FanHouse Coachingchanges

It took a week, but the Green Bay Packers have done the right thing.

The club announced Monday that they have fired six defensive coaches, including embattled coordinator Bob Sanders. The firings were first reported by the National Football Post, and then confirmed by Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Defensive tackles coach Robert Nunn, defensive ends coach Carl Hairston, defensive backs coach Kurt Schottenheimer, cornerbacks coach Lionel Washington, and assistant Kevin Gullickson were also sent packing.

Word from Silverstein is that assistant head coach/linebackers coach Winston Moss, who has interviewed for the vacant head coaching position in St. Louis, was the only defensive coach retained.

What isn't known is what direction head coach Mike McCarthy will go for a new defensive coordinator. If Moss doesn't get the Rams job, he has to be considered a candidate. Silverstein also mentions the possibility of Mike Nolan joining the staff. The former 49ers head coach is said to be friends with McCarthy.

As for Sanders, I'm sure I don't have to tell you that I won't miss him much. Hopefully the new coordinator will play all the guys at the correct positions, and perhaps be capable of squeezing some success out of the group, instead of crafting fourth-quarter failure after fourth-quarter failure.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that John Beilein has an offer from the table from Michigan and will decide sometime today -- today is Monday, for anyone like The Dude who doesn't really keep track of these things. It seems Michigan athletic director Bill Martin is playing it coy:

The Free Press asked Martin via e-mail if Beilein had been offered the job and was in Ann Arbor on Sunday. Martin responded only, "If Coach Beilein was in AA today, I didn't know about it."

The Detroit News' Bob Wojnowski goes a step farther in his brief article on the subject:

U-M athletic director Bill Martin has targeted Beilein all along, and according to two sources, Beilein, 54, appears willing to accept the job.

Though it is noted "appears willing to" is not the world's strongest assertion, it appears that any buyout-related hurdles have been cleared and Michigan, despite the whole puppy-burning thing, has made a sufficiently enticing offer for Beilein to consider it.

Previously on the Fanhouse:
John Beilein: Win NIT Tonight, Take Michigan Job Tomorrow?
Who's Hot for Michigan Basketball?
The 1-3-1 Is Not a Gimmick

UCLA's prospects of making a BCS Bowl Game, or rather, the Bruins' lack of prospects, is making it hard for head coach Karl Dorrell to keep his coaches around.

Speaking to reporter/blogger Brian Dohn, the recently-departed receivers coach D.J. McCarthy said, "If and when we make it to a BCS bowl, I'll have a chance to double my UCLA salary... That's why coach (Karl) Dorrell has lost a lot of good coaches."

Ouch.

We live in Los Angeles and can attest to how difficult it would be to raise a wife and three children on $130 large...and it's almost certain McCarthy will be getting more with the Tigers.

Ohio State cornerbacks coach Tim Beckman will be the Cowboys' new defensive coordinator in 2007. As reported here earlier, the Cowboys have been taking their sweet time in finding someone to fill the all-important coordinator position. Apparently they've finally found their man as Beckman will join Mike Gundy's coaching staff.

We could talk about how poorly Buckeye defensive backs played in the national championship game against Florida, but with them 15 yards off the ball each play it seems like they were never really on the field. In all fairness he was able to coach up a group of middling recruits into some of the Big Ten's best ball hawks over the last two seasons.

He'll be in good company as the defensive counterpart to awesomely named Cowboy offensive coordinator Larry Fedora. Fedora was last seen doing something no other Ohio State coach could do, taking it to a legitimate SEC defense. His Cowboy offense scored 34 points and rolled up 419 total yards against Alabama in the Independence Bowl.