Former Nebraska tight end Ben Cotton is continuing his trek up the college football coaching ranks with a new job for the 2019 season. He tweeted Monday that he is joining Notre Dame as a graduate assistant working with the offensive line.
Incredibly excited to announce that I’ve officially joined the Notre Dame football family as OL Graduate Assistant Coach. Go Irish! ☘️
— Ben Cotton (@BenCotton81) February 19, 2019
This is the third stop in Cotton's coaching career. He worked as a GA at UNLV in 2015–16, where his father, former Nebraska assistant Barney Cotton, was the Rebels' offensive coordinator (and still is). Ben joined Pat Narduzzi's staff at Pittsburgh in 2017, working on the offensive side of the ball for two seasons.
He now joins a Notre Dame staff with the Irish coming off a College Football Playoff appearance in 2018. (That path to the Playoff included a 19-14 win over Pitt last season.) Notre Dame has been a fixture in the way-too-early top 25s for the 2019 season. ESPN's FPI ranks the Irish No. 7, S&P+ No. 12.
Cotton started 39 games and appeared in 52 for Nebraska between 2009 and 2012. He finished his playing career with 40 catches for 505 yards with three touchdowns and was twice named honorable mention All-Big Ten.
In other former-Huskers-getting-new-jobs news, Andrew Shanle is the new head coach at Cypress Ridge, a high school in Houston.
Miles Opens Up
Nebraska basketball coach Tim Miles joined Jeff Goodman on the latter's podcast this week to talk about "what life has been like on the hot seat."
Good ‘N Plenty pod:
A terrific, candid conversation with Nebraska’s Tim Miles on what life has been like on the Hot Seat.
Also, my take on the Kentucky Wildcats, Michigan State’s ceiling without Langford and Ward, and Zion in next year’s dunk contest. https://t.co/n0N0VYIrdv
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) February 18, 2019
Miles, in characteristic fashion, is pretty candid throughout the interview. There's no pretending the elephant in the room isn't there. I don't know how many coaches are capable of talking about their future in this way privately, but you definitely don't see many doing it publicly.
While that's not an easy topic, it probably is a solid public-relations move for Miles no matter what happens. He also mentions towards the end how many more wins he thinks the Huskers need to be in the tournament discussion.
Well worth a listen.
The Grab Bag
- Nebraska basketball is looking for its first win in State College tonight since 2013.
- Nebraska infielder/outfielder Jaxon Hallmark was named the Big Ten Player of the Week.
- Recruiting analyst Greg Smith looks at Nebraska’s scholarship offers so far for 2020 in the “big three” states of California, Florida and Texas.
- Jacob Padilla offers an update on Nebraska basketball’s in-state signees and targets at the end of high school basketball’s regular season.
Today’s Song of Today
Brandon is the Managing Editor for Hail Varsity and has covered Nebraska athletics for the magazine and web since 2012, Hail Varsity’s first season on the scene. His sports writing has also been featured by Fox Sports, The Guardian and CBS Sports.
