Over The Pylon

Last offseason in the MAC was characterized by vacancy after vacancy and the mad scramble to fill head coaching jobs at schools like Toledo, Bowling Green, Eastern Michigan, Miami, and Ball State. This year, the only MAC vacancy for now was Akron’s head coaching gig, after JD Brookhart and his entire staff lost control of the team early in the season and then all lost their jobs to close it. Those that were formatting their resume for that wasteland position can go ahead and cancel that trip to Kinko’s. Per ESPN…

AKRON, Ohio — Akron has hired Notre Dame assistant Rob Ianello as its football coach.

The school sent out a release late Wednesday night saying Ianello will be introduced as the Zips’ new coach at a news conference Thursday at InfoCision Stadium on campus.

Ianello replaces J.D. Brookhart, who has fired last month after Akron went 3-9.

The 44-year-old Ianello spent the past three years working for Charlie Weis with the Fighting Irish, He coached the team’s wide receivers and was Notre Dame’s recruiting coordinator. He started at Notre Dame in 2005 after stops at Arizona and Wisconsin.

This is great news for Akron and very bad news for the MAC, as Ianello is a great offensive mind and tireless recruiter who worked with a notorious awesome recruiter in Charlie Weis. Granted, recruiting at a MAC school and recruiting for Notre Dame are two entirely different beasts but Ianello isn’t some flash in the pan that is a gamble. He will be the next coach to make a name for himself at a MAC school and then get the hell out as soon as humanly possible for a BCS conference job.

Speaking of that, this closes up the MAC’s vacancies for now, but it’s only a matter of time until Turner Gill bolts for Kansas or Butch Jones bolts for someplace other than Central Michigan.

Filed under: Coaches, MAC |