Golden — Coach Al Golden — has earned this opportunity, has earned the right to see this through. With what he’s done, to jump there and fight, that was not his fight, and he stayed through the fight. He recruited well and he kept us in the fight.

…

“We started a freshman quarterback. Where’s the smarts? Tell me this: Where’s the smarts in saying, ‘Hey freshman, we know we started you. We know you learned a lot. But right now we’re going to snatch all of that from under you and make you start all over again next year.’

“It would be absolutely stupid, absolutely ignorant to do it to him, so it would be absolutely the right thing to let this man get one more year to finish and make it right. Building a championship takes time and there’s a process to it. And we’re in the midst, I think, of a very good process.

“And I surely hope that people, in Miami, can calm their asses down and let the process see itself through.”

Irvin’s support notwithstanding, most observers agree that Golden faces a make-or-break 2015 campaign.  Another late-season collapse, or another season that hovers around .500 — or both — portends doom for Golden’s tenure at the school.

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Three Kentucky football players who found themselves on the wrong side of the law last year may have done the same to start out the new year.

The father of Eastern Kentucky lineman Colton Scurry told the Louisville Courier-Journal Tuesday that his son sustained multiple facial fractures during an incident at an off-campus bar this past weekend. Three Kentucky football players were alleged to have been involved in what turned into a brawl: wide receiver Dorian Baker (pictured), quarterback Drew Barker and defensive end Tymere Dubose.

Witnesses claimed that it was Scurry who was the aggressor.

“I was actually pretty sober and I was watching everything that was going down,” Zach Littleton, an EKU student, told the Courier-Journal. “Basically what happened was a bunch of UK football players come in and all you hear is, ‘This is my neighborhood. What are you doing here?’

“I know if there’s any video, you’ll see I’m trying to defuse the situation. I was getting between them and saying, ‘Calm down. Calm down.’ (But) As soon as (Scurry) pushed Will, it was just a big mess. From what I saw, it wasn’t just Colton. I saw a bunch of people swinging for no reason.”

The Will mentioned by Littleton is Will Ruholt, a high school friend of Barker who also laid the blame for the melee at the feet of Scurry.

“We were in the back part of Jerzees,” said Ruholt. “A couple people started talking (abusively) and things started to get a little heated. Colton Scurry is the one who started the entire fight. He pushed me. Multiple people can verify that.”

Curry may need to undergo reconstructive surgery, his father allowed.

An EKU spokesperson stated that the university is currently investigating the incident, as well as an on-campus incident “that may have occurred late Saturday night or early Sunday morning” and is possibly connected to the bar fight. UK head coach Mark Stoops is aware of the situation and is gathering information while on the road recruiting.

In late September, Baker, Barker and Dubose, along with running back Stanley “Boom” Williams, were suspended following an airsoft pellet gun incident that ended with Lexington police shutting down campus.

Baker finished the 2014 season fifth in receiving yards (199) and sixth in receptions (19).  Neither Barker nor Dubose recorded any stats.

South Carolina’s depleted receiving corps has taken yet another hit.

On Twitter Tuesday, K.J. Brent announced that he will be transferring out of the Gamecocks football program to an undetermined location for his final season of college football.  As he will be a graduate transfer, Brent will be eligible to play immediately in 2015 if he transfers to an FBS school and enrolls in a grad program not offered at USC.

Below is the missive Brent posted on the social media website yesterday evening.

In 2014, Brent played in all 13 games, catching nine passes for 11 yards and a touchdown.  Behind Pharoh Cooper (42-1,136-9), Brent would’ve been the Gamecocks’ second-leading returning wide receiver; with Brent gone, that honor now falls to Shamier Jeffery and his two receptions for nine yards.

Late last month, Shaq Roland, third in receiving yards and fourth in receptions in 2014, abruptly quit the team. A month later, he landed at the FCS level to finish out his collegiate career.

The voice in general and opinions specifically of outspoken ESPN college football analyst Mark May have been the bane of the existence of many an Ohio State fan for many a year.

His anti-OSU agenda has not gone unnoticed, from Facebook pages — “Mark May is a D***e” anyone? Or THIS. Or THIS — to the national media — “his burning, seething hatred of Ohio State reads like a message board commenter” — to, now, the head coach of the team he ofttimes directs his puzzling venom. In the run-up to the selection of the College Football Playoff final four, the former Pittsburgh Panther standout ratcheted up the rhetoric and histrionics.

“They weren’t worthy enough to get [into the CFP],” May said prior to the 59-0 win over Wisconsin in the Big Ten title game that propelled OSU into the four-team playoff and, ultimately, the national championship, adding, “you cannot put them in the Top Four, they’re not worthy.”

“That’s no disrespect to that football team,” May concluded, with no sense of irony or self-awareness whatsoever.

Ladies and gentlemen, Urban Meyer sending a shout-out to the Sean Salisbury of the college game, the day prior to OSU’s celebration of its “unworthy” title:

Exactly why May is so staunchly anti-Buckeye is unclear, even as he’s made it perfectly clear on-air, every chance he gets, that the university as a whole did the proverbial kicking of his dog. AwfulAnnouncing.com, though, summed up the May-OSU dynamic perfectly:

It’s insane that we’ve gotten to the point where a coach takes time out of celebrating a national championship to stick it to an ESPN analyst. From a media observer standpoint, it’s actually kinda depressing that ESPN allowed things to get this point and didn’t put a stop to May’s act much sooner. But for Ohio State fans, it does make celebrating the championship that much sweeter.

(Photo credit: The Big Lead)

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It’s not often you see a player in good health cut his college football career short, but that’s what Oregon defensive lineman Sam Kamp has chosen to do. In a message posted to his Instagram page on Tuesday evening, Kamp announced his decision to retire from football. A redshirt junior in 2014, the Mesa, Ariz., native is set to graduate this spring.

“I’m incredibly blessed to have made so many amazing memories playing for this team. I’m so grateful to God, to my loving family and close friends, to my coaches, trainers and support staff who together are better than any other program in the nation, and especially to my teammates who I’ve spent a seriously ridiculous amount of hours grinding with! This season has been a once in a lifetime experience and even though we didn’t finish with a win, it was an unforgettable finish to my athletic career,” he wrote.”I’ll graduate this spring as a proud University of Oregon double major and I can’t wait to find out what opportunities I can take advantage of in the future!”

He confirmed his decision to The Oregonian.

Kamp played in all 15 games and posted 20 tackles, one sack, three pass breakups and three passes defended this fall.

A new head coach has a lot on his plate, particularly when that coach spent a previous lifetime building inroads into the deep community of Texas high school football coaches.

So when Chad Morris was formally introduced as SMU’s head coach way back on Dec. 1, Morris’ phone and email accounts were hit with a deluge unseen since the book of Exodus.

By the time Morris stepped away from the podium, he’d received a whopping 690 text messages and 898 emails congratulating him on taking the job.

And when Associated Press writer Ralph Russo swung his Dallas office the day before the College Football Playoff championship for an interview nearly six full weeks later (which posted today), Morris still had 256 text messages to go. “I’m going to answer them,” Morris said.

At his current rate of 72 returned texts per week, it would take until Feb. 4 – which happens to be National Signing Day – to return every text that greeted him upon taking the job.