BYU football: Patrick Higgins accepts post at Purdue

PROVO — The restructuring of BYU's offensive coaching staff continued Tuesday when Patrick Higgins took a job as the wide receivers coach at Purdue.

Higgins had spent six years coaching the outside receivers, including standouts Austin Collie and Todd Watkins, for the Cougars.

"I appreciate the work that Coach Higgins has done to help our program over the past six seasons," BYU coach Bronco Mendenhall said in a statement. "I am particularly grateful to Patrick for his contributions to our successful game management, where his head coaching experience proved valuable in critical situations."

Since the season ended, Robert Anae has stepped down from his post as offensive coordinator and has since been hired by Arizona. Quarterbacks coach Brandon Doman has been promoted to offensive coordinator and he will continue to coach the quarterbacks. Over the weekend, Mendenhall hired Joe DuPaix away from Navy to join the offensive staff.

Longtime assistant head coach and running backs coach Lance Reynolds is expected to remain with the Cougars. Meanwhile, the status of offensive line coach Mark Weber is still unknown.

With Higgins moving on, a rumored replacement is former BYU receiver Ben Cahoon, who played for the Cougars in 1996-97. Cahoon has starred in the Canadian Football League for 13 seasons and is the league's all-time receptions leader. There are reports that he may be retiring.

Cahoon has worked with Cougar receivers during the offseason and he was a frequent visitor at spring practices last year.

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