Breaking: USF appears to have zeroed in on Charlie Strong

With the recruiting wars already under way, the contact period ending Monday and a date with South Carolina in the Dec. 29 Birmingham Bowl coming up, it didn’t figure to take USF officials long to begin their quest for a new coach to replace Oregon-bound Willie Taggart.

And it hasn’t.

Florida Football Insiders has learned that the quest for Taggart’s successor began Wednesday and that it might actually end rather soon with former Texas coach Charlie Strong stepping in as the fourth head coach in school history.

It is believed that USF has already begun negotiating a contract with Strong, who could come rather cheap for the first part of the deal, as it appears the University of Texas will remain on the hook for paying Strong much of the $11 million buyout he had when he was fired by the Longhorns.

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Oregon job was a tougher pull than we thought

In the wake of Oregon choosing Willie Taggart, coaches and agents were left buzzing more about what the search revealed than the hire itself.

Boiling it down: Perhaps the Oregon job is not what we thought it was.Several sources have told 247Sports this week that multiple Power 5 coaches passed on the Oregon job when vetted by the search firm and the school.
An agent indicated that the resources at Oregon are somewhat overblown.

“The facilities are not exaggerated - they’re ridiculous; you’ve seen them - but the money beyond that is (exaggerated),” the source said. “Everyone thinks ‘Oh, but it’s Nike,’ but it’s not like (Phil Knight) is spending unlimited amounts of money for coaches.”

Think about it, the agent added: Jeff Brohm got one more year and more money (reported $3.3 million) from Purdue than Taggart received from Oregon (reported $3.2 million).

Topping off the thought, Brohm came directly from Western Kentucky; Taggart was there 2010-12. Brohm was making about $800,000 at WKU; Taggart was making around $1.8 million at USF.

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LSU takes close look at coordinators that run up-tempo offenses

With the expectation that Lane Kiffin and Houston could come to an agreement this week, LSU did background work on offensive coordinator candidates Thursday, a person with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

Among those likely to get a look for the LSU job are former Texas offensive coordinator Sterlin Gilbert, Pittsburgh offensive coordinator Matt Canada and former Oregon coach Mark Helfrich.

All three run up-tempo systems, which is what new LSU coach Ed Orgeron wants to pair with Dave Aranda's defense.

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BREAKING: Bearcats Negotiating Contract with Luke Fickell

The wait for the new Bearcats Head Coach may be coming to an end in the coming hours. With Charlie Strong headed to Tampa tomorrow, unless something drastically changes, Strong is out of the picture.

BearcatReport sources are reporting that Cincinnati and Ohio State Co-Defensive Coordinator Luke Fickell are in contract negotiations to make him the next head coach in the Queen City, though at this time it is unclear when the deal will be complete.

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