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Gophers football to hire Mike Sanford as next offensive coordinator
By ANDY GREDER | agreder@pioneerpress.com | Pioneer Press
PUBLISHED: January 3, 2020 at 10:19 am | UPDATED: January 3, 2020 at 11:33 am
The Gophers football program is hiring Mike Sanford to be its next offensive coordinator, a source told the Pioneer Press on Friday morning.
Sanford replaces Kirk Ciarrrocca, who left Minnesota after three seasons to be the offensive coordinator at Penn State on Dec. 26, and for the Outback Bowl, receivers coach Matt Simon served as the interim coordinator in an impressive 31-24 win over No. 12 Auburn.
Minnesota then returned home be one of 23 programs with a coordinator vacancy at the end of this week, and head coach P.J. Fleck said in Tampa., Fla, that the search would ramp up when back in Minneapolis.
Sanford also will serve as quarterbacks coach, the source said, while Simon will be promoted to a co-offensive coordinator role and maintain his job as receivers coach.
Sanford was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Utah State last season. At age 36, he became the youngest head coach in FBS in 2017 at Western Kentucky, following Jeff Brohm, and Sanford took them to the Cure Bowl as a first-year coach but was fired after a 3-9 season in 2018.
Sanford, who played quarterback at Boise State from 2000-04, was the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame in 2015-16. The Fighting Irish averaged 34 points and 466 yards of total offense in a 10-3 season that ended in a loss to Ohio State in the Fiesta Bowl.
Kizer worked with quarterback DeShone Kizer, who had 272 total yards of offense per game, the highest average in Fighting Irish history, but in 2016, Notre Dame finished 4-8.
Sanford first a coordinator at at his alma mater in 2014 and from 2011-13, he was an position coach and recruiting coordinator under Jim Harbaugh at Stanford.
Yahoo Sports, which first reported the hire, noted Sanford has a “longstanding relationship” with Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck.
An Mlive.com article in 2016 talked about Fleck and Sanford’s relationship, which included Sanford visiting Fleck when he was the head coach at Western Michigan.
“I think the one thing that I really like about guys like P.J. Fleck, like Jim Harbaugh, is they’re going to be a head coach and lead in their own personality and the same holds true here with Coach (Brian) Kelly,” said Sanford when he was Notre Dame’s OF. “The guys who are really good head coaches are typically the ones that are really authentic to who they are.
“When you see things like (slogans and creative videos) with Coach Fleck, that’s who he is. He’s an unbelievably energetic, creative mind that’s not too removed from the players in terms of age, so he’s not going pretend like he’s been coaching for 45 years and listens to Motown singles. He definitely is a lot closer in age to those guys. I appreciate it. Of course, in my own way I try to coach to who I am as well.”
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