As Jeremy Pruitt’s search for an offensive coordinator continues so does his recruiting travels.
While Pruitt does continue to fly around the country bouncing in and out of high schools and homes, he is working on the vacant offensive coordinator position.
Wednesday two names that popped up on the radar were Oklahoma State’s Mike Yurcich and Houston’s Kendall Briles, Jr.
Alabama’s Dan Enos continues to be a name that has been floated about since this search started.
Enos could be in line for a promotion at Alabama with the departure of Mike Locksley to Maryland. It also remains unclear how much interest Nick Saban has in Hugh Freeze, which could obviously affect what Enos’ role with the Tide would be moving forward.
Sources have indicated to us that Enos and Pruitt have had or will have some kind of discussion but how big of a factor Enos is in this search remains unknown.
Yurcich’s name has popped up on several radars this week. He was mentioned with the Akron job early in the week, but money could be a factor there as the Zips are also talking to several FCS coaches about their vacancy. So there’s really been no traction with that job after Yurcich’s name was thrown out.
There’s no known tie to Pruitt and Yurcich, but we believe the two have spoken.
Yurcich was the 5th highest paid assistant in the Big 12 making $800k a year. Since Yurcich’s arrivals at Oklahoma State the Cowboys are 53-24. After the 2017 season, Yurcich interviewed for the Kent State job and pre-season stories in Stillwater had many wondering if this was Yurcich’s last year in Stillwater because he was thought to be a name that would show up on many schools hot board.
In 2018, Yurcich’s offense averaged 500 yards a game which was good for 19th nationally. And the Cowboys scored 461 points, an average of 38.4 points a game.
One question with Yucich is how would his offense translate into the SEC and would his style marry what Pruitt wants.
As for Briles, one tie to him is Lane Kiffin. Briles worked for Kiffin at FAU in 2017 where he was the assistant head coach, offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. FAU has a Cinderella year going 11-3, winning their last 10 after a 1-3 start. With the combination of Briles and Kiffin, the Owls scored 568 points.
Briles left after one year heading to Houston. Briles just received a new 3 year deal after the Cougars went 8-4 averaging 46 points a game. Houston wasn’t held below 30 points in 2018.
