Deseret News | Missouri O-coordinator takes Cowboys' job

Missouri O-coordinator takes Cowboys' job

Associated Press

Published: Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2008 12:54 a.m. MST

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"He took over a very difficult situation for the last six games and showed me what type of coach and leader he is," Phillips said in a statement. "I was impressed by the way the team responded to his leadership."

KIFFIN INTRODUCED AS TENNESSEE'S 21ST COACH: Even though Tennessee's new coach is the youngest one to lead a major program, Lane Kiffin has been around football for almost all of his 33 years.

The former coach of the NFL's Oakland Raiders and son of longtime NFL defensive coordinator Monte Kiffin is five months younger than the previous youngest coach in the Bowl Subdivision, Northwestern's Pat Fitzgerald.

Kiffin remembers being surrounded as a child by chalkboards scrawled with defensive plays and spending weekends in pregame meetings with his dad's teams.

"The experience has been unbelievable and then to combine that with still being young enough to be able to relate to recruits and be able to manage them and handle them, I think is very valuable," Kiffin said Monday when he was introduced at Tennessee.

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NMSU TO TALK ABOUT PROGRAM'S FUTURE: New Mexico State athletic director McKinley Boston will discuss the future of the football program at a news conference Tuesday, but the school is denying reports that head coach Hal Mumme has been fired.

There has been speculation that Mumme would be let go after losing seven straight games to end the season 3-9 overall and 1-7 in the Western Athletic Conference. Mumme is 11-38 in his four years as NMSU's head coach.

Aggies sports information director Tyler Dunkel said Monday the university did not announce that it was going to fire Mumme. However, Dunkel would not say whether Mumme would be the focus of Tuesday's news conference.

Boston said last week that he was evaluating the program but that did not mean a decision had been made regarding Mumme.