San Jose State’s head teaching search is specializing in former Navy head coach Ken Niumatalolo, and a deal may very well be finalized quickly, an individual briefed on the negotiations informed The Athletic.
Niumatalolo was Navy’s head coach from 2008 to ’22, profitable a school-record 109 video games. He was fired after three consecutive shedding seasons and joined UCLA final 12 months as director of management. He was not too long ago promoted to tight ends coach for the Bruins. ESPN first reported the SJSU information.
Niumatalolo, a Hawaii native and former UH quarterback, spent most of his teaching profession at Navy, together with assistant stints from 1995 to ’98 and 2002 to ’07, earlier than he was promoted to the pinnacle job. The Midshipmen reached 10 bowl video games beneath his watch, profitable no less than 9 video games six instances and twice ending ranked within the prime 25. He discovered himself within the combine through the years for Energy 5 head teaching jobs like Arizona, Minnesota, BYU and Maryland.
The Navy program was hit arduous by COVID restrictions in 2020 and by no means recovered the momentum. Service academies additionally face the problem of not being allowed to take part in NIL, and lax switch guidelines usually solely see gamers depart the academies, not are available in.
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Niumatalolo has stated that if he bought one other head teaching job, he wouldn’t run the triple-option offense once more. If the cope with SJSU is finalized, it’ll seemingly be a wide-open assault.
“The following one, I do know you’re not working the choice,” he informed The Athletic final summer time. “Not solely am I studying portal and NIL stuff (at UCLA), however you get to study Chip (Kelly’s) stuff. There’s a whole lot of issues coming right here. I acknowledge there are solely three colleges working the choice. For me coming right here, it permits me, if there is a chance, coming right here will present some issues which will assist me if I look towards the longer term.”
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