Steve Sarkisian has been busy putting together his coaching staff and even though there hasn't been any official announcements yet this is what we have learned. It seems like Sark is putting together his defensive staff first which makes a lot of sense since he is an offensive coach.
No official word on a DC but it is looking more and more like USC's Rocky Seto is the man. Ron English of Louisville and DeWayne Walker of UCLA are other experienced coaches Sark has been in contact with.
Demetrice Martin who was a former grad assistant at USC and who is now at Mount San Angelo JC will be the new secondary coach. I have heard some very good things about Martin who is very highly regarded. One source told me that he may just be the best secondary coach in the country. That is pretty high praise considering that he is working at a JUCO. Mount SAC of course isn't any ordinary JUCO.
Idaho's Johnny Nansen is going to be the new defensive line coach. Nansen is a former WSU Cougar from Long Beach. Nansen has connections to the USC staff from his days at Louisville as a graduate assistant under Nick Holt who is now the DC at USC. I have been told that Nansen is a tremendous recruiter who approaches coaching with a lot of enthusiasm.
Charlie Camp who played at Arizona under Dick Tomey during the Desert Swarm days is reportedly going to be the new LB coach. In his 12th season as a football coach, he began his coaching career in 1997 at Sahuarita High School in Tucson, Arizona. His first collegiate position was as a graduate assistant at the University of Idaho in 1998. Camp was promoted to an assistant coach position at Idaho in 1998 and stayed through the 1999 season. He was an assistant coach at San Diego State University during the 2000 and 2001 seasons. Camp spent the 2002 season at Arizona and before going to Oregon State for 2003 and 2004. He was at San Jose State in 2005 and 2006 before joining the staff at Nevada in 2007. Camp was out of college coaching in 2008.
As I reported yesterday Ivan Lewis will be heading to Seattle to take over the strength and conditioning program from Trent Greener. Lewis been a volunteer strength coach at Washington, a high school football coach in Seattle, an assistant strength coach working with all sports at the University of San Diego, and, most recently, an assistant strength coach with the San Diego Chargers for two years.
Scott Wolf of Inside USC is reporting that USC's Jared Blank is going to be named Director of Football Operations. Blank is currently the director of football personel at USC. I don't have a lot of information on Jared yet. The DFO position is mostly administrative.
We haven't heard a lot of what is going on offensive wise so far. Former UW players OL Rick Mallory and WR DJ McCarthy are in the mix from what we have heard. McCarthy is currently at LSU and has picked up some great experience since leaving UW. Mallory used to coach TE's at Washington. Mallory has been coaching at Memphis the last eight years and is probably itching to come home. Mallory and McCarthy would be great additions to the staff.
USC's Al Dorsey is another name that has popped up for the OL position.
Sark has stated that even though going in his mindset is he will call the plays he will also have an offensive coordinator and QB coach. We heard that Yogi Roth had an interview but hasn't been hired yet which leads me to believe he is looking around for some experience.
Expect the name Wayne Moses to at least be mentioned for the RB coach position. The ex Husky is now at UCLA and has an impressive resume as a RB coach who has recruiting ties up and down the West coast.