Former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead expected to be named Akron head coach
The coaching carousel is already spinning wildly over the couple of days, as expected this time of the year. USC made the biggest splash in the coaching pool this offseason by luring Lincoln Riley away from SEC-bound Oklahoma, and the Florida Gators made a sensible hire with Billy Napier from Louisiana. The coaching carousel will continue to spin in the coming days and perhaps weeks, and former Penn State offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead could be returning to a head coaching vacancy very soon.
Moorhead has the head coaching experience that would be beneficial for a program like Akron, and Moorhead has ties to the program already. Moorhead was a wide receivers coach and recruiting coordinator for the Zips in 2004 and he added the role of passing game coordinator to his name in 2005. Moorhead was upgraded to offensive coordinator at Akron in 2006 and held that title for three seasons before moving to UConn for the same role in 2009.
Moorhead went on to become the head coach at Fordham in 2012 after three years at UConn. And after four successful seasons as head coach of the Rams, Moorhead came to Penn State to revitalize the offense of the Nittany Lions for head coach James Franklin.
Moorhead left Penn State for an opportunity to be a head coach at Mississippi State, where he replaced Dan Mullen after Mullen left to coach at Florida (Mullen was removed as head coach this season). Moorhead lasted just two seasons with the Mississippi State program, and he returned to the role of offensive coordinator with the Oregon Ducks in 2020.
Moorhead and Oregon are preparing this week for the Pac-12 Championship Game, a revenge opportunity against a Utah team that humbled them in recent weeks.
Moorhead’s successor at Penn State in the role of offensive coordinator, Ricky Rahne, is coming off his first season as head coach at Old Dominion and is hoping his team gets a chance to play in a bowl game.
According to Yahoo’s Pete Thamel, a deal to make Joe Moorhead the new head coach at Akron could be finalized in the next 24 hours.
Oregon Duck fans have been knowledgeable of the fact that offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead might not be long for the job in Eugene, simply because he is going to be a highly-coveted name on the head-coaching carousel around college football at the end of the season.
Well, the end of the regular season is here, and we’ve already seen a couple of top names come off the board.
According to a report from Yahoo’s Pete Thamel, Moorhead has emerged as the top candidate to become the head coach at the University of Akron after this season. Thamel says that a deal could be finalized within the next 24 hours.
Moorhead, 48, is considered one of the most creative and innovative offensive minds in the country. He also brings extensive head coaching experience, as he led Mississippi State to a pair of bowl games in 2018 and 2019, and Fordham to three straight FCS playoff appearances during his four seasons there.
The combination of Moorhead’s roots with Akron and his head coaching experience made him an attractive candidate. Akron athletic director Charles Guthrie focused on FBS coaching experience as a tenet for Akron’s new coach after firing Tom Arth, who went 3-24 in three seasons.
While the Ducks prepare for a rematch against Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game on Friday, we will continue to watch as this story develops.
Two former James Franklin assistants have teams bowl eligible in their first years as a head coach, including Ricky Rahne and Old Dominion in an improbable run.
While much of the focus around these parts may have been on Penn State’s regular-season finale loss at Michigan State, it was quite an eventful day around the world of college football. Between intense rivalry games having an impact on division, conference, and playoff scenarios and teams battling for bowl eligibility, there was a lot going on in Week 13 of the college football season. Among the schools fighting to become bowl-eligible was Old Dominion, coached by former Penn State offensive coordinator Ricky Rahne.
And in his first season on the sideline with the Monarchs, Rahne is hoping to take Old dominion to a bowl game. And how Rahne’s program got there is quite a story to tell.
First, Rahne was hired to be the new head coach of the Old Dominion program following the conclusion of the 2019 season. Unfortunately for Rahne, he would have to wait longer than anticipated to coach his first game in Norfolk, Virginia. Old Dominion made the decision to not play a college football schedule in 2020 due to concerns revolving around the COVID-19 pandemic. Old Dominion was one of three FBS programs that chose not to play any college football in 2020, joining UConn and New Mexico State in that decision. That put a pause on the debut of Ricky Rahne as a head coach, although he issued a statement at the time remaining committed to the future of the program.
Old Dominion returned to the field this fall, of course, and for a while, it looked like a team that took a year off from playing football. Old Dominion was blasted by Wake Forest and Liberty in two of their first three games of the season, although few would have guessed at the time Wake Forest would be playing in the ACC Championship Game back in Week 1. Rahne got his first coaching victory in Week 2 with a win against FCS Hampton, but the Monarchs started the year off on a 1-6 start to the season. While the first two losses were in blowouts, Old Dominion kept things close in losses to Buffalo, UTEP, and Marshall before suffering a 23-point loss at home to Western Kentucky.
Playing in a bowl game looked like a near impossibility after the 1-6 start to the season. Had Old Dominion lost just one more game, they would have been ineligible for postseason play per NCAA postseason regulations requiring a minimum of six wins to play in a bowl game.
But that’s the thing. Old Dominion didn’t lose another game.
A 23-20 victory against Louisiana Tech at home was the start of a seemingly unlikely five-game winning streak that culminated with a 56-34 victory over Charlotte in the final game of the regular season to clinch bowl eligibility.
Rahne is likely taking Old Dominion to its second bowl game in program history, and its first since the 2016 season. The school moved up to the FBS level from FCS in 2014, when it made the quick jump into Conference USA during a time of significant conference realignment changes around the country.
Rahne is now in a position to have the second winning season in Old Dominion’s brief time as an FBS program, but the Monarchs will have to win their bowl game to do so. And whether or not they will get that opportunity remains to be seen.
Wins by LSU, Memphis & West Virginia makes it 83 bowl-eligible teams for 82 bowl spots, meaning a 6-win Group of 5 team will not go bowling
There are 82 bowl spots to fill this season, and 83 teams clinched bowl eligibility. That means unless one team pulls out of the bowl season, some program is going to be left at home. And it’s not going to be one of the 13 bowl-eligible teams from the SEC staying home. It’s going to be a Group of 5 program, and Old Dominion could be on the chopping block.
There is still a decent chance Old Dominion will get to play in a bowl game somewhere, and perhaps we will learn more in the coming days. Bowl game matchups will be made official no later than Sunday, December 5.
We’ll be keeping an eye on Rahne’s Old Dominion program.
Charles Huff has Marshall bowling too
Ben Queen-USA TODAY Sports
Another former James Franklin assistant is also taking his program to a bowl game. Charles Huff, who left Penn State and his role as a running backs coach and special teams coordinator to join former offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead at Mississippi State in 2018, just wrapped up his second season as head coach at Marshall. Huff will also be taking his program to a bowl game following a 7-5 season.
This was Huff’s first season as head coach of the Thundering Herd, who came up short of winning the Conference USA East Division crown this fall. Huff did win the head-to-head matchup with Rahne earlier in the season, as referenced above.
We’ll watch to see where Huff will be coaching in the postseason as well.
On paper, the Oregon Ducks shouldn’t have too much trouble putting Washington State away, but they play the games for a reason. Here are our final predictions for the game:
For any Oregon Duck fan who is stressed about the outcome of Oregon’s night game against Washington State on Saturday, you are not alone.
On paper, this isn’t a matchup that should give the No. 3 Ducks much trouble. They have more talent on the roster, a better coaching staff, and much more to play for at this point in the season. If you were to simulate the contest, Oregon would come out on top at least 90% of the time. However, as we wrote about earlier in the week, normal things don’t tend to happen when these two teams meet.
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The last couple of games have been won by the Ducks, but one required a field goal as the clock expired. In four of the past six years, Washington State has come out victorious, and they’ve long been a team that has given Oregon problems, which led Mario Cristobal to say earlier this week that the Cougars are one of the Ducks’ biggest rivals.
So as I said earlier, not being overly confident about this outcome isn’t just timidness, it’s realism.
That being said, let’s try to parse together how this game will be played on the field. With the style of offense that both of these teams play, we can expect a relatively high-scoring game, especially if Anthony Brown and the Ducks start clicking. A week ago, we saw the passing game struggle mightily in a torrential downpour in Seattle, but the weather does not factor to be an issue on Saturday night, which would give the full playbook to Joe Moorhead and the team.
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If Brown can avoid early mistakes, and the Ducks can find a way to mitigate Abe Lucas’s abilities, we can expect them to move the ball. The best way to do that is by going back to their bread and butter — utilizing an array of screen passes and short crossing routes while relying heavily on a mix of Travis Dye and Byron Cardwell out of the backfield.
Defense is another story for Oregon. Washington State is known as an air-raid team that will pass you to death, but the running backs on this team have stepped up in 2021, led by Max Borghi out of the backfield. If Borghi can get going, Washington State should feel good about Jayden de Laura’s ability to spread out the secondary and keep the defense true to the scheme. However, the Ducks have a great ability to stop that.
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It starts with the pass rush. Assuming that Oregon’s front-seven can bottle up the Cougars’ rushing attack — the Ducks rank 2nd in the Pac-12 in run defense, allowing just 123 yards per game — then the emphasis will be on Oregon’s defensive line to get pressure on de Laura. Washington State has allowed only 7 sacks so far this season, but Oregon’s defensive line is among the best in the conference, and with Kayvon Thibodeaux and Bradyn Swinson coming around the edge, that could change.
If the Ducks are able to get substantial pressure on the QB, it makes the game that much easier for the secondary. Though they have been dealing with some injuries this year, there are still players like Verone McKinley, DJ James, and Mykael Wright back there highly capable of ball-hawking any passes that should go astray.
While concern about the outcome is reasonable, I’m here to try and calm the nerves of many Duck fans. Things could go sideways, as has happened before against the Cougars, but in reality, the Ducks are the far better team, and if they take care of their assignments and buy into the task at hand and avoid looking a week down the road to Utah, they should have no problem grabbing a commanding victory.
It could be close at times, but we’ve seen this Oregon team pull out tight victories on several occasions before. I have little doubt that they will come out on top in the end.
Final Score Prediction: Oregon Ducks 31, Washington State 24.
Did Oregon run out the clock with 10 seconds left and the ball on the 1-yard line? Joe Moorhead says no, they ‘absolutely’ wanted to score.
With 10 seconds left on the clock and the ball at the Washington 1-yard line, the Oregon Ducks had an opportunity to easily punch the ball into the endzone and put another touchdown on the scoreboard, making it a 33-16 win over their biggest rival and earning some style points while doing so.
Instead, the clock ran out, and players left the field with a 10 point win that was much more convincing than the scoreboard would suggest. Media members lauded it as sportsmanship and restraint on Mario Cristobal’s behalf, taking the win and not twisting the knife in the side of Washington coach Jimmy Lake.
However, Joe Moorhead says that there were other plans that failed because of execution.
Joe Moorhead says that the offense was actually trying to snap the ball and score on the 1-yard line with 10 seconds left. They were unable to get the snap and punch it in.
Main takeaways: Oregon 'absolutely' wanted more points there.
Anthony Brown and the offense lined up to run a play, but the clock ran out before they could snap the ball. Moorhead said that Brown was waiting on a call from center Alex Forsyth, and they were ultimately unable to get the snap off in time and add another touchdown to the board.
Whether you agree with the decision to try and score or not, it’s now been made clear that the Ducks were absolutely looking for more points on their final drive, regardless of whether or not the outcome is in doubt.
When you look at the numbers, Oregon quarterback Anthony Brown had arguably his best day in a Ducks’ uniform on Saturday against UCLA. He completed 74% of his passes (29-for-39) for 296 yards and added 85 yards and a touchdown on the ground.
In all, the Ducks had 417 yards of offense, averaging 6.6 yards per play with 22 first downs.
Of course, there was a little bit of bad to go with the good; Brown threw a pair of interceptions in the fourth quarter that led to UCLA’s comeback, making it a three-point game in the end. However, both of those throws are fixable, the second of which came in a situation where you could argue Oregon shouldn’t have been throwing the ball in the first place.
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Despite the negatives, there should be some real confidence that the Ducks have finally found something that worked in the passing game. 11 different players caught a pass on Saturday, and in a game where the rushing attack was rarely heard from, it was much needed.
So what was different this time around?
“Him being able to diagnose coverages, get the ball out on time,” head coach Mario Cristobal said of Brown. “I believe he was 29 of 39. So he was pretty accurate on a lot of balls. Some balls he’d like to have back and of course, the interceptions were ones that were not good throws. But there’s a lot of good, a lot of good plays, and a lot of really good throws that he made that changed the game.”
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The credit does not belong to just AB alone, of course. The offensive line, which was playing short a couple of guys once again — starting center Alex Forsyth was ruled out before the game, and guard Jackson Powers-Johnson went down with an ankle injury in the first half — did a great job of stepping up and giving Brown time to throw. Brown was only sacked once, and rarely had to deal with much pressure in his face.
“I think it was all the guys,” said offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead. “I’ve said it before, in the passing game, there are really three components. The protection, the route, and then the throw. Our offensive line and running backs did a really good job protecting their six-man pressures, the receivers did a good job of getting down the field and we completed that with a number of throws, and then Anthony a second week in a row of completing above 70 percent of his throws. All three ingredients of a successful pass game came together pretty nicely on Saturday.”
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So what does this mean going forward? Is it safe to feel like Oregon turned a corner on offense and we can expect more production in the passing game during the weeks ahead? Or rather, will we once again get burned and witness a close contest against the Colorado Buffaloes this coming week, where the Ducks are again asking their defense to bail them out with a fourth-quarter stop?
It’s impossible for us to say, since this is a team that has been wildly inconsistent in the 2021 season. However, for the first time on Saturday, we got to see the offense move the ball through the air, and some receivers at long last had a chance to shine. That’s never a bad sign.
“We starting to get more in sync,” Cristobal said. “We have to show just a greater determination for executing at a higher level because there was more consistency, it’s not all the way to where it needs to be. There is progress. We’re excited about that, and it against starts with the quarterback and the guys upfront.”
If you were to ask the Oregon Ducks’ coaching staff, the Ducks’ fanbase and the group of media members who cover the team to all give you their respective opinions on sixth-year quarterback Anthony Brown, it’s likely that you’d get some drastically different answers.
A large portion of the fans has made their opinions quite clear. Though only a portion of them are responsible for booing AB on Friday night in the contested victory over Cal, you’d likely have a hard time finding someone in the green and yellow who thinks that Brown is an above-average passer.
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Similarly, the group of media members who cover this team week in and week out have been critical of Brown, justifiably so. As a part of this group, I have gone on record as saying that it’s time for Oregon coaches to at least look at what they have behind Brown and decide if it gives you a better chance to win. Seeing as we don’t have access to practice, there is no telling if they’ve done that or not, but assuming that they are competent and good at their jobs, which I whole-heartedly believe, you can believe that they have.
This brings us to those coaches, and what they think of the signal-caller. While the answer from Mario Cristobal or Joe Moorhead might be different behind a closed door, it has become clear that they are sticking with No. 13 for the time being. Despite his struggles on the field, Anthony Brown is the guy that they will be rolling with going forward.
“I think he took a step forward from a broad stroke perspective,” Moorhead said on Monday, speaking of a Cal game where Brown was showered with boos during some bouts of poor play. “We’re 5-1, we’re basically the top scoring offense in the conference. He’s created 12 touchdowns on the air or the ground and has only turned the ball over twice.”
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The stats look decent, but anyone who has watched Oregon play this year can tell you that a lot of meat has been left on the bone, so to speak. Chunk plays have been missed, poor reads have been made, and wide-open receivers have been left darting downfield without the quarterback even so much as looking in their direction.
It is these things that have drawn the most criticism towards Brown, but as a player with loads of experience, he’s set up to be able to handle those calls of skepticism.
“When you play the position, you assume the mantle of responsibility and the criticism that goes with it,” Moorhead said. “I think AB is doing a solid job in his role. He’s not Marcus Mariota, he’s not Dennis Dixon, he’s not any of those guys. He has to understand who he is and what he does well and how that’s going to contribute.”
Going into the season, we didn’t expect Brown to be any of those superstar quarterbacks that Oregon has been blessed with in the past; instead, we projected that he’d manage the games well and distribute the ball to his playmakers. While the Ducks are 5-1 and hold a clear shot at making it back to the Pac-12 Championship, there is some unrest in the fanbase due to the lack of a prolific offense, especially when it comes to the passing game. Oregon has one of the best group of receivers in school history, but Brown’s relative inability to get them the ball has caused fans and media members alike to pull their hair out in frustration.
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Might that lead to an eventual change? Not any time soon, it seems like. True freshman QB Ty Thompson is sitting on the bench waiting to hear his name called. He’s the highest quarterback recruit in school history, and arguably the future of the program. However, the Oregon coaching staff appears to be rolling with the guy they already have. For now, at least.
“It’s all relevant,” Moorhead said. “You can nitpick, talk about stats, completion percentages, all that stuff, but I’ll go into the game with AB as my quarterback and believe in his abilities and what he can do. I’m proud to be coaching him, he’s a great competitor, and he’s doing great with the offense.”
With the Washington State HC job now vacant, Oregon’s Joe Moorhead has been named a potential candidate, as has Joe Salav’a.
A frequent topic of conversation for the Oregon Ducks this season has been not about the team on the field, but also about the coaches on the sidelines with the headset on as well.
As it turns out, a new rumor mill seems to be starting, with the head coaching job up in Pullman now opening up. After former Washington State Cougars coach Nick Rolovich was fired earlier this week because of his refusal to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a list of candidates to take over up in the Evergreen State has now been thrown together.
According to The Athletic, both Oregon’s Joe Moorhead and Joe Salav’a are reportedly interesting candidates. Here’s what they had to say about Moorhead’s prospects:
Oregon offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead has been one of the best assistants in the country this year, and his masterful game plan helped the Ducks win at Ohio State earlier this season. His importance was even more notable when Oregon lost to Stanford without him, as Moorhead was hospitalized with a non-COVID-19 medical situation. Moorhead went 14-12 as Mississippi State’s head coach from 2018 to 2019. (Coincidentally, he was replaced by Leach.) Depending on how Oregon’s season plays out, Moorhead could become a candidate for head coaching jobs.
It is important to note that Washington State is a rebuilding job, where it is tough to establish a hot recruiting trail due to the dominance in that aspect from the Oregon Ducks, as well as the waning shadow cast by the Washington Huskies.
Salav’a is an interesting name to be mentioned since we haven’t heard him pop up as a candidate for many top jobs before. However, his place in the Cougars organization last decade makes him worthy of the conversation, at the very least.
Oregon co-defensive coordinator/defensive line/associate head coach Joe Salave’a coached the Washington State defensive line from 2012 to 2016 with an assistant head coach title. At Oregon, he’s been known as a strong recruiter and helped land two five-star prospects, including No. 1 recruit Kayvon Thibodeaux. The Ducks defense improved its sack and TFL totals after Salave’a arrived. When Mario Cristobal was promoted to head coach, he promoted Salave’a to co-defensive coordinator and run game coordinator.
Not only have there been incredibly speculative rumors about Mario Cristobal potentially being a candidate for the USC, LSU, and Miami coaching jobs, but now Moorhead and Salav’a are up for debate as well. Don’t expect that to be an issue going forward this year, though. This coaching staff has proven to be good at ignoring outside noise and focusing on the task at hand.
After missing the Stanford game with a medical issue, Oregon OC Joe Moorhead will return to the booth and coach vs. California.
After missing the Oregon Ducks’ game vs. the Stanford Cardinal just under two weeks ago, offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead will be at Autzen Stadium and available to coach on Friday night, from the booth, rather than the sideline though.
Moorhead missed the Stanford game after undergoing surgery on Saturday morning in Palo Alto. He was able to return home to Eugene later that week and was said to be resting and recovering. Leading up to this game against the California Golden Bears, head coach Mario Cristobal reported that it was unclear whether or not Moorhead would be able to return to the sideline, but it appears he has made enough progress in his recovery to do at least be in the stadium.
The return of Moorhead has the chance to be impactful for the Oregon offense, which has struggled at times during the season. As the leading play-caller and the quarterbacks coach, having Moorhead absent seemingly plays a trickle-down effect on the sideline. Not only did the Ducks have to rely on play-calling from running backs coach Jim Mastro, but they also didn’t have the QB coach around to help Anthony Brown when things got tough down the stretch.
Luckily, that likely won’t be an issue this week with Moorhead returning to the sideline. Let’s hope the offense looks improved because of it.
After missing the Week 5 game against the Stanford Cardinal, Oregon’s offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead is said to be back in Eugene resting, and there is a chance that he will be returning to the team in time to coach against the California Golden Bears this coming week.
Mario Cristobal said in his press conference on Sunday that Moorhead is healing up and getting better day by day, but they don’t know if he will officially be back until later in the week.
With Moorhead gone against Stanford, it was running backs coach Jim Mastro who took over play-calling duties, which Cristobal would be the plan going forward if Moorhead were to miss more time.
