Jackrabbits shake up football staff
07/31/2009
The South Dakota State football program will have a new quarterbacks coach, after all. But the Jackrabbits are hoping that you won't notice.
Fourth-year assistant Shannon Moore has been moved from running backs coach to quarterbacks coach, and he doesn't plan on changing anything that the recently departed Don Bailey - now a private businessman - put in place.
"Coach Bailey did an unbelievable job with our quarterbacks," Moore said, referring to the fact that SDSU set several school records for passing and scoring in 2008. "He's got those guys in a system they're comfortable with. I want to be close to him, because the things he did had those guys playing at a high level."
Moore, a Nebraska native, is plenty familiar with the quarterback position, having played it for three years at Black Hills State. He also served as head coach of the Wyoming Cavalry - a professional indoor team - for three years, was a graduate assistant at SDSU for two and led Sully Buttes High School for one season.
In an attempt to get up to speed with the current quarterbacks - and the four-way fracas to replace all-conference graduate Ryan Berry - Moore has graded out every snap from spring workouts. The verdict: It's still anybody's gig.
"We're going to let guys battle for 30 days," Moore said. "The best guy is going to win the job and lead us on Sept. 12."
A new graduate assistant will take over the running backs for Moore, Josh Davis - former SDSU standout and former graduate assistant - will return to be the interim receivers coach and Tim Triplett will be the interim tight ends coach.
Triplett played wide receiver at the University of South Dakota through 2005, and his dad, Dave, was the Coyotes' head coach from 1979-88.
"That's as close as we're going to get to rekindling the rivalry for now," joked SDSU coach John Stiegelmeier.
Triplett worked at Wayne State (Neb.) last year with Clint Brown, who is entering his first season as the Jacks defensive line coach. SDSU also has a new linebackers assistant in Shawn Mennenga.
Even without bringing in an unfamiliar quarterbacks coach, that's a considerable amount of turnover for a program that has won seven games three years in a row. SDSU is ranked as high as No. 11 in the Football Championship Subdivision polls for 2009.
"We're going about it like nothing happened," Stiegelmeier said. "I feel we're going to have five guys on our offense that are on the same page and willing to work hard."
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