Bobby Hurley, whose 10-year tenure at ASU has been a revolving door of assistant coaches, hired a high school coach to fill a vacancy last week. Ty Amundsen of Goodyear Millennium, runner up in the state Open division 2024 championships, joins a staff that includes Jerrance Howard, from Southern Illinois, and Nick Irvin, from Western Illinois. It’s no mystery why Amundsen was hired: he has been coaching the state’s top prospect, Cameron Holmes. However, Holmes does not have ASU on his list of six visits, opting for ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, North Carolina, Texas, Gonzaga and some other heavyweights. It’ll be Amundsen’s job to change that over the next few months. Hurley’s 2025-26 roster includes 14 new players for 15 roster spots. That can’t be good. As far as I can research, ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ has not hired a high school coach to be on its staff the last 50 years. The closest would be Salpointe Catholic grad Gary Heintz, who joined Fred Snowden‘s staff in 1981-82, Snowden’s last year. Heintz was hired away from a head coaching job at Central ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ College and had been Salpointe’s head coach for four seasons before that.
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ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ State head coach Bobby Hurley during the first half against Houston, Feb. 18, 2025, in Tempe.
– Former Salpointe 5-star football recruit, outside linebacker Elijah Rushing, is on pace to play a significant role in Oregon’s season opener against Montana State. Rushing played just 18 defensive snaps for the Ducks as a true freshman last season, but is listed as the third OLB on Oregon’s depth chart. The competition is fierce. He is backing up All-Big Ten OLB Matayo Uiagalelei, a junior, and former 4-star recruit Ashton Porter. Rushing’s high school teammate at Salpointe, Keona Davis, is scheduled to start for Nebraska in his sophomore season. Davis has gained 25 pounds, to 270, after playing as a reserve in 12 games a year ago.
– The financial competition in the Big 12 is more intense than I could have imagined. Last week, Kansas alumnus David Booth announced he is donating $300 million to the KU athletic department, with much of it to be used for the total rebuild of Kansas’ football stadium, now named Booth Stadium. “It’s a game-changer,†said KU athletic director Travis Goff. No kidding.
The University of ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥ once had a live "Wildcat" mascot; however, the current mascot ─ with a few changes that include wife, Wilma, along the way ─ Wilbur the Wildcat has been a favorite around Tucson for more than 60 years.
– As Rich Rodriguez prepares for his second incarnation as West Virginia’s head football coach, he is also doing double-duty as WVU’s offensive coordinator. The Mountaineers staff director does not list an OC, but rather lists RichRod’s son, Rhett, as quarterbacks coach, and former West Virginia All-American quarterback Pat White as assistant QB coach and assistant to the head coach. At ÃÛÁÄÖ±²¥, RichRod listed Rod Smith as his OC for six years, but that was just in title. RichRod called all the plays and had full control over UA’s offense from 2012-17. Not much has changed all these years later.
Despite portal, U of A coaches say it’s status quo as far as freshmen go | Michael Lev
