Finally that the plague of Enox is supposed to be gone, like many of you, we've all been compiling lists of OC's (did the same thing when Richt was here lol) I've unfortunately had to scratch a few names off due to them being hired elsewhere, guys like Jeff Lebby who was at UCF got hired at Ole Miss with Kiffin, Zak Hill who was at Boise St with Harsin got hired by Herm Edwards at AZ St, Chad Morris went to Auburn with Malzahn, Kendal Briles went to Arkansas with Sam Pittman, Kalen Deboer who was OC Fresno St with Tedford, then got hired at Indiana this year & got rehired at Fresno to be the HC to take over for Tedford who stepped down.
There's still the obvious names like Joe Brady (not really realistic imo), Kevin Johns who was a long time Indiana WR's/OC under Kevin Wilson, OC at TTech with Kingsbury & was at Memphis with Norvell this season, Glenn Thomas at Baylor, Warren Ruggiero at Wake Forest, plus former HC's & current analysts in guys like Larry Fedora at Texas & Rich Rodriguez who was Ole Miss's OC for Matt Luke this season. TBH, I'm not high on Rich Rod like at all, he's obviously better than Enox, but that's not the barometer we need to judge by.
Well, here's my list for top OC's (considering others have already been hired at other teams):
Keith Heckendorf - Current OC for Ark St under Blake Anderson, he's a Larry Fedora disciple & coached alongside Seth Littrell at UNC when Marquise Williams carved us up in 2015, also was one of the main developers of Mitch Trubisky. Had Omar Bayless leading the nation in receiving yards at 1,653yds & receiving TD's with 17, plus 5th in catches. Also had Kirk Merritt with 70rec 806yds & 12TD's & had Jonathan Adams with 62rec 851yds & 5TD's as the 3rd WR in their offense. None of these guys were 4/5-star WR's coming out of HS. Is highly touted as a very smart young innovative X's & O's guy that is extremely detailed & is the next name coming up in the coaching industry as a play caller.
Rhett Lashlee -
Lashlee another Arkansas native started out as a GA under Houston Nutt & was at Auburn also an OC for Malzahn for 3 years including the year they went to the Natty against FSU. Had SMU with the 9th ranked offense in the country this season, they were 12th in passing & 41st in rushing. Obviously they got cracked in the Bowl game vs FAU, but their Offense was the main reason they won 10 games this year for the first time in 35 years since 1984. Their WR's were also among the tops in the nation in multiple categories, James Proche lead the nation in receptions.
Or, we could do like OK St did & go snatch a guy from down in the FCS for cheap while still getting high level production. Mike Gundy found Mike Yurcich from Shippensburg & hired him at OK St, he was OC under Gundy for 6 years before going to OH St this season as Passing Game Coordinator/QB's Coach & is the favorite to be the next OC at Texas. Gundy replaced Yurcich with Sean Gleeson from Princeton. Guys like Gus Malzahn, Art Briles, Chad Morris, had no prior college experience before they were hired, came straight from High school & even Tony Elliot (Clemson OC) was a FCS guy that Dabo hired from Furman.
Point being, while our fans think you can only be a good OC if you're coaching at P5 school & playing in the playoffs, there's actually some really good play callers at the lower levels of football & the good HC's are smart enough to do their due diligence & find the right guys.
With that said, some good up & coming FCS OC's are:
Zach Kittley - A young innovative up coming X's & O's coach at Houston Baptist, has HB with the 12th total offense & 3rd in passing yards for FCS. He comes from that TTech Air Raid machine, was there with Kingsbury as a GA & an assistant QB's coach during the Davis Webb/ Pat Mahomes era. Played at Abilene Christian (for those that don't know, that Abilene Christian program has produced a lot of high octane offensive coaches).
Greg Stevens - OC at Southeastern Louisiana, currently has them with the #1 ranked offense in FCS (2nd in passing offense, 12th in points per game 36.6). He's coached at Eastern Arizona, Arkansas Monticello, Stephen F Austin, Eatern Illinois (Dino Babers) & Utah St, long time coach been in it for over 27 years & has had SLU with one of the best offenses in the FCS for 5+ years now.
Ken Collums - Another Texas/Arkansas, is the current OC at Central Arkansas (same program as Mike Norvell who is also a Texas/Arkansas guy), he was also at Abilene Christian for 5 years, in fact the only two places he's ever coached was at Abilene & Central Ark, he actually coached Norvell when Norvell was a WR in his offense & hired him as a GA at Central Ark. 47 years old & is considered to be a very smart play caller.
And since LSU went & found Joe Brady from the Saints to run their offense, I figured I'd thrown in a wildcard for a NFL guy as well:
Joe Bleymaier - Is currently an Offensive QC for Andy Reid at Kansas City & was at Colorado as a for 3 years as well as an assistant QB's coach under Mike MacIntyre. But he's a Andy Reid disciple to the fullest been with him since 07/08 & is one the Passing game analysts for the Chiefs offense.
Do I think he would even realistically be a real candidate, NO, just threw him in here just for fun lol.
Wait a second....I'm confused. What do you mean OC's being hired elsewhere!!!!
I was repeatedly told by mannys bro crew here that you can't hire an OC until after you play a meaningless bowl game. Not one minute before the game ends. You mean to tell me other teams have hired OC's????? Do they not know!!!
