CI Week 1 Highlights
9/4/2017
Since 2006, the Coaches Inc. Family of coaches has made rewriting records an annual tradition. Whether it was Bobby Wilder (@ODUCoachWilder) building Old Dominion into the most successful startup program in FCS history or Rob Ambrose (@Coach_Ambrose) leading Towson to the greatest win-improvement from one season to the next in Division 1 history, CI coaches have consistently achieved what others thought to be impossible. The latest chapter to this legacy was written Saturday night in Las Vegas where Mike London (@CoachMikeLondon), making his Howard debut, guided the Bison to the greatest upset in the history of college football. Despite sports books on the other side of town setting UNLV as a 45-point favorite, Howard rallied from a 12-point deficit in the second half to stun the Rebels 43-40. Freshman QB Caylin Newton racked up 330 total yards and three touchdowns in the win to go along with a Bison defense that forced three turnovers and scored on a 75-yard fumble return. Congratulations to London, Asst. Head Coach/DefCoor/LB Vincent Brown (@CoachVBrown59), OffCoor/QB Brennan Marion (@BrennanMarion4), Co-DefCoor/CB Chip West (@CChipwest), SpecTeams/RB Kenny Lucas (@CoachKennyLucas), and Safeties Coach Cato June (@CatoJune) on the historic win!
Please enjoy the rest of this week's highlights below:
In his first season as Ottawa's offensive coordinator last year, Jaime Elizondo (@CoachElizondo) guided the top ranked passing attack in the CFL to the franchise's first Grey Cup. Redblacks QB Henry Burris was named Grey Cup MVP in the overtime win after throwing for 461 yards and scoring five touchdowns. In the offseason, Burris retired and Elizondo lost two of his top three receivers via free agency. The result? Trevor Harris has stepped in as the full-time signal caller and the Redblacks are once again leading the league in passing and have also scored the most points. On Thursday night, Harris completed 32 of 41 passes for 343 yards and three touchdowns as Ottawa rolled to its third straight win. Congratulations to Elizondo who spent three years as the offensive coordinator at Columbia and also has experience as the wide receivers coach at Syracuse and Hofstra where he coached a total of four receivers who made NFL rosters.
Four months ago, Colorado had two defensive backs selected in the first three rounds of the NFL Draft. In all, CU lost eight starters on defense and three defensive coaches. Good thing for the Buffaloes that one of their new hires is used to making an immediate impact on the job. In 2016, ShaDon Brown (@Backendcoach12) joined Army as the cornerbacks coach and the Black Knights went on to post the sixth best pass defense in the nation. Now in charge of the whole secondary in Boulder, Brown is making sure the Buffaloes' secondary doesn't miss a beat. So far so good as defensive backs Evan Worthington and Trey Udoffia each recorded interceptions while Afolabi Laguda recovered a fumble on Friday night. As a unit, Colorado's defense registered seven pass breakups in the 17-3 win over their instate rivals. Congratulations to Brown who spent five years at Wofford prior to arriving at Army. With the Terriers, he tutored three All-SoCon cornerbacks and helped the Terriers reach the FCS quarterfinals twice. Brown also interned with the Carolina Panthers in the summer of 2015.
The Trojans and Spartans finally renewed their rivalry this weekend following a five-year hiatus, but Reggie Barlow's (@reggiebarlow) VSU squad may have to wait awhile for a return invite. The Trojans, who compete at the Division II level, had not defeated FCS member Norfolk State since 2005 but left no doubt that they were the better team on Saturday in Norfolk. Senior RB Trenton Cannon paced the VSU offense with 145 rushing yards and QB Cordelral Cook rushed for two touchdowns as the Trojans outgained the Spartans by a margin of 275-214. Cook's two-yard scoring run late in the third quarter put VSU up 14-10 and that proved to be the final score when safety Kurtis Brooks intercepted a Spartan pass attempt at the VSU 17-yardline in the final seconds. Congratulations to Barlow who is in his second season at the helm for the Trojans after guiding the team to a 9-2 mark in 2016! Barlow previously served as the head coach at Alabama State from 2007-14 where he posted a 38-29 conference record and led the Hornets to shares of three consecutive division championships.
It's not often you see a graduate assistant land a Division 1 offensive coordinator gig, but if David Marsh (@CoachDmarsh) continues to direct 70-point performances he may start a trend. Marsh arrived in Buies Creek, NC after spending the previous four years learning under Offensive Coordinator Noel Mazzone first at UCLA and later at Texas A&M. He's running his own show now, though, and came six points shy of setting a Campbell program record for points scored in just his first game. RB Joshua Jones spearheaded the Camel attack with a career-high 111 yards on 19 carries. WR Aaron Blockmon led the way in the passing game with 105 receiving yards and one touchdown on two receptions. Campbell jumped out to a 35-0 lead after the first quarter and never looked back as they went on to outgain the Monarchs 434-62. Congratulations to Marsh on the impressive debut! Before joining the UCLA staff, Marsh coached at the high school level in Arizona and served in the Marine Corps for six years.
Two more CI coaches will be in action tonight when Tennessee takes on Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Good luck to Larry Scott (@UTCoachLScott), who was promoted to be the Vols' offensive coordinator in the offseason, and Defensive Assistant Eric Lewis (@CoachEricLewis) who arrived in Knoxville after a two-year stint as the DB coach at Georgia State.
Finally, several CI coaches were impacted by last week's flooding in Texas including Rice OL Coach Ronnie Vinklarek (@CoachVinklarek), Houston Baptist Asst. Head Coach/RB Shannon Kelley (@coachskelley) and Texas Southern OL Coach Matt Jones (@CoachMattJones). We wish each of them a fast and full recovery!
