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SEC Football

Where every SEC offensive coordinator was 10 years ago

Thomas Schlarp

By Thomas Schlarp

Published:


If you thought a head coach had a short life span at an SEC school, offensive coordinators come and go even faster.

No OC has been at their current school and position for more than 4 seasons.

With all of the turnover at the OC position, let’s track the movement of the current play-callers over the past decade.

Alabama: Steve Sarkisian

It’s no secret that the Tide rotate through offensive coaches at a high clip, and Steve Sarkisian is no exception. Now in Year 2 of his second stint with Alabama, Sark was the head coach at Washington 10 years ago, a position he held until leaving for the same job at USC following the 2013 season.

Sarkisian was unceremoniously fired in October of the 2015 season and was out of work until 2016 when Alabama hired him as an offensive analyst. He was subsequently promoted to OC at season’s end when Lane Kiffin left to take the head coaching job at Florida Atlantic.

Sarkisian held this position for 1 season before departing to take the same role with the Atlanta Falcons for 2 years. Upon his firing at the end of 2018, Sarkisian was re-hired as the OC for Alabama. Last season the Tide offense averaged a school-record 47.2 points per game, while averaging 510.8 yards per game.

Arkansas: Kendal Briles

The reason that last name looks familiar is, in 2010, Kendal was helping his dad, Art, at Baylor as a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator. The younger Briles worked his way up the Baylor coaching ranks, culminating in the 2015 and 2016 seasons when he served as OC. Briles was part of the sweeping administration changes following the 2016 season at Baylor and was hired by Lane Kiffin at FAU to be the OC for the 2017 season.
Briles then became the assistant HC and OC at his alma mater Houston for a year before joining Willie Taggert’s staff at Florida State, again as the OC. Briles was not retained by new Seminole head coach Mike Norvell in December and was brought in by first-year Razorback coach Sam Pittman for the upcoming season.

Auburn: Chad Morris

Although it’s his first season for the Tigers, SEC fans should be quite familiar with Morris, who served as the head coach of Arkansas the past 2 years.

In 2010, Morris made the move from high school coaching to college coaching when he served as the OC at Tulsa for a season before taking the same job at Clemson for 4 years. His success there led to him getting the head coaching job at SMU and then at Arkansas.

Florida: John Hevesy and Billy Gonzales

Hevesy and Dan Mullen are connected at the hip, with Hevesy serving on Mullen’s staff in some capacity since Mullen took over at Mississippi State in 2009. Hevesy spent 5 seasons as the Bulldogs’ run game coordinator and offensive line coach before also adding OC to his responsibilities for the 2014-17 seasons. Hevesy took the same position with Mullen when he left for the Florida job in 2018.

Much like Hevesy, Gonzales has a history with Mullen dating to the 2009 season when he, Hevesy and Mullen all served as assistants on Urban Meyer’s Florida staff. But unlike Hevesy, Gonzales spent the 2010-11 seasons at LSU as a wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator and then another year as the co-OC at Illinois before rejoining Mullen in Starkville as the wide receivers coach in 2013. He was promoted to co-OC with Gonzales for the remainder of Mullen’s Mississippi State tenure before making the eventual leap to Florida.

Georgia: Todd Monken

Fresh off a year as the OC of the Cleveland Browns coaching former Georgia standout Nick Chubb, Monken returns to college football for the first time since he was the head coach of Southern Miss for the 2013-15 seasons. In 2010, Monken was in the 4th and final year of his first job in the NFL as a wide receivers coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Monken left in 2011 for Mike Gundy and Oklahoma State where he served as OC for a pair of seasons leading up to his Southern Miss job. In 2016 Monken returned to the NFL as the OC for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for three years before his lone year in the Dog Pound.

Kentucky: Eddie Gran

Somehow the longest-tenured OC with their SEC team at a whopping 4 years, Gran was an associate head coach, special teams coordinator and running backs coach at Florida State for the 2010-12 seasons, the same time that Mark Stoops served as the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator and defensive backs coach.

In 2013, Gran reunited with his former Auburn boss, Tommy Tuberville, at Cincinnati and served as the Bearcats’ OC for 3 years before landing his current job. In his first 3 seasons with the Wildcats, the offense has rushed for over 2,000 yards and passed for over 2,000 yards, a first in program history.

LSU: Steve Ensminger

It’s a tall task to replicate the type of output Ensminger received a year ago from Heisman-winning QB Joe Burrow, but one the Baton Rouge native has nearly 40 years of coaching experience to fall back on.

In 2010, Ensminger just landed his first job at his alma mater LSU and served as the tight ends coach through the 2015 season. Interim HC Ed Orgeron promoted the former Tiger QB to interim OC during the 2016 season before eventually returning to his role as TE coach the following year.

Ensminger was again promoted to OC in 2018.

Mississippi State: Mike Leach

Was there ever any doubt the Pirate would call his own plays? In 2010, Leach was calling games as a broadcaster after spending the previous 10 years as Texas Tech’s head coach. He returned to the sidelines in 2012 to take over Washington State, where he stayed until replacing Joe Moorhead.

Missouri: Curtis Luper

Luper returns to the SEC for the first time since serving under Gene Chizik as Auburn’s running backs coach for the 2009-12 seasons. The Tigers led the SEC in rushing with 284.8 yards per game during their 2010 national championship season and set a school record with 3,987 rushing yards in 2011.

Luper has spent the past 7 seasons at TCU, where he was the co-offensive coordinator, running backs coach and recruiting coordinator for the last 3 under Gary Patterson.

Ole Miss: Jeff Lebby

Lebby joins Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss following 2 very successful seasons at UCF as its QB coach and then OC. Last season the Knights ranked 2nd nationally with 541.5 yards of offense per game and 5th nationally in points scored per game (43.4).

In 2010, Lebby was in the 3rd of his 9 years with Baylor in which he served in various coaching capacities among the offense. Lebby left Waco in 2017 for his first OC opportunity at NAIA school Southeastern, where his offense led the NAIA in scoring before making the move to UCF.

South Carolina: Mike Bobo

Bobo returns to the SEC after 5 seasons as the head coach of Colorado State, where he coached the Rams to a 28-35 record. Bobo has SEC roots, however, serving as the Georgia OC and quarterbacks coach from 2007-2014. A 2012 Broyles Award finalist, Bobo coached four NFL first-rounders in Matthew Stafford, Knowshon Moreno, A.J. Green and Todd Gurley at Georgia.

Tennessee: Jim Chaney

Back for Year 2 under Jeremy Pruitt, Chaney was also the Volunteer OC 10 years ago, a position that he held from 2009-12. Chaney was promoted to interim HC for the final game of the 2012 season after the school fired Derek Dooley.

Following that season, Chaney served as the OC at Arkansas for 2 years, the OC of Pittsburgh for a year and then the OC at Georgia for the 2016-18 seasons.

Texas A&M: Darrell Dickey

Dickey, who began his coaching career as a graduate assistant for the Aggies in 1985, returns to College Station for his 3rd season as OC. In 2010, Dickey was wrapping up his 2-year tenure as New Mexico’s OC followed by a year at Texas State as its co-OC.
Dickey then spent 6 seasons as the OC and running backs coach at Memphis under Justin Fuente and Mike Norvell before being added to Jimbo Fisher’s staff at A&M in 2018.

Vanderbilt: Todd Fitch

Fitch starts 2020 as the 4th OC under Derek Mason. The 35-year coaching veteran comes to Nashville following 4 seasons at Louisiana Tech in the same position. Fitch was at South Florida in 2010, his 3rd school that he served as the offensive play-caller. In 2013, he headed north to Boston College, where he spent time as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator for 2 seasons before becoming the Eagles’ OC in 2015.

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