Coaching Shake-up: Hood Out, Mullen May Follow

The last week or so has been full of rumors regarding several members of the football team's coaching staff. As I've said before (most notably in the Grobe to Arkansas situation) I try to avoid reporting on rumors I have no factual basis for, although that factual basis does not necessarily have to be published reports, it could be first hand knowledge.

I mentioned yesterday morning that Dean Hood was set to be named Head Coach at Eastern Kentucky, and he did formally accept that offer yesterday afternoon.

The other rumor that has been swirling is in regards to QB coach Jeff Mullen heading to West Virginia to be Bill Stewart's offensive coordinator. Until today I hadn't heard anything reliable that I could share, but now reports are being published that say this move is expected within the next couple of days, most notably from Rob Daniels at the Greensboro News & Record.

It definitely hurts to be losing these guys, however I believe Wake fans should be proud of the program and these guys for doing such a good job for Wake that other schools want to give them bigger and better jobs. I have confidence in Jim Grobe's ability to keep a strong staff around him and I'm not going to worry about these losses having a terrible impact on the 2008 season. If these two coaches are ready to move on to bigger jobs elsewhere I'm sure there are coaches on our staff who are ready to move up and fill their shoes. I do expect Grobe to promote from within, but we'll have to wait and see. I imagine he will make the promotions pretty quickly.

I'd like to formally thank Coach Hood and preemptively thank Coach Mullen as well for their contributions to this program, I'm sure it wouldn't be where it is without them. Good luck to them in their future endeavors!