Boca Bowl team hires new coach
Offensive guru leaves Notre Dame for W. Kentucky
Notre Dame assistant Mike Sanford was hired Wednesday as coach at Western Kentucky.
Sanford spent the past two seasons as Notre Dame’s offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Sanford also coached QBs at WKU in 2010 in a 12-year coaching career with stops at Stanford, Yale, UNLV and Boise State, where he played QB from 2000-04.
At 34, Sanford becomes the youngest coach in the FBS. According to ESPN.com, he will receive a four-year contract averaging $800,000 per year plus incentives.
S a n f o r d r e p l a c e s J e f f Brohm, who left WKU last week to take Purdue’s coaching job. He takes over a Hilltoppers program that went 30-10 in three seasons under Brohm and has won back-toback Conference USA championships.
Defensive coordinator and interim coach Nick Holt will guide WKU (10-3) in the Boca Raton Bowl against Memphis (8-4) on Tuesday.
Sanford led a Fighting Irish offense that averaged 466.4 yards per game in 2015 — the third-highest in program history — and 34.2 points while reaching the Fiesta Bowl. He also mentored QB Deshone Kizer, who passed for 2,925 yards and 26 touchdowns this season for Notre Dame (4-8). Kizer ran for another 472 yards with eight scores.
Sanford’s offensive expertise comes in handy as he takes over WKU’s high-powered offense.
The Hilltoppers have averaged 44.6 points and 526.2 yards per game behind quarterbacks who completed 69 percent of their passes for nearly 357 yards per contest. WKU scored 131 touchdowns under the offenseminded Brohm.
Sanford takes over a program that has been a springb o a rd t o b i g ge r j o b s f o r recent predecessors. Besides Brohm’s departure to the Big Ten Conference, Bobby Petrino led WKU to an 8-4 mark in 2013 before returning for a second stint at Louisville and guiding the Cardinals’ entrance into the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Saban among Coach of Year candidates: The Associated Press has selected a college football Coach of the Year since 1998 and no one has won the award three times. Alabama’s Nick Saban could be the first.
For the first time, the AP asked its poll voters to cast a ballot for national coach of the year with a top three, in order. Three points are awarded for a first-place vote, two for second a one for third.
The voting was conducted after championship weekend and 10 coaches received support, including Saban, who won the award in 2003 when he was at LSU and against in 2008 with Alabama.
The top three vote getters are Penn State’s James Franklin, Colorado’s Mike MacIntyre and Saban. The winner will be announced today.
Minnesota suspensions: University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler says the 10 players suspended from the Gopher football team won’t play in the Holiday Bowl Dec. 27 against Washington State.
In an email to school supporters Wednesday, Kaler says the decision was made by coach Tracy Claeys in consultation with Athletic Director Mark Coyle. He says he supports the decision, and that it was based on facts and the university’s values.
His message did not give the reason for the suspensions, citing the students’ privacy rights.
But the father of one suspended player and an attorney for several say the 10 were suspended following a fresh investigation into an alleged sexual assault at an off-campus apartment in September.
Lee Hutton, an attorney for several of the players, said the new suspensions stemmed from the same incident. They plan to appeal.