A friend pointed a recent bit of news to come out of Orlando.
Charlie Taaffe, the former Maryland offensive coordinator, was just hired as Central Florida’s offensive coordinator. This comes a few months after Taaffe was fired as head coach of the CFL’s Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
SEE RELATED:
It got me thinking about the whereabouts of all of Ralph Friedgen’s former assistants over the last eight seasons. There’s actually a dozen of them now, which means there’s been an average of 1.5 staff changes a season (though I am counting Kasey Dunn’s six-week stint last winter).
I didn’t find everyone in my quick search of Al Gore’s Invention, but came up reasonably close. It appears 10 of the 12 former assistants are still working either at major colleges or in the pros; only Rod Sharpless (2001-02) and Phil Zacharias (2006-07) apparently are not, though I emphasize this was a quick search and Google isn’t infallible.
Here’s the rundown of Friedgen’s former assistants, with their years working for Ralph and their current gigs:
| Assistant |
Years |
Now |
Mike Locksley
|
2001-02 |
New Mexico HC
|
Bill O’Brien
|
2003-04 |
Patriots WRs
|
Gary Blackney
|
2001-05 |
Central Florida DBs
|
Charlie Taaffe
|
2001-05 |
Central Florida OC
|
Tim Banks
|
2003-06 |
Central Michigan DC
|
Bryan Bossard
|
2005-07 |
Pittsburgh WRs
|
Ray Rychleski
|
2001-07 |
South Carolina ST
|
Kasey Dunn
|
Winter 2008 |
Seahawks RBs
|
Chris Cosh
|
2006-08 |
Kansas State co-DC
|
Danny Pearman
|
2008 |
Clemson TEs/Ts
|
– Patrick Stevens
