Middle Tennessee St. Offensive Coordinator

Willie Simmons has left his position as offensive coordinator at Middle Tennessee State citing personal reasons. Simmons was in his first season as coordinator after four years working as the team's RB coach. While no replacement will be hired until after the season, the coaching tree has come up with three potential replacements to take over for the 2012 season:

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Jeff Horton - San Diego State Running Backs Coach

• QB coach at Wisconsin from 1999-2005. MTSU defensive line coach John Palermo was an assistant with the Badgers from 1991-2005.
• Graduate assistant at Minnesota in 1984, where he worked on staff with Palermo, who was the Gophers' defensive line coach.

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Pierre Ingram - Louisiana Tech Running Backs Coach

• Played wide receiver at Middle Tennessee State from 2002-06. Played under Rick Stockstill his senior year in Stockstill's first season as head coach.

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David Reaves - New Mexico Offensive Coordinator

• Assistant at South Carolina from 2002-08, working up from a GA to QB coach during his time with the Gamecocks. Rick Stockstill coached wide receivers ('04) and tight ends ('05) at South Carolina before coming to MTSU as head coach in 2006.

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New Mexico Head Coach

With the firing of Mike Locksley, New Mexico is in the market for a new head coach. Mike Leach seems like a good fit, but administration may look for a coach with a better reputation after the events that transpired at the end of Locksley's tenure with the Lobos. The coaching tree has come up with three possibilities to fill the position:

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Mike Leach - ex-Texas Tech Head Coach

• Head Coach at TTU from 2000-09, where he worked for school president David J. Schmidly. Schmidly was the president at Tech from 2000-02.

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Todd Monken - Oklahoma State Offensive Coordinator

• WR coach at Oklahoma State from 2002-04. UNM president David J. Schmidly was the president at Oklahoma State from 2002-07 before taking the same position at New Mexico.

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Jarrett Anderson - TCU Offensive Coordinator

• Played wide receiver at New Mexico in 1992 and '93.

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Arizona Head Coach

Head coaching candidates are difficult to predict because there are no connections to go from other than looking at who has previously coached/played at the school, as well as some connections to the administration. That being said, The Coaching Tree has compiled five potential candidates for the head coaching job at Arizona:

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Mike Bellotti - ex-Oregon Head Coach

• Head coach at Oregon from 1995-2008. Arizona athletic director Greg Byrne worked in the athletic department at Oregon from 1995-98.
• Bill Byrne, the father of Arizona AD Greg Byrne, was the AD at Oregon from 1984-92. Bellotti joined the Duck's staff as offensive coordinator in 1989.

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Dan Mullen - Mississippi State Head Coach

• Hired as head coach at MSU in 2009 by Greg Byrne, who was the athletic director at Mississippi State from 2008-10 before taking the same job at Arizona.

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Chris Peterson - Boise State Head Coach

• WR coach at Oregon from 1995-2000. Greg Byrne worked in the athletic department at Oregon from 1995-98.

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Paul Chryst - Wisconsin Offensive Coordinator

• Offensive coordinator at Oregon State in 1998. Greg Byrne left Oregon to become the associate athletic director for the Beavers in '98.

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Mark Hudspeth - Louisiana-Lafayette Head Coach

• WR coach at Mississippi State in 2009 and '10, where Greg Byrne was the AD from 2008-10.

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Coming Soon...

Don't worry, we haven't fallen of the face of the earth. With the start of the season, there simply aren't many coaching changes to report. With some teams getting off to a rough start, heads are already starting to roll in college football and the NFL coaching hot seat continues to heat up each week. Stay tuned for the Coaching Tree's insight on possible replacements for job openings as they begin to add up. Thank you for your continued support of the blog. We will continue to bring you up to date information and predictions based on our findings from our coaching tree database.

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