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Multiple reports suggest that the Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles will name Oklahoma State Cowboys offensive coordinator Todd Monken as their next head coach to replace the recently fired Ellis Johnson, following the team’s 0-12 2012 finish.
Monken has a first-class pedigree that includes stops in the NFL as the quarterbacks coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars and as a positional coach–primarily working with wide receivers–with the LSU Tigers in the mid-2000s.
An official announcement is expected sometime on Tuesday in Hattiesburg, and it is expected that Monken will take over immediately to do some work repairing the fractured image of a traditionally-strong program that has fallen on some hard times.
It’s an interesting, but not all that surprising move for Southern Miss, given their past ties to Oklahoma State. Previous Southern Miss coach Larry Fedora, now the head coach of the North Carolina Tar Heels, was also an offensive coordinator at one point in time under Mike Gundy in Stillwater.
If nothing else, the decision to bring Monken on board proves the Golden Eagles’ commitment to an offense-first philosophy that should be attractive to Southern skill players in spite of the team’s rough finish in 2012, a finish that seems more like an anomaly than a sign of things to come.
Monken will be tasked with starting a new winning streak on campus, which previously stood at eighteen straight seasons prior to 2012, and with the name value he brings, should be able to quickly win over a few recruits and turn things back around quickly.
Don’t be surprised if the Golden Eagles are back on track in 2013 towards, which is what we’ve come to expect from them over time.
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Kris Hughes is the College Football Network Manager for Rant Sports and a member of the Football Writers Association of America. You can follow him on Twitter or check out his Facebook page. Kris is the host of Rant Sports Radio on the Blog Talk Radio Network Wednesday evenings at 8 Central Time.
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