It's official. On this Friday morning, January 14th, every single football program in the FBS now has a head coach. The carousel has stopped spinning for now. The latest team to name its new head coach is Tulsa, who had to replace Todd Graham after he left to take the Pitt job. The news broke on Friday morning that Tulsa will hire Bill Blankenship to take over the football program.
If you're anything like me, you're reaction to this news may have been along the lines of "who?" Well, let me tell you a bit about Bill Blankenship. He served as Tulsa's associate head coach last season, but has been coaching at the school for the last four seasons. He spent three of those seasons coaching special teams, and has also coached the running backs and wide receivers.
Blankenship also played quarterback at Tulsa, and though this will be his first head coaching job on the college level, he spent 22 years as a head coach on the high school level. In those 22 seasons, Blankenship's high school teams reached the state championship game seven times, winning three of them, and he was inducted into the Oklahoma Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2009.
