Jan 2, 2014; Newport Beach, CA, USA; Florida State Seminoles offensive coordinator Jeremy Pruitt at the 2014 BCS National Championship press conference at Newport Beach Marriott. Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Georgia has hired Florida State’s Jeremy Pruitt as its new defensive coordinator, head coach Mark Richt announced Tuesday.
As defensive coordinator/defensive backs coach at FSU, Pruitt was part of a coaching staff that led the Seminoles to an undefeated season and 2013 BCS National Championship.
The FSU defense ended the season ranked first nationally in scoring defense (12.1 points per game), second in team passing efficiency defense (93.77), third in total defense (281.4 ypg), and 18th in rushing defense (124.8 ypg). He was a finalist this year for the Broyles Award which goes annually to the nation’s top assistant coach.
“I’m ecstatic,” Richt said.
“This is an outstanding professional and personal opportunity,” Pruitt said. “I’m looking forward to meeting the current players and getting on the road to visit with recruits.”
Pruitt, 39, was named Florida State’s defensive coordinator in December 2012, after serving the previous three seasons (2010-12) as Alabama’s defensive backfield coach.
–Oregon linebackers coach Don Pellum has been promoted to defensive coordinator, head coach Mark Helfrich announced.
Pellum has had 23 years of coaching at Oregon including the past 14 seasons in charge of the linebackers.
Pellium replaces Nick Aliotti, who retired as the school’s defensive coordinator after 17 seasons following the Ducks’ 30-7 win over Texas in the Valero Alamo Bowl.
“This is a challenge I welcome with open arms,” Pellum said in a statement. “I have been fortunate to enjoy a long relationship at an institution that means a lot to me as well as the luxury to work with a lot of class coaches and athletes. I certainly have benefitted from the knowledge handed down to me from numerous head coaches and coordinators but head into this next phase of my career anxious to implement ideas of my own.”
–Maryland has filed a $157 million countersuit against the Atlantic Coast Conference, which assessed the university a record $52.3 million exit fee to leave for the Big Ten.
“Our lawsuit calls the ACC’s ‘exit fee’ what it really is — an antitrust violation and an illegal activity,” Maryland Attorney General Douglas Gansler said in a statement. “Our motion in North Carolina will ensure that a Maryland court will rule on the case.”
In the suit, Maryland alleges ESPN instructed ACC leadership how to attract Big Ten schools to the ACC. It also alleges officials from Wake Forest and Pittsburgh, which joined the ACC, were openly recruiting Big Ten programs to leave.
Maryland had expected an exit fee of $17.4 million, but courts ruled the school was bound by the conference’s decision to hike the fee to record levels.
A North Carolina appeals court rejected Maryland’s request to dismiss the ACC’s lawsuit in November, setting the wheels in motion for a countersuit in Maryland state courts.
Maryland and Rutgers are scheduled to join the Big Ten next season.
–Bo Davis was named defensive line coach at Alabama just one week after accepting the same position at Southern Cal.
Davis, 42, played at LSU and replaces Chris Rumph, who joined Charlie Strong’s staff at Texas. Davis was on coach Nick Saban’s coaching staff in Tuscaloosa from 2007-10.
He worked with Saban with the Miami Dolphins in 2006 — as assistant defensive line coach and assistant strength and conditioning coach — and at LSU from 2002-05 as a strength coach.
Davis is a heralded recruiter who coached interior defensive linemen at Texas from 2011-13.
He was hired by first-year USC coach Steve Sarkisian on Jan. 7 but Davis reportedly told the university he was leaving for “family reasons.”
“We wish Bo and his family the best of luck. He is a good coach,” Sarkisian said in a statement. “We will move forward and find a great coach for our defensive line.”
–Longtime Penn State assistant coach Larry Johnson is leaving Happy Valley, declining a spot on new coach James Franklin’s staff to instead join a Big Ten rival.
Johnson was near an agreement to replace Mike Vrabel on the Ohio State coaching staff as defensive line coach.
“I want to say that I am very appreciative of all that went into my time at Penn State, all the players I’ve coached and all of the associations that I have,” said Johnson, 61, in an interview with PennLive.com.
An assistant coach since he was hired by Joe Paterno in 1996, Johnson was promoted to interim head coach when Bill O’Brien left to take the Houston Texans’ job last week. He was offered a job on Franklin’s coaching staff but said he’s ready to move to a new challenge.
“I’ve thought a lot about this, I’ve prayed about it and this is what I want to do,” Johnson said. “I wish Coach Franklin and Penn State the best but it’s time for me. It’s a very difficult time but I want to thank the fans, the players, and Penn State. I mean that.”
