While most Michigan State fans we’ve interacted with over the past day were ecstatic over losing an offensive coordinator to the NFL, the fact remains that the Spartans will have to replace an offensive coordinator a month or so before the start of spring practice.
When it comes to a replacement, though, Mark Dantonio may not have to look much further the MSU’s football offices.
mlive.com -- love starting a sentence with a lower-case letter -- is reporting that Dantonio “will consider in-house candidates first” when replacing Dan Roushar. When Don Treadwell left his post as MSU’s offensive coordinator for the head coaching job at Miami of Ohio in December of 2010, Dantonio named Roushar, who had served as the Spartans’ offensive line coach for the previous four years, as Treadwell’s successor a little over a month later.
As far as potential in-house candidates, the website points to running backs coach Brad Salem and quarterbacks coach Dave Warner. Interestingly, Salem was rumored to be a candidate for the same job with the New Orleans Saints -- the same one for which Roushar -- before that speculation was shot down.
Warner is the only one of the two with coordinator experience at the FBS level, serving in that capacity at UConn in 1999-2000*. Salem has been a coordinator at both the Div. II and JUCO levels.
When a decision will be made on a replacement, and whether that replacement will come from inside or outside the program, is unclear.
(*UConn became an FBS member in 2000, so save yourselves keystrokes in the comments section)