Harris promoted to offensive coordinator

During the past six years at FIU, Tim Harris Jr. earned respect.

On Tuesday, he earned a promotion.

FIU coach Butch Davis named Harris his offensive coordinator Tuesday. Harris will continue to coach the running backs.

“Tim earned enormous respect from me because his [running backs] play hard and rarely make mental mistakes,” Davis said. “He prepares them well, teaches them to be complete players, and Tim’s recruiting ability is the icing on the cake.”

Harris replaces Rich

Skrosky, who was let go after four years. During that span, Skrosky helped send two quarterbacks to the NFL Draft — Alex McGough in the seventh round (2018) and James Morgan in the fourth (2020).

“Schematically, some of it was good,” Davis said of FIU’s offense under Skrosky. “But I just felt we needed to go in a different direction.”

Davis said he talked to “six or seven” prospective applicants to replace Skrosky, but everything in his mind kept pointing back to Harris.

In addition to promoting Harris, Davis added responsibility to his son and moved Bryn Renner from cornerbacks coach to the offense. Drew Davis will continue to coach tight ends but is now the passing game coordinator. Renner will coach quarterbacks, replacing Skrosky. DJ McCarthy will continue to coach wide receivers, and Joel Rodriguez is still in charge of the offensive linemen.

Renner, a 30-year-old native of Virginia, willcoach the position he played most of his life. He was a three-year starting quarterback for the University of North Carolina, the school he was recruited to by Davis. Renner also had the experience of being in five NFL organizations, although he was never able to stick around long enough to throw a regular-season pass.

Davis on Tuesday also announced that co-defensive coordinators Jeff Copp and Jerod Kruse will not return.

FIU is still looking to replace defensive line coach Kennard Lang, who took a job as head coach at Orlando Evans High School.

That means FIU’s entire defensive staff will be new in 2021.

“We’re doing interviews this week,” Davis said.

After completing the staff, the next step for FIU is to finish its recruiting class. FIU signed 14 players in December, and Davis said he has nine available scholarships to give out on Feb. 3. However, Davis said he will likely hold onto “two or three” scholarships for after spring practice, when he might be able to sign some transfers.

“After the spring, there are a lot of good players around the country who didn’t get named starters and aren’t happy,” Davis said. “They are still good players, but if you don’t have bullets [available scholarships], then you can’t sign them.

“We’re really happy with the players we signed in December, and we’re going to be very cautious going forward. We’re going to try to ‘cherry pick’ the best players possible.”

Due to the pandemic robbing student-athletes of a “normal” season, the NCAA has awarded all college football an extra year of eligibility. At FIU, Davis said 13 of his 19 seniors decided to return, a list that includes standouts such as running back D’vonte Price, defensive lineman Kevin Oliver, linebackers Jamal Gates and Daniel Jackson, defensive backs/twins Richard and Rishard Dames and punter Tommy Heatherly.

“I love it,” Davis said when asked about those players returning. “This is a senior class that helped us re-establish this program, going to three straight bowl games.

“They were very passionate about coming back to make sure their final college season wasn’t 2020 [0-5 record].”