College football assistants to watch (Rossi #19, Burns #32)

[pk2]

From theathletic.com, “College football assistant coaches to watch this season: Bruce Feldman’s hot list.” They list 37 coaches in the article.

19. Joe Rossi, Minnesota, DC, LB coach

The 43-year-old from Pittsburgh is one of the most underrated coaches in college football. Last season, his defense ranked third in the nation in total defense, tied for sixth in scoring defense and eighth in the nation in rushing defense. Two years earlier, he coached the Gophers to No. 10 in the nation in total D, allowing only 306.6 yards per game, which was, at that time the program’s fewest amount since 1977. This shapes up to be another strong season for the Gophers and Rossi is in line to see his profile grow.

32. Kenni Burns, Minnesota, RB coach, assistant head coach

No other position coach in college football may have had a better season than Burns did in 2021. At one point, the Gophers had lost four running backs to season-ending injuries and also saw one enter the transfer portal, but Minnesota kept gashing people with its run game. Minnesota became the only team in the nation to have five different running backs top 100 yards in a game — a credit to Burns’ recruiting skills and his ability to have all his guys ready to perform. He will have the best of the Gophers’ five 100-yard backs returning in Mohamed Ibrahim.

It’s a pay site, but for those who subscribe, here’s the link:

Feldman: 37 CFB assistant coaches who might run the carousel this fall

Bruce Feldman's 37 CFB assistants who might grab head coach jobs this season.

theathletic.com

 

[swelna]

I can only hope that Fleck/Rossi have either picked out a replacement in the coaching staff should Rossi leave or they have both identified a few outside the coaching staff. It would suck if we had another Sanford situation happen if Rossi leaves for an HC position in a few years

 

[Gophers7NatTitlesBadgers0]

I'll be happy to see Jim Leonhard leave!

 

[btowngopher]

I can only hope that Fleck/Rossi have either picked out a replacement in the coaching staff should Rossi leave or they have both identified a few outside the coaching staff. It would suck if we had another Sanford situation happen if Rossi leaves for an HC position in a few years

I think Harasymiak would be a nice replacement. Just as Matt Simon would be at OC. Hopefully Rossi stays under the radar, but pretty nice to have 2 understudies on staff.

 

[swelna]

I think Harasymiak would be a nice replacement. Just as Matt Simon would be at OC. Hopefully Rossi stays under the radar, but pretty nice to have 2 understudies on staff.

Harasymiak is DC at Rutgers now and no longer on the staff (Hired this January), so we'd have to poach him from Rutgers (which might not be hard, who knows). I'll be interested to see how his defense does this year and in the next few years.

Paul Haynes has the Co-DC title this year, so I wonder if that's just a title to pay him more or if he is working with Rossi a bit and could take over fully if Rossi got a HC job somewhere.

 

[btowngopher]

Harasymiak is DC at Rutgers now and no longer on the staff (Hired this January), so we'd have to poach him from Rutgers (which might not be hard, who knows). I'll be interested to see how his defense does this year and in the next few years.

Paul Haynes has the Co-DC title this year, so I wonder if that's just a title to pay him more or if he is working with Rossi a bit and could take over fully if Rossi got a HC job somewhere.

Oh duh, totally forgot about that. I think Haynes would be a pretty good candidate too. He’s got a great track record with dbs, and has HC experience. Would be interesting to see if an attempt would be made at Harasymiak, I believe he is a east coast guy so might be tough. Hopefully Rossi sticks a few more years, he should have another strong D this year. Hopefully his cohorts are learning from him.