ATHENS — One potential candidate to be Georgia’s offensive coordinator can be scratched. And so can one potential destination for Jeremy Pruitt.
Pruitt, who spent the past two years as Georgia’s defensive coordinator, will not interview at Michigan after all, per a report from 247Sports’s Josh Newberg, who said Pruitt “is no longer considering the job, because of family ties in the South.”
The idea of Pruitt at Michigan was always an odd fit, as Pruitt has never worked outside of the deep South. And his fiery personality would have made for an interesting pairing with Michigan head coach Jim Harbaugh.
There is still a defensive coordinator opening at Alabama, Pruitt’s alma mater, created by the hiring of Kirby Smart at Georgia. There has appeared no movement in the past few days towards Pruitt returning to Georgia.
Smart, meanwhile, still has to find an offensive coordinator. One name that had been mentioned was Chip Lindsey, who held that job at Southern Miss. But he is accepting the offensive coordinator job at Arizona State, per several reports.
The only known hires thus far to Smart’s staff are Glenn Schumann, who had been an Alabama player development coordinator and will now assume some role on Georgia’s defensive staff, and Thomas Brown, expected to stay on as Georgia’s running backs coach.
Georgia is hosting several recruits this weekend, including five-star quarterback Jacob Eason. Smart may want to be able to tell them with certainty by then who their offensive coordinator would be.
Bryan McClendon, the receivers coach and interim coach for Georgia’s bowl game, was in Jacksonville on Thursday for a press conference with Penn State head coach James Franklin. While the initial feeling was McClendon was also likely to be retained by Smart, that has yet to officially happen, and someone familiar with the situation said McClendon does have an offer to join Mark Richt in Miami in some capacity.