Posted by ESPN.com's Chris Low
Everywhere you look now in college football, head coaches are hiring former head coaches to be on their staff.
It's a trend that's really taken off in the SEC, and it makes a lot of sense. There's no substitute for having somebody on your staff who's been a head coach before to bounce things off of when you face tough decisions on and off the field.
Just last week, Arkansas' Bobby Petrino hired former Michigan State and Louisville head coach John L. Smith to coordinate his special teams and work with the defense. Petrino coached under Smith at Idaho, Utah State and Louisville.
It's also no coincidence that the two youngest coaches in the league (Tennessee's Lane Kiffin and Mississippi State's Dan Mullen) each have two former head coaches on their staffs.
Here's a look at the former college or pro head coaches who've landed on staffs in the SEC in an assistant's role:
- ALABAMA: Bobby Williams (Michigan State).
- AUBURN: Ted Roof (Duke).
- ARKANSAS: John L. Smith (Michigan State, Louisville, Utah State and Idaho).
- FLORIDA: Dan McCarney (Iowa State).
- LSU: Gary Crowton (BYU).
- OLE MISS: Kent Austin (Saskatchewan Roughriders).
- MISSISSIPPI STATE: Mark Hudspeth (North Alabama) and Carl Torbush (North Carolina, Louisiana Tech).
- SOUTH CAROLINA: Ellis Johnson (The Citadel, Gardner Webb).
- TENNESSEE: Ed Orgeron (Ole Miss) and Monte Kiffin (North Carolina State).
- VANDERBILT: Charlie Fisher (West Georgia) and Ted Cain (Virginia Military Institute).
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ABOUT THIS BLOG
Chris Low
Low joined ESPN.com in 2007 after 10 years with The (Nashville) Tennessean covering the University of Tennessee and SEC. The Rock Hill, S.C., native lives with his wife in Knoxville and has three sons.
SEC SCOREBOARD
Saturday, 11/21
Final Mississippi State 21 Arkansas 42 Final Chattanooga 0 2 Alabama 45 Final Florida International 3 1 Florida 62 Final 8 LSU 23 Mississippi 25 Final Vanderbilt 16 Tennessee 31 Final Kentucky 34 Georgia 27
