The "dirt" for Thursday…
• Multiple sources are saying that Jeremy Cox will be hired as an assistant at Texas Tech to replace Jeff Kidder. Cox has been an assistant under Tech head coach Billy Gillispie at Texas A&M and Kentucky. He worked as an assistant at Nebraska last season, and was released when Doc Sadler was fired. Kidder left to take a HS gig in Kentucky.
• I’ve been talking about the open assistant spot at Navy lately. I confirmed last week that former Holy Cross head coach Sean Kearney, Missouri assistant Ernie Nestor, and former Colgate head coach Emmett Davis had all interviewed for the spot. According to a great source, it sounds like Nestor is the choice. He had previously worked for Navy HC Ed DeChellis at Penn State and has been the head coach at George Mason and Elon. The official announcement could come today or tomorrow.
• I’ve heard that Drexel’s Winston Smith is in line for an assistant spot on the new staff at Rider. Smith has been the DBO at Drexel for the past four seasons and also spent two seasons as an assistant at St. Francis (PA). If he leaves, it sounds like Bobby Jordan will be promoted from operations assistant. Not sure if he would assume Smith’s role as the DBO, or replace Ashley Howard who departed for Xavier earlier in the spring.
• Speaking of Rider…I’ve heard that John Griffin is in the mix for the DBO spot there. Griffin played at Bucknell and was a video intern with the Pacers in 2011. His father is former St. Joe’s and Siena head coach John Griffin.
• I have heard that Ryan Cahak, a GA at Tennessee last season, has interviewed for an assistant position at Lipscomb. Cahak was walk-on at Syracuse who graduated in 2008. Lipscomb is looking to replace long-time assistant Jay Walton who resigned at the end of May.
• Southern Poly has narrowed their search for a head coach down to four. It’s kind of a strange search here. Tommy Dillon had the “interim” tag removed and is technically the head coach. Apparently to make it official, a search and interviews had to be done. Dillon led his squad to a 24-5 record this past season and a #3 ranking in the NAIA poll. Dillon has interviewed for his job and I’ve heard the three others are: Chad Keller (assistant – Embry-Riddle), Jeff Pourchier (head coach – Reinhardt College), and Cory Baldwin (head coach – Waycross College). It will be interesting to see how this one turns out.
