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Minnesota announces promotion of offensive assistant following successful Outback Bowl performance
By Paul Harvey
Published:
Minnesota has landed its next offensive coordinator, but the Gophers are also promoting one key staff member in addition to that hire.
On Friday, head coach P.J. Fleck announced the hiring of Mike Sanford Jr. to fill the OC role at Minnesota. Sanford joins Fleck’s staff after serving in the same capacity at Utah State. He is replacing Kirk Ciarrocca who left to fill the OC position on James Franklin’s staff at Penn State.
It was also later announced that WRs coach Matt Simon is being promoted to the role of co-OC. That promotion comes after Simon served as the offensive coordinator during the Outback Bowl following Ciarrocca’s departure.
Simon will also continue to coach the receivers for the Gophers:
Congrats to @CoachMGSimon on being promoted to co-offensive coordinator! Simon, who called #Gophers 31-24 Outback Bowl win, will still coach the receivers. pic.twitter.com/XnVgaCrJ1e
— Minnesota Football (@GopherFootball) January 3, 2020
Simon initially joined Fleck’s staff at Western Michigan as the WRs coach in 2014 and followed him to Minnesota in the same position. Congratulations to Simon on the well-earned promotion!
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.